This is a story about one of the schools I started working in September 2010. Soon it became one of my favourites and I visited the school as regularly as possible.
I’ll try to describe the starting situation.
The classroom was dirty. The concrete floor was filled with dust and after a few weeks the classroom also became storage for building materials. There was no waste bin or broom. I didn’t see any evidence of the teacher using the available wall paintings or the teaching materials stored in the library next door. As far as I could see, the daily activities were chanting and copying English and Nepali letters, sitting wherever they found space, waiting and hanging around. The teacher was friendly towards the children and tried to comfort those who were sad or having small problems. She didn’t seem to know methods to improve the discipline or get attention of the class, other than shouting. Towards me her behaviour was shy and silent.
After only a few visits the teacher started to show change. She started opening up and admitted that she liked my visits. As well as being helpful for her, she told me that the children were very happy and enjoying the games we played. She became aware of other teaching methods and although they seemed a bit strange in the beginning (she needed a lot of encouragement to practise them herself) she started enjoying the interactive teaching and became more and more happy and confident to take over the games I demonstrated.
Although I started each visit with putting library materials into the classroom it took a while before the teacher copied this behaviour. Her first move was walking into the library when she saw me arriving. I seemed to be the reminder she needed.
On a morning in January I entered the classroom unexpectedly. And what a happy discovery: teaching materials were laying in the classroom and the teacher was using those playing an interactive alphabet game. It was a game we had practised several times before. She had introduced it as a daily activity and been able to change the game a little to be more comfortable playing it, also including the game-related wall painting. Children were sitting in a half circle, all able to see the teacher, the wall painting and the teaching materials. During the writing class which followed she started using the low blackboard writing big letters and patterns, for the children to practise on the same board.(By that time the building materials were gone: transformed into toilets and a safety railing for the top floor.)
Shortly after that we introduced group play. It was a very successful happening. Everybody was enjoying the experience. Teacher and children were exploring the materials that had been laying in the library for years and years and the new added ones VSO had been able to buy from the small grant money. The Head Sir and SMC President came in to have a look and showed support towards this big change. We practised it again during my following visits.
What a nice surprise a few weeks later. At the start of the school day I found all the children playing in groups. They were focussed on their task and enjoying their play. The teacher told me that group play had now become a daily habit. She was able to explain to me why, demonstrated awareness about learning abilities and showed understanding of the necessary variation between playing and learning time. I felt lucky to see such a learning curve.
The teacher has changed from a shy withdrawn teacher in a more confident person. She is happy to try new games, methods and classroom arrangements and became confident enough to make decisions herself with me hanging around. Also she tries new methods without me being there to help.
Of course there are still lots of things to work on. Now and then the waste bin that we introduced seems to disappear spontaneously, the topic mathematics is often forgotten and the picture books are gathering dust in the library.
At the moment we are practising and developing a circle time routine. We make a start with simple planning (mathematics is in there!) and are increasing the number of interactive circle time games using low cost and library materials.
I’m looking forward to the moment where she will tell me: ‘Please AkkeAntje, sit down and watch. I know this already. Look’.
I’m pretty sure it won’t take long before that happy moment will appear!
