My 6-Day School Week

Yes, that's right. Teaching in India is no holiday. I'll be earning my American salary over here. The first day of school went very well. A student in Class 9 who lives next to me guided me in the morning. I'll be taking a 7 (which in India really mean 12 adults, plus 2 babies, and 10 pounds of corn) person rickshaw in the morning, and then a bus back in the afternoon. They aren't pleasant rides, by any means--the roads are foggy with pollution, and at some points I think I'm being choked for air--but they are only 15 minutes each way, so I'll live.

I was greeted by hundreds of "good morning, ma'ams" when I arrived, and each day this week I've enjoyed the same. The day begins with a morning assembly when all the students line up in the courtyard of the school. It is entirely student-presented, with students leading each other in songs, students reading snippets of news reports and/or health updates, and students being recognized for outstanding achievements. My favorite part is the prayer that they do at the beginning. It is in Hindi, but someone translated it roughly for me. They are praying that their minds are open to the knowledge that they will receive today, thanking their teachers and family for their gifts, and hoping that they will be good and true people. I'm sorry, Americans, but I think India's got an edge on our pledge.

I then got my timetable for the day and started off to my first class. The greeting was enthusiastic, to say the least. On the first day I whipped out my world and USA maps and quizzed students on countries and cities before pointing out where I am from. Then I brought out some Vermont postcards, which totally amazed them. I'm teaching 6, 7, & 8th graders so they are still quite young and bright eyed. The 6th graders particularly stared at me dumbfounded when I explained that the Vermont mountains in the autumn were red, orange, and yellow. And everyone wanted to see the postcard of snow.

There are nine 35 minute periods in the day, and I usually teach six of them. I'm often assigned substitution periods, however, to cover teachers that are absent (no union here, by golly, just lay on the work!). I teach two sections of Class 8 and one section of 7 and 6. The textbook and accompanying activities are prescribed, and a syllabus tells me what stories and poems I need to cover each month. Each student has a little class notebook in which he/she writes the answers to the questions and then an activity book for projects. I actually think that I will have a certain degree of freedom once I prove to everyone that I know what I'm doing. On arriving, I got quite a few comments about how young I look, and on the second day the principal started demanding all of this paperwork from me. (Did he think I was a fraud?!) But classes went very well, and the other English teacher tells me that the students are already calling me their best English teacher.

It turns out that Indian students aren't as angelic as I was anticipating. I've certainly had to whip out my "firm teacher voice" a few times, particularly with the 6th graders. Most students are inherently motivated, but not all. By the end of the day I find myself pulling out old tricks to keep them entertained. One convenience is that I feel entirely justified in going off-topic to tell students about life in the US. And there's so much to tell! You know the excitement of making a new friend and getting to tell all of your funny stories all over again? It's like that except I've got an entranced audience of 45 eager to hear about basically anything I have to tell them.

On the first day I asked them to write a paragraph about what they know about the US. It was so interesting. The majority commented about how clean it was. Then they would explain how the laws were very strict there. They would then mention two laws--people are not allowed to throw garbage on the ground and people are not allowed to spit in the street.