My First Day of Teaching (and Only Two Months In!)

Friday was my first day actually teaching a class in India, and it was a lot of fun. I’ve spent so much time and aggravation trying to get into classrooms and volunteer that I’d almost forgotten how much I truly enjoy teaching in a room full of kids. The setting was a Catholic school about 20 kilometers outside Trivandrum (which may sound close, but that’s about an hour bus trip with walks on either end). The school is run by Franciscans and is entirely self-financed by school fees paid by the 3,000 male and female students. The students are mostly working- and middle-class, though the school does provide scholarships and sliding-scale fees to students who can’t afford the standard tuition.

The night before, I was told that I’d be addressing an auditorium of 100 students from the +1 and +2 grade levels (the equivalent of juniors and seniors). Although I initially thought I’d be teaching to a classroom of about 50 students, I didn’t mind the difference in numbers very much, but the change of grade level shook me a bit. We agreed earlier that I’d be teaching 9^th and 10^th standard students, so I prepared a version of the “Cruise Ship” problem (you can see a copy of it here), which was written by my cooperating teacher. Now that I was teaching an older group, however, I would need different material that was more relevant to what they were learning, so I prepared a sample lesson on permutations and combinations. It turns out I didn’t need that at all, because when I arrived at the school the plan changed again. I was now teaching 45 10^th-standard students for one and a half hours. So my original lesson was back on. Luckily, I brought copies of the problem with me, as I had a feeling this might happen- my school visits often seem to be haphazardly organized by the teachers and principals who invite me.

I started off by introducing myself in Malayalam and then, after impressing with my limited speech, quickly and gratefully switched back to English. The students were excited to have me there, and I tried to reassure them that I wanted them to make risks and guesses, even if they weren’t 100% sure of their answers (even as I write this I can already hear my father lamenting my “dumbing down” the Indian curriculum). I then handed out the problem to the class, went through it to make sure everyone understood it, and reminded them that I was looking for two things: interesting mathematical approaches to the problem, and good conversation about the problem in their groups of two or three.

The reason I love the Cruise Ship problem is because there are so many opportunities for students to make decisions about how they want to approach it. Since I was parachuting into a class, albeit one that had already covered the Algebra I was teaching, I did make attempts to scaffold the lesson more heavily than I might in my own classroom. I started off with reviewing how to write and interpret equations, and how to solve a system of two-variable equations. We also made some predictions about which mode of transportation might get me to the ship the fastest. What struck me most about the students’ response to the problem was how excited they were to talk to their peers about it. While they’re not discouraged from working with peers on problem sets, they don’t really engage in group work inside their classroom. One female student made a great decision about how to set up the first of her equations, and she was eager to share it with other female students (the class was divided down the center, with boys seated on one side and girls on the other). A group of boys was first to try and visualize the problem with a graph, and they were thrilled to show it off to me. It was a great reminder of how important it is for students to feel in charge of their learning; and that it’s vital for students to feel that rush of success when they make a discovery.

Although none of the students managed to solve the problem completely in our time (and I never expected them to), they seemed to really enjoy the experience. One student asked me if I had more problems like this one “in California”. I was really proud of their work, and of the experience I managed to give them. A few even asked for my autograph, and I can honestly say it’s the first time I’ve ever had anyone ask for that.

I think if I do this problem again, however, it really needs to be part of one or two weeks in a classroom on a consistent basis. There was just too much to set up for students unaccustomed to group work and this style of problem. I ended up working at the board way too much, though the students were amused by my awkward shifting to write on the board that was too low to the ground for my tastes. The students were so hardworking that they overcame many of the challenges, but I think it could have been more useful to have a different problem that still gave them many of the same opportunities for group work and independent decision-making.

One thing I’d forgotten about myself as a teacher: I have a tendency to move around too much when I give directions. I’d been consciously working on this in my student teaching placement last year, but it reared its head again Friday. I noticed, after reading an article about it a year ago, that it really is important to students- especially English-language learners- to remain still and deliver instructions clearly. After wandering about the classroom and getting a wall of blank stares, I realized I looked like John McCain in a presidential debate, so I planted myself at the board while we went through the problems and my expectations. One nice thing about starting my teaching career as a volunteer is I get to walk into random classrooms and make mistakes free of ramifications on my long-term job prospects. Unless future employers start reading about them here and know what to look out for when I come around…

Despite the mistakes and faulty lesson plan, the students really enjoyed the class, and I had a wonderful time with them. There are few things as energizing to me right now as a roomful of kids feeling proud of their mathematical accomplishments. Five years ago I would have been shocked to see me write that, but it’s really true. And it’s a lot of fun.

Sapna and I are off to Ernakulam , Kochi, and Thrissur for a week while she does some research, so I’ll only return to the classroom after Thanksgiving. But have a great holiday, and think of us as you force down that one last piece of pie.