Note - Hi everyone. Our first day teaching was yesterday, but the internet wasn't working so I couldn't post this. Apologies. - Arnab
Today was our first day with the kids. We opened our school last friday, and held an orientation with the students and their parents. But today, we officially started teaching in our new school.
There are so many things I could talk about. I could tell funny stories, like the firecracker ambran who had a proclivity for taking his pants off. Or vishal who sunk his teeth into the necks of our teachers, including mine.
Instead I'm going to write about what went into this day, and making it a success. At least a success in the sense that kids laughed and loved their first day of school, and nobody peed or pooped their pants.
About six weeks ago, we started our full time training and preparation. We did everything from selecting the values of our organization to designing the correct procedure to go to the toilet. And all of that work led to today, our first day.
My biggest reflection on the whole day is how important it is to have a structure in place, but to not be too wedded to that structure. We planned enough to know where we needed to be, what the kids should be doing, what to do when potential problems arose (like crying children, going to the toilet, etc), but had enough flexibility to change things on the fly.
The best feeling I had today, aside from some great moments with some students, was being able to identify the things we needed to change for the next day. I doubt we'll ever design a perfect day, but achieving success and identifying clear next steps was extremely rewarding. Can't wait till tomorrow to improve and try it again.
Today was our first day with the kids. We opened our school last friday, and held an orientation with the students and their parents. But today, we officially started teaching in our new school.
There are so many things I could talk about. I could tell funny stories, like the firecracker ambran who had a proclivity for taking his pants off. Or vishal who sunk his teeth into the necks of our teachers, including mine.
Instead I'm going to write about what went into this day, and making it a success. At least a success in the sense that kids laughed and loved their first day of school, and nobody peed or pooped their pants.
About six weeks ago, we started our full time training and preparation. We did everything from selecting the values of our organization to designing the correct procedure to go to the toilet. And all of that work led to today, our first day.
My biggest reflection on the whole day is how important it is to have a structure in place, but to not be too wedded to that structure. We planned enough to know where we needed to be, what the kids should be doing, what to do when potential problems arose (like crying children, going to the toilet, etc), but had enough flexibility to change things on the fly.
The best feeling I had today, aside from some great moments with some students, was being able to identify the things we needed to change for the next day. I doubt we'll ever design a perfect day, but achieving success and identifying clear next steps was extremely rewarding. Can't wait till tomorrow to improve and try it again.
How can you be sure nobody peed or pooped in their pants? Did you personally inspect each and every one of them? ;-)
ReplyDeleteBtw, what makes you think we don't want to read about the kid who takes his pants off and the kid who bites teachers' necks?