KC Thackery Niketan English Medium School

KC Thackery Niketan English Medium School
For simplicity sake I’ll call it KC. Anne and I (Sara) have been going there for almost a week now and have had quite the experiences.

Summary of School
The school has grades 3-7 and teaches in English. The principal, Shalini, is the main contact we’ve had and our main mentor. The students wear uniforms of sorts that are white or blue t-shirts with blue bottoms. It is not strictly followed, but most kids are wearing some form of that. The school itself looks relatively nice. It is a concrete building with open air all around (no screens) and each classroom goes to the outside. The building is three stories high but they only use the first two. All the kids are from lower income families in Pune.
There are three types of schools in India: private, government aided, and government schools.
According to Shalini the government schools are the worse, with the larger classrooms and the minimal access to supplies and good teachers. KC is a government school, but also partly funded by a NGO. Shalini is trying to revamp how government schools are done by changing this one. She wants students to be able to decide what they do when they grow up, not be stuck in one option. The school still has very large classroom sizes but focus on challenging and encouraging the students in new ways.

Fieldtrip
Anne and I accompanied the fourth standard (grade) to an old fort outside of Pune. It took us an hour and a half to get there, with many bumps along the way. The bus we took was so intense to ride, as we bounced almost to the roof when we sat in the back. The kids were crazy loud, but we were able to talk to a couple of them one and one. I had a good time getting to know some of the kids. I even tried to lead a game that was at least half successful. The bus was stalled before we were let in to the forest and the kids were rising steadily in volume. I jumped in and settled them down for about 5 minutes with a bus game (way to go past jobs in teaching me fun games). The actual fort was on top of one of the summits of a hill/mountain range that was BEAUTIFUL. Green everywhere in sight and the fort had great architecture.

Daily Schedule
Day to day varies. Anne and I have been put in classrooms where there are no teachers…multiple times. A brief overview of what the children are to learn is explained and then we are left. It does not always go smoothly. The kids are talkative, and talk over each other and us. When they raise their hands they also shout out the answer. It is strange to us how classes are working here, when it seems like there is little control. It is also strange the school trusts us to lead a classroom with a second notice. Language is a barrier, especially in the younger classes. Their accent and ours is a deadly combination at times. Nothing seems to make sense from either side. Other times it is great. We help small groups, we help in classrooms, we lead classrooms, and we do it all. Hopefully we will be meeting with the principal next week to set up some ground rules so we don’t feel like we are put to every task that other teachers do not want. We want to be helpful but we also don’t want to get burned out.

Future
There is a possibility I will be taking 6th grade science (had my first lesson today) for the rest of their school year (until April). The first lesson was rough because I knew none of the kids, the classroom structure, the discipline strategies, past lessons, or future lessons. I tried to review and think I did an okay job considering. Hopefully there will be more support in the future and more foundation. Mike and Andrew came to the school today and helped a great deal. Mike was even there for one of my science classes which was wonderful. All the kids want to know everything about the USA and can’t believe people don’t walk on streets in the US. They also can’t believe people get speeding tickets or that there are no ricksaws.
This school will definitely be a huge learning grounds for me, and where I will be the most challenged.