I have started posting some updates at my new Tumblr blog, as an experiment. Do check it out – http://tch4in.tumblr.com

Love

Srini

If you are out there, I hope you can read these sincere wishes !

Suraj from the Champions class tells us the story of Cinderella !

Dear Ritesh,

Though I know you can’t read this post, I am hopeful that some day you will and we’ll reminisce over a cup of chai (tea) made by your mom. You know, you have been an enigma and a challenge in (and out of) the classroom. Most days, you come to school being dragged by your brother or mother. You refuse to carry the school bag. You refuse to enter our very colourful and interesting classroom. The first one hour or two in the classroom is bitter for you. I can see it in your face. Nothing, not even my jokes, actions and funny faces, colours, balloons, live gold fish or anything seems to excite you. You love your world and you stay there while I try to figure out and fail. Repeatedly. Every single day.

But, I keep my hope alive. All it takes is perseverance. That single step of love, thoughtfulness and care will move mountains. You should be happy. That is the first step. Without that, nothing will happen. Oh, and it took me quite some time to understand this. What makes you happy is this – you want to be treated special. You don’t like the crowd and noise in the classroom. I take you out and put you in a world where there is no chaos and distraction AND your teacher is rewarded with wide smiles and here comes the biggest surprise – you start talking in English !

Its been many many patient months and now we see those green shoots of magic. The other day, your mom called me aside and said that you are constantly speaking to her in English ! Though she could not understand most of it,she was proud and happy that you are making the effort. I know that there is a long way to go but we are off to a great start already, buddy. Without any hesitations, you now try to talk in English whether or not I am around and for that, I am so proud of you. (Despite your mom’s pushing, you insisted on buying a ‘banana’ and not a ‘kela’)

See. I didn’t come to your home to put that behavior chart. I came to make you happy and keep up a promise. And, what a joy it was !

We have another year to go and it is going to be one interesting journey. Your wonderful qualities combined with your energy (cartwheels,frog jumps,running,rolling on the floor etc) will take you places. But, for now, let us focus on this path.

Yours lovingly

Bhaiya

Here is the blog: http://together-we-can.blogspot.com and some pictures here http://is.gd/NsAiHD

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,100 times in 2010. That’s about 7 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 55 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 57 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 19mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was October 19th with 126 views. The most popular post that day was A proud moment.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, teach4india.wordpress.com, twitter.com, en.wordpress.com, and frogsinmyclass.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for baby lizard, horn ok please, teachers box, india “a loud country”, and baby lizard pictures.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

A proud moment October 2010
4 comments

Jump into English Power ! June 2010
9 comments

Giving trees August 2010
2 comments

I am floored ! September 2010

One need. One solution. One question. TFI Fellow @ TEDxChembur October 2010
3 comments and 1 Like on WordPress.com,

Yaeeeeeeeeiiiiiii (that loud, long, shrieky sound people use here to call each other/attract attention in School (quite different from the pch, pch,pch sound used elsewhere to attract the attention of strangers), phodi, shoe nahin mila, book nahin mila and so on (for the 27 items), toilet jaana hain, do number jaana hain, khaske aaya hain, zor se aaya hain, bhook lagee hain, isne maar diya, usne maar diya, neeche gira diya, gala pakad lee, DHAKKA DIYA, Dhakel diya, gir gaya, khichdee le Lo, choree kar liya, pencil, eraser, lubber, rasurrr (eraser), shaapnurr (sharpener), chaak, bhool gaya, “Bhaiya P.T”, “Bhaiya, Nemo fish = Bhaiya, please show us a video”, kal chutti hain?, Bhaiya, main recess karoon kya? (= Bhaiya, shall I eat?), Bhaiyaaaa, yeh class mein recess kar rahi hain (= Bhaiya she is eating inside the class when you are teaching), yeh nahin aata hain, nahin samjha, biskit, pencil nahin, KHICHDI, dabba, more and more phodi, GAANV GAYE (Grrrrrrr), Shaadi hain, LAFDA, WOW, Colourful and Beautiful, Jingle Bells (for Santa Claus), dirty, clean, jadoo, pocha, table, chair, Munni, Chupa Chupi, P.T, “Bhaiya, colouring?”, gift.

Like it is for most fellows, the roads leading to my School are very crowded, chaotic and noisy (Let’s call this the CCN Road instead of the usual, Mahatma Gandhi road) Oh, and they make me sneeze all the time. There is an alternative road through Sion but I don’t prefer that because of one reason – on the CCN road, I see kids coming back from School or on the way to School. On weekdays, there are plenty of school kids and on Saturdays or ‘lafda’ holidays (!) there aren’t many. Often, I bump into my class kids. The glee and joy on their face when they see me at a distance is worth a million. Add to that, a screaming “BHAIYA !” that makes many heads turn. And before I know, there are 5 or 6 tiny hands holding me and animatedly talking while walking to School. On some rare days, I see only one kid, walking slowly, eyes meandering over the colourful trinkets and candies on display in the shops, or stopping by to take a peek into a game of marbles. Holding the hand of a child and walking slowly to School, while talking to him/her is sheer happiness. It is different than the classroom because, here there are no rules, no sense of urgency or panic. Just the Bhaiya and the Child. Such walks give me a good insight into what he thinks about School and also how he feels in general. Most importantly. it is such a great bonding exercise and bestows immediate peace.

The other day, I got late. I slept late, as usual and woke up late. I was sitting in front of the computer, working on something and realised it’s going to be a mad rush to School. Tension X 10. By the time the auto reached Dharavi, I was just irritated at the noise, crowds and sneezing. And, when I was about to pay, the auto driver didn’t have change. Damn. So, here I was sitting in the auto in a not so calm situation. Suddenly, I heard a “Bhaiyaaa” and little Sajid peeped into the auto with a cute smile. He is usually very quiet and introvert. But today, he just showed so much expression that I immediately calmed down, somehow paid and got down. He immediately grasped my hand and started walking towards School. Tiny, sweaty fingers. He talked about the breakfast, his wounds, the school and how he liked our ‘colourful and beautiful” class. On the way, we stopped by the Sugarcane juice stall to drink some juice. In a few minutes, I experienced so much peace.

When was the last time you took a walk with a child ?

Come January first week, Teach For India will be hosting 60+ participants from 14+ countries across the ‘Teach For’ network, in Mumbai for a Synergies Global Workshop. Some of the participants have been posting questions for Teach For India fellows and I present some of them here:

What has been your biggest challenge?  And how did you keep your sense of possibility whilst trying to overcome this challenge?

Also I’ve heard a lot of wonderful things about the resourcefulness of the Teach for India participants – what is the one thing you couldn’t survive without (be it an object, person or characteristic) and what is the one resource you really wish you had?

My answers:

I have been teaching in Mumbai since June this year and I find ‘changing mindsets’ to be the biggest challenge in School and the community. Starting from the Children, the other stakeholders don’t have the strong desire or belief that my kids can work hard, study well and get the same opportunities that other kids with privileged backgrounds get. While facing this challenge every day, I do remind myself of the countless struggles undergone by TFA fellows, who eventually succeed in making the students achieve the (what everyone thought as) impossible. Also, I tell myself that, for me these 2 years is teaching and a fellowship, but for these children, it could mean the difference between success and failure in life. This keeps my sense of possibility and relentless focus alive.

(Btw, for this unit (November December), I find absenteeism and “gaav (village) gaye hain” to be the biggest challenge)

I won’t be able to survive without my yellow hat ! Unless I have this sense of a bright future, that strong sense of possibility, it would be impossible to face the everyday austerity of living in this Mumbai city + teaching 5 hours in a low income school while working very hard.

I really wish I had a projector in my School. Across 4 TFI classrooms in my School, we have 120+ kids. A projector could be so useful in our classrooms !

http://www.oneschoolforall.org/?p=682

Srini Swaminathan is a teacher. He is a runner too.  Both his interests ironically intersect on the number 42. 42 is the number of kids in his class he is focusing on closing the achievement gap for. 42 is  also the number of kilometres he aspires to run in the next marathon. So what lies ahead for Srini , the teacher, the runner? Discover.

Though it’s very crowded, Dadar station is a paradise for such items. Last month, on my way out, I picked up some fridge magnets, that are now helping my children pick up new English words and construct sentences. These cheap magnets have come in handy by kindling their curiosity and firing up their imagination. As with any other teaching aid, I’ll retire these after a while and introduce something new. And, I’ll keep looking out for cheap stuff and trinkets on these bridges and roads that’ll create magic inside the classroom. Do tell me if you have any such ideas !

On day two, I had a discussion with the children on having a dream in life. At the end of this, I asked them to write down what their dream is, on a piece of paper. This is what little Sameer came up with…

And for this one reason, this fellowship is worth it.

On one such rainy day, I walked into the usually very chaotic classroom, expecting kids to be running around or playing. Instead, there were a bunch of gleeful boys at the back of the class and some worried looking girls, carefully staying away from the commotion. Curious, I peeked in. There, Farhan was stomping on something and other boys were just eagerly looking. It looked like a scene out of a videogame where a kid is fighting a monster, egged on by onlookers. I stopped everything and asked Farhan what he was doing. Just then, Navsin mustered the courage and shouted “Bhaiya, isne ek chote se chipkali ko maar diya (He killed a baby lizard)”. All eyes were on Farhan now. There was almost no trace of the poor lizard. Just pieces but I could make out. Ok. I can’t shout at the kids now. I can’t (or won’t) beat them. Explain that they made a poor choice. A bad decision. Did he think about it before jumping into action? Did he understand what he was doing? How do I explain all this to a bunch of 6 year olds? Is killing right or wrong? What’s wrong in killing (“having fun” in a kid’s world) a snake like thing?

I sat down with them and spoke about animals. We, in this classroom, are all different, diverse but then that’s what makes it all interesting. Do we go about stomping on each other? Every animal has a right to live in this world and it is our duty to protect those that are vulnerable. Any animal is not harmful as long as we don’t  threaten their safety. But, explaining this to kids who see goats, chicken and cows being slaughtered for food everyday was difficult. How will they understand the subtle differences ? How can I explain non violence and love for animals to them ? Somehow, they understood something and I asked them what we can do. Saahil replied “Bhaiya, yeh toh Allah ke paas chala gaya na? Bhaiya, this has gone to Allah right?” Farhan said “Bhaiya, we will bury him”

So, we brought some leaves, picked up the pieces of the baby lizard and carried it in a mini procession down to the garden, where a small pit was dug up and we laid the leaf with the lizard on it. The kids threw some flower petals picked from the garden and then covered it with soil. Under the shade of that tree, the kids stood silently for a minute and I was satisfied that they learnt something that day.

During the lunch break, a kid came running to me and said, “Bhaiya, some boy dug out everything and threw away the leaves and flowers”. We just prayed for the baby lizard when class started

During the Tea breaks and lunch, I managed to speak to more than 70 people about Teach For India and the work done by the fellows across Mumbai and Pune. It is just phenomenal to see so many people appreciating this movement and also their offer for help and support ! I have taken cards, numbers and emails. Now, its time for follow up and engage these wonderful people in the classroom. I have requested people to come to a TFI classroom near their place and spend time with the children. Doesn’t matter who you are or whether you are talented in something or not, just by being there and talking about your life and experiences, you enrich their understanding.

The biggest happiness at TEDxGateway was that we managed to bring 5 kids from my class to the event. The kids made lovely greeting cards for the event organisers. They sang  the Champions song on stage and then held a colourful kite that said ‘Fly High’ ! Going by the round of applause they received from the audience, my champions were a clear hit ! A proud moment for me

As always, when I look back at this event and specifically, my speech, I learnt a lot. So many ideas and points came rushing to my mind – all a day or two AFTER the event ! On reflection,

• Backward plan a presentation to get a sense of timing
• Rehearse the main structure of the speech at least 2 times
• Have a clear vision of the most important points to touch upon
• ‘Must-say, nice-to-say and buffer points’
• Check out the slides/PPT on the actual screen with the actual projector (My pictures looked dark on the TED screen )

Given the 18 minute time frame, it is challenging to fit in so many elements of a speech but then, a speech need not touch upon many things. Whatever is said, needs to be said passionately. Honestly. It has to be original and heartfelt to have impact.

Here is a picture of the kids on stage. And, a Facebook album of the event:

http://is.gd/gJL12 (No Facebook account needed to browse)

I’ll be speaking at TEDxGateway this Saturday (October 30th, 2010) at the ITC Grand Central, Parel, Mumbai, representing TeachForIndia. Here is a link to the TEDx page – tch4.in/sriniTEDx

I wish to thank the TEDxGateway organisers for this opportunity.

Did I already digress ? I am getting there. Today, while almost hanging out of the train compartment (Sion to Kurla, Central Line, Mumbai for those attention to detail seekers) I was recollecting the day at School (as usual). ‘Are there any patterns to my class hours ? Who is doing what in class ? Who are the kids coming to School early ? Who loves to take initiatives ? Who is always the first to listen to me? Who is eager? Who is lazy ? Who complains ? Who forgives? Who helps ? Who beats up? Who seeks revenge?Who doesn’t ?’

So many questions. I know. Thing is, it is not easy to know in the first few months. Kids are wonderfully honest. Kids are also fantastic actors. Kids are transparent. Kids also hide. But, the beauty is, for every kid who is an actor, there are many others who’d want to impress the Teacher by telling the truth ! Every day, there is so much drama at School. Drama = Happiness + Anger + Revenge + Despair + Frustration + Ecstasy + Tears + Pain + Disappointment + Turn arounds + Miracles

For someone who has never raised kids (or had. I am single !), handling 40+ kids and the accompanying drama is a tough task. But, it is very interesting. Over these months, I have learned quite a bit about handling the emotions of kids (Someone remarked that I’ll be a fantastic father. God bless you !). The one thing that is not easy is when to take them seriously and when not to. How much of what they say is truth and how much is exaggeration ? You never know initially. But, over a period of time, you begin to see patterns. You know who and what to take seriously. You begin to understand the kids and their personality. Yet, being fair and democratic in the classroom is a big challenge that has defeated me at times. However fair I have been, I am sure some kids think of me as Severus Snape and some as Dumbledore ! Though I don’t have Malfoys in the class, I am beginning to see Malfoyian characteristics slowly emerge in some kids and that’s ringing the alarm bells. More on this in another post (Is someone keeping track of my ‘another post’ promises?)

So, speaking of drama. As the day progresses, so much happens in the classroom. Enemies become friends. Friends become enemies. In micro seconds. Even while you are reaching out to the marble jar. Or the Star sticker chart. Kids cry like there is no tomorrow and the smiles return as soon as I offer a fragrant wet tissue. They fall with a loud thud, get up and run around as if nothing happened but cry non stop when a friend hits them or breaks their pencil. As a teacher, it is important to resolve these and move on because they eat into precious learning time. How a teacher handles such classroom dramas can determine how the kids will behave when such things happen again. “I know Bhaiya will take this seriously. But, not that. So, don’t complain.” To change this, there needs to be a strong “Find the positive” culture in the classroom. We are trying to build that by having ‘Shout-out’ time outs, ‘Shout-out’ charts where kids write good things about their buddies, ‘Champion Helper of the day’ and so on. Abundant use of ‘Please’, ‘Sorry’ and ‘Thank you’ in and out of the classroom. But, most important of them all – how does a Teacher behave ? Does he/she say these often? How does the Teacher treat the Mousi, the cleaners, the sweepers, the tea boy, the peon, the painters and other casual labourers in School ? Kids observe. Kids pick up a lot by seeing what elders do. (Some of my kids already say ‘Shut up’. I never use that. Wonder where they got it from !)

Often, I go through all the drama in my mind. All in one day. When School ends, and the kids have gone home, I sit in the last bench (Why? Good view) and enjoy the feeling that one goes through when the roller coaster comes to a final full stop. It is not relief. It’s something else.

Pic: ‘Bring your favorite toy to school and talk about it’ day. Kirti brought this baby doll and surprised me. The doll was a hit with the girls. The boys didn’t even go close to it.They made paper guns and played cop and thief.

Though startled by Muskaan’s question, I sat next to her and explained some questions, relating them to certain games or dramas we did in the class while learning that objective and she started recalling them. That didn’t help her score better because her reading comprehension is still weak.

This is one of the major challenges I am trying so hard to address – reading & reading comprehension.( Even in the United States, reading is a major national challenge). The teacher has to come up with (or copy) creative ways to teach words, get the kids excited about reading, supervise and coach their reading, frequently assess their reading comprehension and encourage those who are lagging. When I see this in my classroom, sometimes I can’t help but wonder how on Earth I got interested in reading. I studied in low income schools, where, as far as I remember, no teacher ever used anything remotely creative or was so invested in getting the kids to read or write English.

And, half-year into 2nd grade, I have some kids who can’t yet match all capital and small alphabets.

As a new Teacher, one of the first things I found (still find !) challenging was the high noise levels in the School. One really can’t compare this to the noise on the roads. This is different. If the School caters to many students and medium of instruction, there WILL be noise – kids will be running around, talking, playing, screaming and having fun. Over time, the Teacher gets used to this but when it comes to one’s classroom, if it is not managed, it can become difficult to handle. Inside the classroom, the children are eager to get your attention – they want to impress you, get you to check their work, show something that they brought to school, complain or complement someone or just have your affection all to themselves at times. Multiply this by 40 and you get the picture (or sound !)

This is where classroom management techniques help. Right from day one, if a Teacher sets the rules, positive and negative consequences and expectations clearly with the children, noise levels in the classroom can be managed. This might sound cliche for some of you, but, believe me, it does work. Children have so much energy. They just want to talk, scream, play, run and just use it all up in the school. As a newbie teacher, I have found this baffling. How do I get them to sit quietly ? Do they have to sit quietly? Is the kid who is quiet a good kid? How much noise is OK ? Is a quiet classroom, a good classroom? Or, as Nisha put it, ‘it is better to have productive chaos than unproductive peace’ in the classroom !

Over these four months, I have begun to understand that the trick lies in not suppressing (their desire to talk and scream) but to channelise the energy – let it out in a creative way through a game or a ‘shout-out’ time-out when kids just scream it out for 3 minutes and start winding up with a 10 to 1 count down by the teacher. There are just so many such tricks on the net. A teacher just needs to figure out what works for his/her class.

Still, at the end of pretty much every day, I need half-an-hour of silence and peace and I often get it in a tea shop or a nearby restaurant. This time also helps me to reflect on the day and see what went well and what didn’t. As time goes by in the School, I have found that my tolerance for noise comes down. But, this tolerance and the noise level seems indirectly proportional ! Kids are the noisiest towards the end of the day

So, if you have a teacher in your family, please do be kind to him/her and be gentle to their ears. Will you?

Kahlil Gibran in his ‘The Prophet’.

‘Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;

And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.’

The problem is that passion drives us and reason rebukes us occasionally, but we continue on the path we have chosen because that is what makes us different. I have always felt that our life on Earth is a cosmic joke with no reasonable explanation. We can only try to make sense of it by making a difference. And for sure, you cannot make a difference without choosing paths which may be painful in the short term but fulfilling in the long.

The problem with people like you (like us!) is that we push ourselves to our limits, just to make a ripple, a change, a dent in the fabric of time, just to say, ‘I was here’. And this always is associated with a modicum of pain. But as surely as day follows night, happiness follows the pain.

To quote Kahlil Gibran again,

‘Your pain is the breaking of the shell

that encloses your understanding.

Even as the stone of the fruit must break,that its

heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder

at the daily miracles of your life, your pain

would not seem less wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your

heart, even as you have always accepted

the seasons that pass over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity

through the winters of your grief.’

I saw the pictures of your champions on their bookstore picnic and their smiles- you do know you are making a difference, right? So to answer your question, ‘Why am I doing what I am doing now?’, you are because you have been lucky enough to make a dent in the fabric of time.