My Teach For India Fellowship Odyssey
On the morning of 6th July 2020, I checked my internet connection multiple times before my training started. I was pacing the room with so many emotions and thoughts. Before the training began, we got a list of our Program Managers and the learning circle we were a part of. Nervously I told my father, “Maybe I am not ready for this” he gave me a cup of tea and told me, “the whole idea is to get ready.” I knew I had signed up for something that would teach me many lessons, and indeed I learned many.
Cut short to my first day of taking a class in my entire life. I wanted to impress the students more than they wanted to impress me. Due to the pandemic, we had to take online classes, which was a struggle because the students did not have access to a device for learning. Initially, I remember I got only five students in my class. I soon realized this work from home would not be as cozy as I thought. The day started from “Am I audible?” to my phone’s text alert “Data insufficient.”
We had to make plans to create synchronous and asynchronous modes of study to give students at least 7–8 hours of learning time. Life slowly became all about these kids, their academics, social-emotional learning, ration, device distribution, phone recharges, and whatnot. The TFI buzz words were always on our tongue, collaboration-leveraging- google calendar- investing stakeholders. I would use these words even during dinner conversations.
The first year of the fellowship went by making lesson plans, our managers observing classes, and giving us feedback. I didn’t have any plans to do anything else in the fellowship. I have always wanted to be a teacher, and I enjoyed this path. Little did I know that life had other roads for me to take.
The mode of instruction for secondary grades became offline from February 2021. My co fellows and I decided to take a flat together in Delhi. Now all of these faces in tiny boxes that we have seen in zoom suddenly come alive. It took me some time to come back into civilization, where I had to talk with people face to face. But the positive aspect of all this was taking classes in person. I can’t describe the effortlessness of teaching offline. My students, whom I called changemakers, were beautiful and kind human beings. I was impressed to meet them. The class was never dull, and students always had something to say. They had questions, comments, and compliments(I think my students helped me get rid of my social anxiety).
I feel one of the biggest challenges for me was to learn empathy. Being in the development sector doesn’t mean that we are pure angels. I was doing my work, but sometimes I felt that I couldn’t empathize with my students. I had to work towards building that consciously. I think community visits, making mistakes, and taking ownership helped me achieve that.
One of the benefits of coming to Delhi was I could go for community visits. Going to my student’s homes and meeting their parents and other stakeholders was a life-changing experience for me. I soon realized that the environment at my student’s homes was not learning conducive. I remember the mother of one of my students fighting with her cousin when I was at their home. They were shouting at each other using abusive language; I can’t even imagine what happens when the teacher is not at home. Almost every day, I would get a text from one of my students about how they were not feeling safe at home. So I decided to start a project where we would tackle this situation. We first began empowering students and giving them safe spaces to share their feelings. We started parent awareness sessions where we talked about non-violent communication and the personal space for their kids. The response from the students was overwhelming, and they appreciated our efforts with long text messages and thank you cards. The invested parents agreed with our ideas, but some parents were not entirely on board with us. Some of our school teachers also didn’t like our method of teaching. They didn’t appreciate that we gave our students so much freedom to share their opinions. They wanted us to use a more aggressive way of teaching. But soon, I learned that it was not us versus them, but it was a collective mission we had to complete together. Hence I understood the importance of relationship building.
Apart from doing this project, I got a chance to work with many other organizations working in the development sector. Simple Education Foundation and Slam Out Loud were some organizations where I found the puzzle piece I wanted to solve. I realized that teacher development is something that I am passionate about. People think that teaching is a menial job, but it’s one of the most demanding jobs. Teachers suffer a lot because of all the administration work, lack of resources in school, and the large student-teacher ratio. So I decided that I would want to make the educator’s life easier by helping them with their teaching strategies. This way, I could have a more significant impact. And this decision scares me as I am transitioning to my new role as a Teacher Development associate. I know that this new journey will be more challenging, but the TFI fellowship has prepared me for this phase of my life.
TFI has not just given me a certificate for teaching excellence, but it has given me memories and friends that I cherish in my heart. The level of patience I have developed and the confidence I built made me believe in the vision that every child will attain excellent education one day. In batch 2020, 96% of the fellows decided to stay in the education sector and keep working towards this vision. And I am super proud that I am a part of this movement.
