I am sorry to say that my time here is quickly drawing to a close. We have just finished our final round of monthly grades and we only have about a month of school left, which will mostly consist of review and final exams. Then, after a little trekking and traveling, I am heading home to let it all sink in.
There has been a lot of activity for me in the past couple of months. First came the holidays, which, despite the thoughtful efforts of everyone here, still managed to be a bit lonely. I was fortunate to have my spirits lifted in the middle of January with the visit of a friend from back home. Since his departure I have been busy with lots of student projects and preparations for the end of the year. Here are some highlights.
One-Act Plays - The Sequel
Somehow in the middle of January, I again found myself preparing to put on a one-act play, this time with the junior section. I must admit, at the beginning of it all, I was a bit unexcited. Though I really enjoyed the senior section one-act plays, they were stressful and had worn me out considerably. However, once I sat down at the computer to start writing, the ideas started flowing into my head, and I again became excited. My excitement was only increased as I started working with my actors and actresses from class 5 and 6. They proved to be much more enthusiastic than the senior section as demonstrated by the fact that they had their lines memorized in the first few days of practice and their continual planning of grandiose ideas for our final production.
Their enthusiasm definitely presented some problems. Play practice wound them up considerably and it was often frustrating to keep them focused. Additionally, they were constantly wanting to practice and do extra things for the play, so it was hard to keep up with them. However, all of this extra energy that we all poured into the play paid off. We got nothing but rave reviews from everyone and the lead actress was awarded the best actress award of the competition.
To celebrate the success of all the plays, the four directors decided to take the participants to the Godavari Botanical Gardens for a field trip. Many of these students had never visited this park, which is just an hour bus ride from our school, so unsurprisingly, they were incredibly thrilled. We got a pleasant chance to walk around, eat snacks and play. As I sat watching them race back and forth in the grass, I realized how unfortunate it is that our school, like most schools in Nepal, does not have fields for the students to play and do sports. They seemed so happy and healthy as they ran around and I was glad the other teachers and I were able to take them on this field trip.
More One-Act Plays and Games
While the one-act plays are a great project for the selected participants, there are many students that miss out on the experience of putting a production together. Because of this, I assigned my class seven students to create and perform plays of their own. I am currently in the process of watching them all. I have been nothing but impressed. The students have shown maturity, creativity and ingenuity in putting together a show with an original script, props and costumes. This assignment has given me a chance to appreciate the students on yet another level, as creative assignments often do.
I also gained a new appreciation for my class eight students after I assigned them a project to make a game that tested the player's knowledge of vocabulary we had been discussing in class. I was a bit nervous that the whole assignment would fall through, but it ended up providing the students an opportunity to exercise their creative side and have fun in the process. The games they have created are of all varieties, my favorite of which is like a cricket game where the player must answer vocabulary questions in order to make runs.
Elocution Contest
Every year LMV hosts what they call an elocution contest, which is a competition between students in poem or story recitation. The students are to memorize a poem and present it to an audience of their peers and judges, complete with an introduction and actions. I was in charge of getting the whole thing put together. This meant I got a chance to help prepare the students, so I got to work with some really talented students as well as some apathetic ones. In the end, all of the performances were fine, but those that really prepared, shinned. Their success put a smile on my face.
Final Thoughts on Teaching
Even though I know I am still an amateur teacher, I have taken huge steps towards good teaching this year. Classroom management is still my number one difficulty, but now I can walk into a classroom and keep it reasonably under control for a 40 minute period. That is not something I could have said at the beginning of my teaching experience. I still have not perfected the art of consistency in discipline, which I know is incredibly important for the students. If I always give the same punishment for the same behavior every time, students can figure out what is right and wrong. However, sometimes there are days when breaking the rules makes me more mad than others, so I end up being unbalanced in my discipline. Consequently, I think it is sometimes hard for students to figure out exactly what is and what is not okay.
A huge part of me wishes that I could have another year here, so I could be the teacher I have learned I want to be. I would like to start the year with a set of rules about classroom conduct and exactly what happens when those rules are broken. Instead of giving equal time to each unit, I would like to focus in on the weaknesses of the students, now that I figured out what they are, and spend the most time on those topics. I would like to teach the same material again with more confidence in my authority on the topics. Overall, I know I spent most of my efforts this year figuring out what works and what doesn't. If I had one more year, I would like to spend my efforts simply doing what works.
This year has been full of teaching success and failures and I have learned a lot of about what it takes to be an effective teacher. However, the thing that I have gained the most from this teaching experience is an overwhelming respect for teachers, students and staff. Teaching is a constant job requiring creativity, enthusiasm and, most importantly, patience. Getting all of these things to work together harmoniously is a truly difficult art to master and I admire anyone who is willing to take on such a challenge. The students that spend their days trying to better themselves are equally impressive. They are forced to deal with the whims and idiosyncrasies of all of their teachers and somehow learn something in the process. Being a student requires organization, discipline and patience as well. Finally, there are so many people who somehow manage to get a school organized into a productive creature. This is another job of patience and is logistically commendable.
Travels
As I mentioned, one of my friends managed to make it out for a visit so I got to live as a tourist for a while. With him here, I was reminded of a lot of the first impressions about Nepal I had. As expected, these impressions somehow faded into normalcy the longer I stayed here. His restatement my initial feelings provided me a valuable opportunity to re-evaluate the ways my views of Nepal have grown. For example, he immediately commented on the slowness of transportation here. A local bus stops every couple of minutes and drives no faster than 15 miles an hour on average. This is definitely slow and time consuming by United States' standards. One thing I have learned about being here is that not all places value time in the same way that the United States does. Here things just take longer and people accept it. At first, I was impatient, but now I just accept it as well.
The most interesting thing I did with my friend was visit Janakpur, a large city in the Terai region. This is a city centered around the Janaki Temple, a huge and colorful monument to Sita. It is surprising as you wind through the narrow roads to suddenly end up in the enormous square filled with venders, pigeons and the temple itself. Janakpur is also the home of the Janakpur Women's Project, which is a center that trains Mithila painting skills to local woman and sells their products. Going to this center was reason enough for a trip to Janakpur. We got a chance to see the women working, talking, laughing and singing. I bought a few paintings and the women came out to see which ones I had purchased. When they saw their creations in my bag, they became excited in the same way that my students are when they score well on an exam. It was refreshing to see people creating, enjoying themselves and being genuinely happy with their accomplishments.
Janakpur is unlike any place I have ever been for many reasons, the most startling for me was the lack of western foreigners. Though there are many visitors in this town, most are Indians on a pilgrimage to the Janaki Temple. This meant constant stares and whispers at every turn. Western foreigners were so foreign that we did not even get harassed by the local venders and rickshaw drivers as all western foreigners are in Kathmandu. Despite the lack of blatant harassment, I felt slightly uncomfortable in my new surroundings. I think I have become strangely accustomed the screams of "hello!" and vending propositions, and I felt a bit bare without them.
Going Home
Even though I will not be returning until May, it would be a lie to say that I do not have thoughts of being home floating through my head already. Of course, I cannot say enough about how wonderful Nepal is and what an amazing experience I have had here. However, there are many things about the United States that I will be glad to get back to, mostly my family and friends.
I am sure that going home will be an utterly strange experience. It will strange to go back to the land of supermarkets, clearance sales, coffee shops and pop music. In a way, I am looking forward to the strangeness because I think it will give me a new perspective on this experience and it will help me to continue my growth.
