Teacher's Day

Whenever I do the dishes, I like to pick up the phone and call my mother or sister in India as it makes the boring chore go by faster. Due to this nearly daily ritual, I am kept up to date with the family birthdays, anniversaries and other important dates and festivals while I get my dishes sparking clean. Not that I ever forget the dates- I am the champion of memorizing these things after all. So when my mother hinted me at wishing my father on Friday while I was scrubbing the dishes, I panicked. I did a quick mental audit of the family calendar but nothing came up for September. I did not get any recent reminders either from my mother or sister. When I finally swallowed my pride and confessed to my mother that I didn't know the occasion, she reminded me that it was September 5th. Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's birthday, more commonly known as Teachers Day. Ah, yes! Of course! Teacher's day has been a special day for many decades for my father, a retired high school Head Master! I talked to him and wished him on the occasion and my memories of the day came rushing.

My earliest recollection of this day is from when I was in 5th class (my first year of the Hindu school). My school's Teacher's Day tradition was to to pick a few students from each class, have them dress up as teachers (white sari for girls, white dhoti and kurta for boys) and let them be the teachers for the whole day. I was ridiculously excited at the idea of it and I could barely sleep the night before. I was picked to teach 4th class Maths and 3rd class Telugu (my primary language). I got to wear my mom's sari and glass bangles. I got to sit in the teacher's staff room. I got to prepare a lesson plan for both my classes. The best part was when I walked into a classroom, the kids (almost as old as me, some even older) all got up and greeted me Namaste. It felt great to get that kind of respect out of peers, even if it was for just one day. Math for 4th class was first up and I taught them subtraction between three digit numbers. It involved a lot of blackboard use and I had command over the numbers. It was easy and went by fast. Telugu class was next. I had an aggressive plan for that class- lesson on "Ravaana Saukaryalu" (Modes of Transportation). It was a longish lesson and involved a lot of reading which wasn't my favorite. I always liked how my teacher Jayalakshmi's bangles made beautiful sounds as she fiercely wrote away on the chalkboard and I wished in vain that I could have that bangle movement moment in my Telugu class too. Alas, unlike my Math class, there was not much blackboard use with Telugu class- the lesson title was all I needed to write on the board. I could only finish 50% of my planned lesson when the bell rang. I did not even do the quiz which was my only metric for how I did in class. I reluctantly left the room and felt embarrassed for my poor planning. It took me several days after that to not hide from Teacher Ramavati who was the real 3rd class Telugu teacher at the time.

I pretend-taught on five Teacher's Days after that year but it was always Math. I never had the opportunity to teach Telugu after my botched attempt from my 5th class- until today! We met with the Portland Telugu school Organizer on Friday night to get Raaga enrolled in Telugu classes this Fall. When he mentioned how they were looking for volunteers to teach Telugu, I remembered my unfinished Modes of Transportation class and chuckled. And gave my emphatic yes to volunteer as a Telugu teacher. I stayed up late last night and went over the lesson a couple of times. Just like when I was in fifth class, I just could not sleep!

Today was my first class for the season, it was a small class, just six kids, all about 8-9 years old. A couple of the boys were very sharp.  They were trying to figure me out and were constantly negotiating for ways to get out of the classroom, prepared to get out as a 'punishment' if necessary. They spent their recess time playing outside and asked for snacks when the class resumed. They needed to use the bathroom. They needed to tie their shoelace. They felt the need to use a pen instead of pencil and wondered if they could use erasable pen as a happy medium. They complained about their friend elbowing them/copying them/sitting too close to them/speaking too softly/speaking too loudly/not finishing their work etc. Some kids were very good with their Telugu and were bored most of the time. Some kids were slow with their letters and felt rushed. Bigger challenge to me than any of these things was to keep my cool and refrain from using English when disciplining the kids. I was translating all my commands into Telugu in my head before talking. It was a Telugu class after all!

It was a great experience at the end of the day even though it felt like I was still pretend-teaching instead of really teaching. It felt like I finally had some closure on my unfinished lesson plan from decades ago. I was so excited to share this with my father that I dialed his number as soon as it was 6am in India (he didn't answer so I started this blog entry instead to let out my excitement). I have a new found respect for all the teachers, big and small, that ever taught me or my kid. What a great profession teaching is! Thanks, teachers! You are the best! (Belated) Happy Teacher's Day! 

 

Manabadi- Prasunam Class that I taught today

Manabadi- Pravesam Class that Raaga attended today

P.S: It is Raaga's first day of kindergarten tomorrow and I have butterflies in my stomach for a different reason now, sigh.