04/10/09: Point to be noted- Swati's not been coming since past 2-3 classes. She's there, I see her, she sees me, I call her for the class, she says she'll be there shortly, I go back to the class, class starts, class ends, she never comes! I should actually keep going to her house and keep calling her for the class several times. Will do so next time onwards. She's such a lovely girl! Works a lot! Manages her house and goes to school regularly. Always found working... Never have I ever seen her sitting idle...
I wanted full attendance for today's class. But that's beyond my control. Sham, Mahesh, Tushar, Priti (had to call her from her home twice, as she simply didn't turn up the first time), Poonam, Reshma. Wanted Pooja and Akshay to be there too. Akshay's in the market and Pooja's gone to some relative's. (She returned before the class ended, but didn't come inside. "Non-useful" classes do not seem to interest some of them much. I hope they'll remember at least a couple of these classes when they grow up...)
Krunal and one new volunteer is there. Oh yes, he's called Aditya. Class begins.
How to evaluate something? How to assign marks?? What's the most important thing to be remembered while giving marks in an exam?? There were many answers. General ones. Told them that it is very important to know 'out of how much'. If you think of an answersheet to be absolutely correct, you'd like to give full marks to it, right? Right. Thus, 'out of how much' becomes important. So let's learn to give marks today, out of 10.
Each kid listed 2 favourite things from various fields such as cellphone networks, fruits, flowers, vegetables, food, clothes, picnic spots, relatives, friends, teachers, subjects, animals, birds, insects, trees, etc. Now they were supposed to grade these things on a 10 point scale, as per their liking. Fine. Done.
2nd round of grading- Suppose you like gulaabjaamun. Fine. Good. Now think from gulaabjaamun's perspective. Does the gulaabjaamun care if you like it?? If you think it doesn't, then give zero marks. If you think it does, then give marks accordingly, out of 10.
Thus, with a lot of difficulty, they graded all the items in the big list yet again. Asked them to arrange the items in descending order of marks, biggest first. They agreed that all the things noted down can be characterised into two remarkably distinct groups- group1 (relatives, friends, animals, birds, trees, teachers, etc) and group2 (cellphone network, clothes, movies, picnic spots, food, etc). Things in group1 care for our feelings for them while things in the other group do not much care about how we feel for them.
So, to which group should we give more importance?? Group2 things don't even care for what we feel about them. If I wear some other clothes tomorrow, it won't make much of a difference, neither to me, nor to the clothes. So why bother?! Why give importance to group2?? All agreed that what we wear, what we eat, what place we live in, which cellphone we use, etc do not really matter much! Instead, we could give more importance to group1 and behave accordingly! Yippie! Good.
Now comes the golden question. The question which I wanted to put forth since the Rakshabandhan incident (these kids were walking out of the classroom at the sight of dropout batch kids entering into the classroom).
Tell me then, my dear little friends- Into which group do Sarika-Karishma-Ajay-Sheetal-Vidya (dropout batch kids) fall???
All: Well... Err... Yeah. Group1.
Good! If you agree to this, then, my dear little friends, think whether your behaviour on Rakshabandhan day with them was right or wrong...
Goodbye! See you next week!
P.S.0: Mugdha, Meghana and Asim joined in later. Mugdha was busy observing and writing something all the time. In the end, she handed over 'happy thoughts' to all the kids, including me. These were some positive observations about each kid written on small pieces of paper. Kids were all excited to grab their piece and read what's in it!
P.S.1: After this class, attended the new batch at BC too! Couldn't just go home soon, as I was meeting all the kids after a long long gap...
P.S.2: As Krunal dropped me back home this Sunday night, he handed over something big, created by Zarna, to me. And... Well... I... I was spellbound! I always loved the kids and loved teaching and had some idea that the kids loved me too... But here was something which kind of said it out... Something which I could touch and feel and read and respond to... Something which I could physically preserve and be proud of... Something which was 2 feet long and 1.5 feet tall... A full cardboard sheet made into a greeting card! With long messages from kids, lovely thoughts by Priti, great guidance from Krunal, awesome creativity by Zarna, ..., ..., ...! For me! For the teacher within me!
So now we know... Now we know what Zarna was upto on that 'teachers day special class' on 06/09/09... Well... What to say!!
Guys, everytime a situation demands me to wear a hat, I'll take it off in your honour first, and then wear it!! Thank you for handing over my most prized possession!
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