Dear Friends and students, please know I did not mean to hurt anyone when I said, “I always enjoyed working in school more than working in university. The unconditional love showered by the young and innocent students is incomparable. In university, you have to earn it with sweat, blood and tears ... so to speak!”
I never thought I would teach. Never in a million years with my shyness and aversion to socialization. I was still a student of Honours when I went to admit my brothers in Chittagong Grammar School and the Principal proposed that I teach there. My first reaction was to laugh and say, “Oh, you are saying this because you do not know me!” But somehow he convinced me to join after a few meetings. I joined as an Assistant teacher in class one, sure that I was going to make a fool of myself. But the students were so loving and trusting that they gave me handmade cards and notes saying how much they loved me … everyday! This did away with my inhibitions and made me feel responsible to return their love. I gave up on my plans for leaving and concentrated on becoming a good teacher.
The first problem I solved was one I did not imagine myself capable of. The students refused to sit with or speak to a girl when they heard she was a Hindu. The class teacher did not know what to do. So, she let it rest hoping it would figure itself out. I asked her to let me try. I spoke to them and explained about the differences and similarities between each of us in spite of belonging to the same religion and country and told them about my best friend who was a Hindu and how much she always helped me. Then I asked for volunteers who would sit with her. I still remember the three students who came forward first and it was quite alright the by the next day.
Since then, I have worked as Academic Coordinator and teacher of Presidency International School. I have been able to teach all levels of students and been able to help with the most intimate problems of students and their parents. I have been able to try out different ways of teaching including taking students for field trips, shopping, classes in the open, nature classes and they have always responded well, Alhamdulillah.
I began teaching in school 14 years ago but my students and their guardians still remember me wherever they see me. I had two students at CGS who would sit one on each knee and follow me from class to class with their books and all. Once, I went to KAFCO with my parents to meet a relative of one of his colleagues and when the lady opened the door she started shouting to her daughter, “Look! Your teacher is here!” forgetting in the surprise of the moment that it was my father who was the guest! I remember a student who requested his parents to admit him in Presidency International School because he met me for a round trip of the school and liked me! (Even I have never liked myself so much!) I remember once I went to a class to talk to the class teacher and a student there who saw me for the first time suddenly hugged me so tight and so long I thought she was never going to let go! Even her mother could not explain what happened. I still do not know why she did that but it felt really good to feel all that love just oozing into you! Students would come to my language lab and giggle and have fun and sometimes tell me stories. They had such pure and innocent hearts! I prayed they (and I) could remain like that for the rest of our lives.
The success rates and changes we can affect in young students is amazing if not unbelievable. Our classteacher for class two was so frustrated by his students at PIS that he just thrust himself out of the class one day and said, “Rehnuma apa, they are impossible! I cannot teach them English.” So, I took over and realized the poor kids had come from Bangla medium and had no working knowledge of English to begin with. I chucked the syllabus and began storybooks and films with them. We did lots of writing and lots of discussions on what they read and the videos they watched. I was able to hand them back to the teacher in three months and they finished their syllabus in time for the final exam! Students who did not know a word of English were winning debate and elocution contests in English within a year! It was incredible!
I joined university in 2000. My first class at university was more like a scrutiny, with me as the subject! The second class was with another Department and they seemed the least interested to learn English. I was seriously contemplating going back to my lair. But I cannot resist a challenge. So, I kept going. They tried to make life impossible by first complaining about an external male teacher but not making it clear to the Head of the Department so that it was supposed I was the perpetrator! (Imagine confusing between a male and a female leaving everything else to speculation!) I was able to prevent a suicide and bring the girls to order and then they invented it, from god knows where, that I was leaving! By the end of the year they thought I was better than another external male teacher teaching the same subject, landing me in trouble again.
Since then there have been so many complains and confusions that there have been times when I doubted myself! I tried forming a debate club which flopped as students were too busy with other things to waste time on such trifles. They had so many preoccupations that some students complained when I asked them to concentrate on studies - as the semester system hardly allows for anything else but study - that I was interfering with their personal lives! My job is only to teach and not to bother about what happens outside my class. I guessed my problem is I care too much!
But the success stories have been really rewarding considering how I have had to fight for each one. I had students who came to study English Literature without any background knowledge of literature – Bangla or English. Shaping them up and seeing them pass with flair has been one of the most rewarding experiences though only a few acknowledge our contribution or even remember us once they are past the hurdle. Some students brought gifts which I could not accept while I was still teaching them, its just a principle I hold onto, but I never saw them after they passed. But I had one student who made me a dress, same as one she wore which I praised, after she passed from IIUC.
I was touched when on my second trip to Sylhet with my students when I woke up from a brief sleep after Fajr to find myself covered in six shawls. I had looked after them the whole night and now they covered me when they thought I was cold. They also looked after my kids the night we were coming back from Sylhet because I had fallen ill. They made me cry when I was leaving IIUC. I hate expressing my emotions and I did not cry in front of people even on my wedding day! But my previous and current, English and other subjects students were there in my Farewell Program. Their speeches and their heartfelt farewell made me lose control of my emotions. I brought their gifts to Canada with me in spite of having to leave a lot of important things such as my books behind. I still have their text messages in my cellphone saying how much they loved me and how they will miss a mother and a sister. I still look at them regularly. But they call and write too and share all good and bad things with me. And surprisingly, I am also in contact with many of our male students whom I never really got to know as students in Bangladesh as they studied in a different campus.
So, I did see success in the end though it was not spontaneous. That is why I said what I did, not that I like one or another group of students more or less, but to measure how much they like me!
I have taught a few students after coming to Canada- two from middle school and two from high school. Thankfully two were straight and two had to be straightened. But the best thing about it was that I found out, once again, that I enjoy teaching and enjoy more the love that accompanies it. So, I might go back to teaching after all!
I never thought I would teach. Never in a million years with my shyness and aversion to socialization. I was still a student of Honours when I went to admit my brothers in Chittagong Grammar School and the Principal proposed that I teach there. My first reaction was to laugh and say, “Oh, you are saying this because you do not know me!” But somehow he convinced me to join after a few meetings. I joined as an Assistant teacher in class one, sure that I was going to make a fool of myself. But the students were so loving and trusting that they gave me handmade cards and notes saying how much they loved me … everyday! This did away with my inhibitions and made me feel responsible to return their love. I gave up on my plans for leaving and concentrated on becoming a good teacher.
The first problem I solved was one I did not imagine myself capable of. The students refused to sit with or speak to a girl when they heard she was a Hindu. The class teacher did not know what to do. So, she let it rest hoping it would figure itself out. I asked her to let me try. I spoke to them and explained about the differences and similarities between each of us in spite of belonging to the same religion and country and told them about my best friend who was a Hindu and how much she always helped me. Then I asked for volunteers who would sit with her. I still remember the three students who came forward first and it was quite alright the by the next day.
Since then, I have worked as Academic Coordinator and teacher of Presidency International School. I have been able to teach all levels of students and been able to help with the most intimate problems of students and their parents. I have been able to try out different ways of teaching including taking students for field trips, shopping, classes in the open, nature classes and they have always responded well, Alhamdulillah.
I began teaching in school 14 years ago but my students and their guardians still remember me wherever they see me. I had two students at CGS who would sit one on each knee and follow me from class to class with their books and all. Once, I went to KAFCO with my parents to meet a relative of one of his colleagues and when the lady opened the door she started shouting to her daughter, “Look! Your teacher is here!” forgetting in the surprise of the moment that it was my father who was the guest! I remember a student who requested his parents to admit him in Presidency International School because he met me for a round trip of the school and liked me! (Even I have never liked myself so much!) I remember once I went to a class to talk to the class teacher and a student there who saw me for the first time suddenly hugged me so tight and so long I thought she was never going to let go! Even her mother could not explain what happened. I still do not know why she did that but it felt really good to feel all that love just oozing into you! Students would come to my language lab and giggle and have fun and sometimes tell me stories. They had such pure and innocent hearts! I prayed they (and I) could remain like that for the rest of our lives.
The success rates and changes we can affect in young students is amazing if not unbelievable. Our classteacher for class two was so frustrated by his students at PIS that he just thrust himself out of the class one day and said, “Rehnuma apa, they are impossible! I cannot teach them English.” So, I took over and realized the poor kids had come from Bangla medium and had no working knowledge of English to begin with. I chucked the syllabus and began storybooks and films with them. We did lots of writing and lots of discussions on what they read and the videos they watched. I was able to hand them back to the teacher in three months and they finished their syllabus in time for the final exam! Students who did not know a word of English were winning debate and elocution contests in English within a year! It was incredible!
I joined university in 2000. My first class at university was more like a scrutiny, with me as the subject! The second class was with another Department and they seemed the least interested to learn English. I was seriously contemplating going back to my lair. But I cannot resist a challenge. So, I kept going. They tried to make life impossible by first complaining about an external male teacher but not making it clear to the Head of the Department so that it was supposed I was the perpetrator! (Imagine confusing between a male and a female leaving everything else to speculation!) I was able to prevent a suicide and bring the girls to order and then they invented it, from god knows where, that I was leaving! By the end of the year they thought I was better than another external male teacher teaching the same subject, landing me in trouble again.
Since then there have been so many complains and confusions that there have been times when I doubted myself! I tried forming a debate club which flopped as students were too busy with other things to waste time on such trifles. They had so many preoccupations that some students complained when I asked them to concentrate on studies - as the semester system hardly allows for anything else but study - that I was interfering with their personal lives! My job is only to teach and not to bother about what happens outside my class. I guessed my problem is I care too much!
But the success stories have been really rewarding considering how I have had to fight for each one. I had students who came to study English Literature without any background knowledge of literature – Bangla or English. Shaping them up and seeing them pass with flair has been one of the most rewarding experiences though only a few acknowledge our contribution or even remember us once they are past the hurdle. Some students brought gifts which I could not accept while I was still teaching them, its just a principle I hold onto, but I never saw them after they passed. But I had one student who made me a dress, same as one she wore which I praised, after she passed from IIUC.
I was touched when on my second trip to Sylhet with my students when I woke up from a brief sleep after Fajr to find myself covered in six shawls. I had looked after them the whole night and now they covered me when they thought I was cold. They also looked after my kids the night we were coming back from Sylhet because I had fallen ill. They made me cry when I was leaving IIUC. I hate expressing my emotions and I did not cry in front of people even on my wedding day! But my previous and current, English and other subjects students were there in my Farewell Program. Their speeches and their heartfelt farewell made me lose control of my emotions. I brought their gifts to Canada with me in spite of having to leave a lot of important things such as my books behind. I still have their text messages in my cellphone saying how much they loved me and how they will miss a mother and a sister. I still look at them regularly. But they call and write too and share all good and bad things with me. And surprisingly, I am also in contact with many of our male students whom I never really got to know as students in Bangladesh as they studied in a different campus.
So, I did see success in the end though it was not spontaneous. That is why I said what I did, not that I like one or another group of students more or less, but to measure how much they like me!
I have taught a few students after coming to Canada- two from middle school and two from high school. Thankfully two were straight and two had to be straightened. But the best thing about it was that I found out, once again, that I enjoy teaching and enjoy more the love that accompanies it. So, I might go back to teaching after all!
No comments:
Post a Comment