My Experience at Teachers' Training

#Passion without any intention to learn and update will certainly be of no use for the teachers to teach in the class. It was a different experience for me. 230 Km away from Delhi, in the state of Punjab there is a small village named Budhlada. I was invited by the Principal of a School to address their school teachers as well as create awareness related to the latest developments in the teaching #pedagogy. The school management has taken due care to update its school with smart class, usage of latest technology and well-furnished computer and language laboratory. I was mesmerized by the view of the school. The class rooms were well-ventilated, school was surrounded by big trees and it was green everywhere.

I thought, how lucky the students are, the one who have enrolled for their education in such well-built and developed schools. Let me confess hear that I did not expect to see such developed school in one of the interiors of Indian village. Their ambience touched my heart. I was asked by the Principal to interact with the teachers for an hour. I started my session.

I congratulated the Principal, School Management who have started such school at Budhlada that too an English medium school where the people spoke Punjabi - as this was their common language. My introductory speech was in English. When I went on speaking for few minutes, I saw principal walking to the dais beside me and he softly said in my ears that all the teachers may not understand English so I better communicate in Hindi (the national language of India).

I was surprised to hear his request. It was an English medium school where teachers were supposed to teach in #English but they failed to understand English. I found it difficult to connect the dots. Well, I realized the reason behind the invitation.

I wanted to know the problem, analyze its root cause and then thought of sharing suggestible solution to address the problem.

While interacting with the teachers I came across certain interesting facts:

• Though the teachers wanted to learn and improve their communication skills, but due to lack of platform or unavailability of proper aid, they still remain deprived of this skill.
• They have studied in English medium school where their teachers have taught them everything in Punjabi or Hindi.
• They had huge appetite to learn but they failed to fulfill their need due to lack of support from the peer group.
• Time remains a big constraint

I thought, this is certainly a common problem faced by all the schools established in the interiors of India.

I considered the given platform as my blessing. Though I was asked to interact for an hour, I pleaded the Management and asked them to spare their teachers for a day. I made them understand the need of various activities, significance of audio-visual aids for the teachers’ as teaching aid and I promised to mentor them and to extend my whole-soul support to nurture the passionate group to learn and excel.

While the teachers were involved into different activities and were performing as per my guidelines, I realized certain basic things which can be applicable to the whole teacher group.

1.   #Unlearn, Learn and Relearn: It is very important for the teachers to follow this rule. Unless as teachers if we do not unlearn the old and outdated methodology, we will not be able to gain and imbibe new things. Our mind has limited capacity to store and retain important things. If this mind will not get rid of useless baggage of information, it will become difficult to learn and with-hold new learning. We need to learn and update ourselves - each and every moment, also should not hesitate to relearn things. The more we practice, better will be its application and will result in positive implication.
2. To #listen is to learn: If you wish to learn then be receptive. Listen carefully whatever you can. Don’t try to be judgmental, what to listen and what not. To listen to others demand for high level of patience. If you wish to gain more information, even then you need to listen and learn.
3. Failure – stepping stone to success: Don’t hesitate to accept the shortcomings that we have in us. You fail because you have tried and then the failure will teach you the difference between the right and wrong approach. Things that you do will always add value to your learning. Sometimes you do it as per the norms and in some instances you may not follow the right methodology, hence you tend to fail. We need to remember that we learn in both the ways.

Let us try to upgrade the standard of teachers and deliver the best teaching practice. We need to remember that teachers are the pioneer. They build the personality of the future citizen which indeed builds the nation. It is desirable that we, the teachers should maintain the pace of learning and unswervingly continue our journey of continual growth and prosperity along with students.