What a novel Teachers’ Day experience! The children impersonated the teachers; that was a treat. How funny it is to see how students see me! I couldn’t stop laughing. Another wonderful part of the day was a quiz about the 12th grade students, prepared by the students. And a treasure hunt in the block. I […]
Theory of Knowledge
I teach ‘Theory of Knowledge’. That’s part of my job description now. We have many questions that count as TOK questions. Epistemological questions, ethical questions, ontological questions, the works. For once, though, I have a very strong TOK answer rather than a TOK question. The question is, “Can I explain humour?” The answer is ‘no’. […]
What is literature?
I asked my AS Level class, “What is literature?” One by one, students came and wrote on the board what they thought. ‘The study of a language.’ ‘The study of poetry and drama.’ ‘The study of a language, poetry, prose and drama.’ “What about a diary or travelogue?” I hinted. ‘Anything that is written.’ “What […]
Manjri Adventure
The bus-driver looked at the traffic piled up on the road ahead. We had to get to school and we were late anyway. The traffic was impossible, so he suggested that we take a detour through Manjri village. That’s when our adventure began. We passed custard-apple orchards and a stud farm. We passed tiny nondescript […]
Unit Plans
There’s nothing, absolutely nothing, like teaching. You can be so joyously idealistic in everything you choose to teach! Planning my units on narrative and imaginative writing, and descriptive writing was almost as inspiring as writing itself. Well, not really, but you know… I made a whole plan on how to introduce the idea of story-writing. […]
Picnic!
I insist that the way I left school in the morning set my mood. People (read ‘teachers and students’) hate duty that takes them out of school into the hot sunshine. I exclaimed, “Picnic!” Other teachers laughed at me. I replied, “In the afternoon, I can complain; now at least, I’ll go happy!” But even […]
Board Exam
Ought I to be nervous? Concerned? Stressed? My students are writing their board exams. I wished them luck, gave them a pep talk and some last minute ‘tips’. One student asked me for a vocabulary list he can use. I wanted to tell him ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’. Instead, I told him not to use ‘hi-fi’ […]
Opening my Eyes
At our refectory, things are beautifully, thoughtfully organised. Little children eat in one hall; older children in another. There’s no discrimination involved. The wash-basins attached to the hall for the little ones are lower, the trays are designed for children and everything is child-height. One day, a tiny girl was rummaging amongst the spoons of […]
Exam Gems III
Asked to ‘write a commentary’ on a poem, students write:’…one thing where I felt that it is wrong is that he did not divide the last line properly, the last line’s word is going in the next paragraph.’ ‘The name given to the poem is very good’ ‘The poem does not start with a boy […]
Exam Gems II
Attempting to create pathos and anger: ‘Reaching hospital it was looking like messy type’ ‘I got him into the last point of insultation’ Attempting – um – I don’t know what: ‘And if the film is ya some actors take more many if they don’t hard work’ (Mm? Can you say that again?) Imaginative writing: […]
Exam Gems
Correcting papers is a crazy experience. There are some things each teacher in the staff room feels compelled to share with the others. Commenting on a poem’s language and style, students write… ‘This heart-touching poem…’, or better still – ‘This tear-dropping poem…’ Commenting on the expected audience, a student has a bewildering response – ‘The […]
The Table Family
Have you been introduced to the Table family? When I was in school, we were kept forcibly away from the family. The Table family was a strict no-no for us. Pronounce correctly. Stay away from the awful Table family. Trends are changing, though. Many children have found their comfort zone with this delightfully extended family. […]
Hiding from Children
There are many things that you may successfully hide from adults, but simply cannot hide from children. Impoliteness is one of those things. As a child, my sister once turned to my parents. “When I said ‘thank you’, why did that uncle not say ‘welcome’?” Today, a colleague of mine was trying to hide from […]
Invigilator
Right through school, I enjoyed exams. People found that odd, so I often did not confess that I loved exams. I loved the excited anticipation just before exams. I loved that clean, fresh uniform. (Somehow, the exam uniform stays cleaner than a regular day’s uniform.) I loved the light bag with barely any books in […]
The Dictionary at School
The portion for the exams has been completed; students are fed up with revision. So, a colleague of mine decided to do something different – she read out a story from The Story-Catcher. I was thrilled! This reading went one step further than ‘I loved your story’ and ‘nice story’ and ‘I like the story […]
School Bus
I’m feeling the generation gap the wrong way around again. School buses are meant for playing stone-paper-scissor, not listening to music on an iPhone. During rides in the school bus, children should jump around and shriek when they go top speed over a speed breaker. And they should, of course, get told off by the […]
More Readers?
I, Varsha Seshan, author of The Story-Catcher and English teacher at your school… … donated two books to Vishwashanti Gurukul library. One for the primary school library and one for the whole school. I also spoke to the principal about the way I’ve done readings in the past at St. Mary’s, and she seemed interested. At the […]
Book-Reading – A Different One
An acquaintance who is part of the Teach for India programme asked whether I would be willing to come to a small government school in Chandannagar and talk about my book, about writing and about dance. I was tremendously excited by the prospect, and agreed immediately. When I got there, though, I realised how different […]
First Day at School
I moved to a school in Pune when I was five years old. I was like any other excited girl in the first standard with my new tiffin box, my new water bottle and my new bag with new books. I came from a smallish school in Vashi, so even the city was new to me. […]