I tell you, I will go back to America a changed person!! (How many of you believe this?! How quickly we forget!!) No more complaining about too many activity hours that takes away from teaching time!! We don’t know the beginning of this issue! At Daly College, I don’t think I have ever had a full class of students any given day that I’ve been here. They are either gone for 
Shooting competition, Cricket match, Squash, NCC (which is something like a J-ROTC but that is compulsory for all students, I think?! I’ve asked about it so many times, don’t fully get the idea but can’t ask anymore!!) It is mind boggling! There are a few girls in my 9th class that I haven’t seen in class for about three or four weeks. So in the higher classes, they miss school like that and the parents hire tutors to keep the kids up to speed with their classmates! Now that tutoring job is not so bad when you consider that for a couple of hours a tutor can make 500+ Rs, while at a school, they will make about 4000-6000 Rs a month! If they have a few students they can make that and then some without the aggravations of working for a school and all the side duties that come with that!! An interesting article in the paper not long ago, was talking about this issue and it was mentioned that teachers in the KV schools (schools for the Government workers’ children) were not allowed to do private tutoring, because apparently they were not doing their jobs in the schools because they know they would then have these kids to tutor privately and make more money! (Clever!) What about those who can’t afford the tutor?!
So next week, we actually have only two days of school. Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday is a legal holiday “Guru Nanak Jayanti” who is a major figure in the Sikhs religion. At DC, though there is an important Cricket match in the morning that the whole faculty is required to attend, from 9 to 11ish. Then starting Thursday it is one event after the other for End of the Year Prize giving ceremony. Now the school year ends in March… don’t ask!! I did many times, and still don’t get it! We have students’ work exhibition, in all the fields. A major concert. I know they can’t be better than the Coral Reef’s band! A tea party for the parents. The Old Dalian Association is participating heavily in all the activities. So classes have been suspended for all those days. It gets better. Since we will be working so hard for all these activities, next Monday was declared a holiday by the principal!! Please, don’t think I am complaining, now!!
Another aspect of teaching here that is different from the Sates. I said already how they did not have substitutes. When a teacher is absent from school, they break her schedule among her colleagues. And whoever gets the substitution continues with the class as best as you can. If you have a substitution that is not in your field, you can actually teach them your subject, allow them study time. What is not allowed is free time to talk and play! I’ve done a few substitutions for the French teacher and that has been fun! But what is another interesting thing is that if you are falling behind a bit with your subject you can make “arrangements” with another teacher in another field who is caught up with their topic and take over one or two of his/her class for your subject!! Isn’t that interesting? So I was starting to panic a little of not finishing with my 11th class chemistry as I had to cover Redox and Thermodynamics before the Half Yearly Exams at the end of November, well after a few arrangements, I am all caught up and progressing without any pressure! That would be a novel idea at Coral Reef or any other school in America, I think!! Now hold on to your seat! Which is the subject we are told will be most willing to make arrangements with us?! The English department!! Supposedly they are the department with the lightest curriculum!! Again don’t ask!!
The beauty of this arrangement situation is that it has to be simply between one teacher who needs more time with her students to cover her curriculum and another who is caught up with said students and can afford to miss a class or two. There is no memo to be written to the principal, attendance office doesn’t have to be notified, department chair doesn’t have to give her/his approval. This is simply between two colleagues who have a common goal of giving their students the best that they have. If it is for me to teach a couple of classes extra, so be it, I will do it without feeling I am being cheated. I will actually look for it, because the students need the extra hour or two. And the other teacher will do it not to get out of teaching an hour or two but because it will be beneficial to the students. It works simply and smoothly. One characteristic of the Indian teachers I have observed, at Daly College anyway, is that they have a level of professionalism that is not seen in many in the states. The amount of duties that they have outside of their teaching duties leaves me speechless. They do it without complaining because, “the students need it” and that’s the end of that. But then there is a level of trust from Administration that makes me green with envy! Next week with all the activities, all teachers are expected to be present in school and participate. On Saturday, (yes, remember we teach on Saturday!) one of the administrators, just came in the Staff room during tea time and simply stated that. And that’s that. No one will be checking your name off in the auditorium, we don’t have to sign anything and I can guarantee you, everyone will be there at their post. I love it!! In the beginning of my stay here, I went through a nightmarish situation with my school because the administration wanted me to send a timesheet of sort to show that I did go to work in order for me to get paid. I don’t want to get into too much detail, but it was really very absurd! Until the district stepped in and said enough, we have the Fulbright contract that’s that! My apprehension was to have to go to an Administrator here and ask them to take my attendance daily and send it half way across the world when my presence is good enough for them here!!
Teaching is a respected profession in India while back home sometimes I feel it is considered a second-class profession!
Shooting competition, Cricket match, Squash, NCC (which is something like a J-ROTC but that is compulsory for all students, I think?! I’ve asked about it so many times, don’t fully get the idea but can’t ask anymore!!) It is mind boggling! There are a few girls in my 9th class that I haven’t seen in class for about three or four weeks. So in the higher classes, they miss school like that and the parents hire tutors to keep the kids up to speed with their classmates! Now that tutoring job is not so bad when you consider that for a couple of hours a tutor can make 500+ Rs, while at a school, they will make about 4000-6000 Rs a month! If they have a few students they can make that and then some without the aggravations of working for a school and all the side duties that come with that!! An interesting article in the paper not long ago, was talking about this issue and it was mentioned that teachers in the KV schools (schools for the Government workers’ children) were not allowed to do private tutoring, because apparently they were not doing their jobs in the schools because they know they would then have these kids to tutor privately and make more money! (Clever!) What about those who can’t afford the tutor?!So next week, we actually have only two days of school. Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday is a legal holiday “Guru Nanak Jayanti” who is a major figure in the Sikhs religion. At DC, though there is an important Cricket match in the morning that the whole faculty is required to attend, from 9 to 11ish. Then starting Thursday it is one event after the other for End of the Year Prize giving ceremony. Now the school year ends in March… don’t ask!! I did many times, and still don’t get it! We have students’ work exhibition, in all the fields. A major concert. I know they can’t be better than the Coral Reef’s band! A tea party for the parents. The Old Dalian Association is participating heavily in all the activities. So classes have been suspended for all those days. It gets better. Since we will be working so hard for all these activities, next Monday was declared a holiday by the principal!! Please, don’t think I am complaining, now!!
Another aspect of teaching here that is different from the Sates. I said already how they did not have substitutes. When a teacher is absent from school, they break her schedule among her colleagues. And whoever gets the substitution continues with the class as best as you can. If you have a substitution that is not in your field, you can actually teach them your subject, allow them study time. What is not allowed is free time to talk and play! I’ve done a few substitutions for the French teacher and that has been fun! But what is another interesting thing is that if you are falling behind a bit with your subject you can make “arrangements” with another teacher in another field who is caught up with their topic and take over one or two of his/her class for your subject!! Isn’t that interesting? So I was starting to panic a little of not finishing with my 11th class chemistry as I had to cover Redox and Thermodynamics before the Half Yearly Exams at the end of November, well after a few arrangements, I am all caught up and progressing without any pressure! That would be a novel idea at Coral Reef or any other school in America, I think!! Now hold on to your seat! Which is the subject we are told will be most willing to make arrangements with us?! The English department!! Supposedly they are the department with the lightest curriculum!! Again don’t ask!!
The beauty of this arrangement situation is that it has to be simply between one teacher who needs more time with her students to cover her curriculum and another who is caught up with said students and can afford to miss a class or two. There is no memo to be written to the principal, attendance office doesn’t have to be notified, department chair doesn’t have to give her/his approval. This is simply between two colleagues who have a common goal of giving their students the best that they have. If it is for me to teach a couple of classes extra, so be it, I will do it without feeling I am being cheated. I will actually look for it, because the students need the extra hour or two. And the other teacher will do it not to get out of teaching an hour or two but because it will be beneficial to the students. It works simply and smoothly. One characteristic of the Indian teachers I have observed, at Daly College anyway, is that they have a level of professionalism that is not seen in many in the states. The amount of duties that they have outside of their teaching duties leaves me speechless. They do it without complaining because, “the students need it” and that’s the end of that. But then there is a level of trust from Administration that makes me green with envy! Next week with all the activities, all teachers are expected to be present in school and participate. On Saturday, (yes, remember we teach on Saturday!) one of the administrators, just came in the Staff room during tea time and simply stated that. And that’s that. No one will be checking your name off in the auditorium, we don’t have to sign anything and I can guarantee you, everyone will be there at their post. I love it!! In the beginning of my stay here, I went through a nightmarish situation with my school because the administration wanted me to send a timesheet of sort to show that I did go to work in order for me to get paid. I don’t want to get into too much detail, but it was really very absurd! Until the district stepped in and said enough, we have the Fulbright contract that’s that! My apprehension was to have to go to an Administrator here and ask them to take my attendance daily and send it half way across the world when my presence is good enough for them here!!
Teaching is a respected profession in India while back home sometimes I feel it is considered a second-class profession!
No comments:
Post a Comment