assessment time...

Assessment time for all our children and we’ve all been in the centres…and there are a lot of wonderful stories I’ve been a part of or heard!!

L for Lobster
E for Explosive
Really what ever happened to the simpler days when E was for Elephant!

Counting 6+4 on fingers and one big toe!!
It was a simply adorable sight to see this girl fit 4 on one hand and then struggle with fitting 6 on the other… she had one little big toe point up so she could remember to count it!!

Math answers through meditation
So this tiny little boy tries to answer 9+3 but uses no fingers or toes… he closes his eyes real tight… and just when M thought he may not know, he quips up, opens eyes wide and says 12! And M thinks, hmm maybe meditation can help…

Reading the passage on the River Nile…
It was tough for some kids but I was amazed at how well they could comprehend it and so confidently and after reading it just once…I learnt something there as well…

This one little girl, was struggling with the passage she was reading to me… and I was unsure of whether she would make it to the end… so she was going along slowly… and I was being as patient as I could… and as she approached the word ‘neighborhood’, I was certain she would not make it but she took a couple of minutes, looked me in the eye and said it!! Wow... she deserved a hug…

So I ask this little fellow ‘What comes before Sunday?’
‘Holiday, didi!!’
Right answer!!

Values assessment, level 3… ‘Can you tell me a few things that are common between India and Pakistan?’ got some interesting answers to this one…
‘People are the same’
‘They also pray, didi.’
‘Children in Pakistan also go to school.’
‘Children also wear Akanksha t-shirts there didi?’ (someday my dear…I thought…)

So I read a Math problem to this boy who has the naughtiest gleam in his eyes and I know I can expect some kind of mischief… I read it out seriously in my no-nonsense-didi voice - You have 2 rupees in your pocket and your mother gives you 6 rupees. How much money do you have in your pocket?
‘Two didi’ he smiles
Think again I urge…
‘My mother won’t give me the money didi’… and he laughs out loudly…

Hearing the story of how one of our teacher’s trying to get assessments done from this boy who is always truant around assessment time… the image of determined shefali running through the narrow dark alleys of cuffe parade holding crisp white sheets of assessments towards vicky’s house as the whisper in the community spreads like wild fire ‘Vicky run… shefali didi is here…Run Run’.

laughs apart, its been real good to be in centres… its such a tough job to be teachers and i salute them each for the many hours of painstaking efforts, unflinching belief and determination with which they go through each good and bad day...