Help 28,000 Indian Children Get Quality Education

In Sardar Vallabhbhai School, I have the pleasure of instructing 25 eager and inquisitive students. Our class goal for this academic term is to foster a culture of self-learning and value cultivation while enjoying ourselves and putting forth a diligent effort to acquire new knowledge. Through my twenty-two months of teaching, I have come to appreciate the importance of emphasizing value-based learning and integrating it into the curriculum. Therefore, my aim for this academic unit is to establish an environment where students can gain a well-rounded educational experience by learning academics and non-academic things.

As a teacher, my classroom experience with these students was quite positive. I am pleased they have made significant progress in their English language skills, particularly in reading and writing sentences. This was the biggest highlight of our class. I took many initiatives from the initial teaching days to build a learning culture among students. Most of the practices/initiatives are continued, while some initiatives I started at the beginning of this year only. For improvement in English language skills, we did daily reading practice with annotations. In addition, I also provided a list of important vocab words to students that they need to learn by the end of this year. Every other day, I took vocabulary tests for the students and rewarded those who performed well. This practice effectively captured students' attention and fostered their interest in language learning. Another recent initiative is designing and facilitating social-emotional learning sessions for students. It helped to cultivate collaborative and creative skills among students. Furthermore, I have also noticed that the students have also developed the necessary skills to study for extended periods. Several practices are being sustained, such as organizing morning meetings and learning circles, incorporating fun activities, and instilling weekly themes of values for the students.

I strongly believe that every child deserves a quality education. Therefore the vision of my classroom is "Our classroom is a safe and inclusive space where we work together to help each other reach our goals. Our classroom encourages creativity, curiosity, and a love of learning that will last a lifetime."

I had always wanted to encourage students to participate in extracurricular activities at the school level. To achieve this goal, I initiated a school-level quiz competition. I led my students to perform at an inter-school cultural festival. This process was a valuable learning experience, enhancing their confidence and expressive abilities. This stands out as a significant accomplishment in our classroom.

One major challenge was capturing students' interest in language learning. Initially, it was not easy, but with the right approach to language teaching-learning, things became easier for students. I made fun and creative worksheets and gave students enough opportunities to practice and apply the language skills they had learned. Another challenge was to convince parents to let students participate in non-academic activities. Looking back, I realize the relationship we built with our parents helped us overcome this challenge. By making parents understand the purpose of what students are engaging in and what they will learn in the process, we were able to gain their support.

My program manager, co-fellows, and staff members have been my pillars of strength in this journey. From giving feedback to sharing ideas, they have supported me in every possible way for my growth.

As I grew as a leader, I started thinking beyond just teaching and had new ideas for how to run our classroom. This helped me improve my vision for the classroom. I saw these ideas and visions come to life, and our students improved in many ways. Their reading level increased, and they became more eager to learn and try new things. They also became more aware of how they learn best. I am proud of what our students have achieved in our classroom.

Institute (summer training) was a rollercoaster journey through which I have learned so many things, most importantly, I have learned about new and innovative methods of teaching, different ways of building classroom culture, and how to teach different subjects in fun and creative ways. Also, I have discovered that a teacher's role is to make the students learn about the subject and to be there for them more than a teacher, to build a relationship with them where they can trust you and share everything, which will eventually help them to grow into better individuals. 

I have also learned how important it is to make students aware of themselves, others, and the country and, with time, grow on each scale in terms of being aware and taking steps to make a difference. Education is about making students grow as leaders where they can lead others with themselves. This helped me set my classroom values and mindsets: to be a better individual by helping others, trusting each other, and showing courage. 

My vision for my classroom is "Support every student to be an Independent learner".

Some of the initiatives taken by me to build classroom culture are Learning circles where students learn about others and can inculcate some good values and appreciate every student who shows courage and answers in class. I have also done a Be the change project with them where they not only identified any problem in their School that all students face but also found a solution for the same and implemented that, which will help them lead others. 

Some challenges I face are behavior management, parental investment, Education loss due to COVID, etc. I plan to overcome these challenges by first building a classroom culture that can help me to manage their behavior and by doing community visits which will allow me to know the student's context, like where they're coming from and how much their parents are invested. Also, I have thought of some activities that will help them realize their role in their child's education. 

My Program manager, and learning circle support me to grow. I believe am part of the community of practice where I get support for my classroom. There is a space called 'office hours' where I get help to strengthen my lesson planning. My program manager observes my classroom, after which she gives a debrief where she tells me what's going well in my classroom and what could be better.

Educational inequity is far more complex than I assumed it was; it is the unequal distribution of academic resources, including but not limited to; school funding, qualified and experienced teachers, books, and technologies to socially excluded communities. These communities tend to be historically disadvantaged and oppressed. Individuals belonging to these marginalized groups are often denied access to schools with adequate resources. Inequality leads to significant differences in these individuals' educational success or efficiency and ultimately suppresses social and economic mobility. Some prenotions I had were about the low parental investment in a say that parents do not want their child to get educated. Still, through my experience, I learned that the reality is the opposite. Since the parents are uneducated, they know the value of education. Hence, they want their child to get educated and help them improve their living conditions. Also, the infrastructure would be a problem in government schools. Still, to my surprise, government school infrastructure was far better than any other low-income private school.

My overall experience is outstanding. I am learning so many new things, and I am growing as a person and as a teacher. Also, I feel happy and content that I can help our society. I derive my motivation from these children and my passion for teaching. To be able to get up every morning and pay back to the community is something that keeps me motivated.  

Anchal Jain

Cohort of 2022

Viramni public school

Teach For India Delhi