My decision to become a school teacher was taken in a jiffy. It was not the result of a long drawn process. I always revered teachers teaching in High Schools but never thought I will become one. I believe teachers at this stage are the ones who create a true foundation for the little ones. It is in this stage that a child imbibes values, discipline, work culture, manners, etiquettes, habits which prove to be right or wrong in the long run in the 'school of life'.
My first day at Sheiling House School was one of trepidation. A lot of questions went around in my mind- how will students accept me? How will the new colleagues be? How will my new boss be? Will I be able to take on the new, more challenging role of shaping a new life? How will I manage young minds without myself ever having the practice of handling such a young age? Lo and behold, all the questions were answered in the first week as I slowly stepped into this new role with ease and grace.
Shakespeare's Day was celebrated on my day of joining on 23rd April where a student narrated my favourite speech - 'Friends, Romans, countrymen...' There were sonnets and other acts enacted on stage while the entire school became part of a quiz on Shakespeare. This was in the Special Assembly. Few days later SHS Nations were felicitated in yet another Special Assembly. Within the first week, an announcement was also made about 'CISCE Inter-School Football Tournament' being won by Sheilingites in the Under-17 category. Besides Special Assemblies, there was also a Class Assembly held and even the normal assembly where students of different classes queued up at a central lobby singing prayers, reading the news headlines, reading 'thought for the day' and even singing the School Anthem and the National Anthem.
As I stepped into take my first few classes, I got to know some familiar faces and drafted a plan as to how I will conduct my classes and divide the syllabus until Half-Yearlies and Final examinations. I browsed a few websites for good books to be prescribed for the library on the subject and also searched the CISCE website to download syllabi and specimen question papers of my subject- Mass Media and Communication. I even sat and typed some notes to get the students started on some bit of reading for the class assignments. In order to make the class interesting I took the students to the Computer Lab and introduced them to some designing and creative attributes of MS-Office.
What truly made me feel like I'm a part of the School was 'substitution'- something I thoroughly enjoyed. First I was asked to substitute for Ms. Mody in Class VIII-A. I asked the students to write an 'Anchor Link' for a TV-show as I gave them a sample of one such format on TeachNext, the smart board. Next came my chance to substitute for Tanima Ma'am in Class VII-E where I had to ask them to write an essay on 'My Greatest Wish'. I shared some of my ideas, thoughts, quotes and words on 'wish' and asked them to write 200 words. It was fun minding these two classes as sometimes one even complained against their own classmates thinking I would find a solution if they complained. A small praise like 'a good boy' lit up faces of students and encouraged them to work harder and write smarter.
As I gradually took up jobs related to Campus News, Declamation, etc. I still sort of overcame my 'fear' and began liking the place much to my surprise. This is, of course, work in progress!!
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