Tag: Sarah Carson

Overall, my experience at Sshrishti has been a powerfully instructional and extremely fulfilling experience, and one of my favorites from my semester in India. I came in to the experience with an expansive list of goals which, now I realize, were quite overly ambitious. I soon found out that, especially in a small Indian community-based NGO like Sshrishti, things don’t always go as planned, and it is necessary to be flexible. By learning this important lesson, I was able to adapt to the opportunities readily available and contribute toward the areas where Sshrishti really needs help. By focusing on a few specific projects, I was able to have a much greater impact than I would have otherwise.

My service took place mostly at two of Sshrishti’s centers: Jai Hind Camp and the main Learning Center (SLC). Jai Hind was where I was placed originally, but entering a slum for the first time so soon after arriving to India was incredibly shocking, and I switched to the SLC for a time, as it served a similar population without being located within a slum itself. At SLC, I typically spent my time teaching independently, not alongside a teacher as I had originally expected. I also soon realized that my teaching would not be exclusively English, as with the frequent teacher absenteeism, it was quite common for me to cover math and computer lab classes as well. Some other challenges I faced at SLC were the unplanned and completely unpredictable schedule of which classes I would be working with and in which subjects. This made it basically impossible to prepare lessons ahead of time, so I definitely learned the value of flexibility. Probably the most difficult challenge for me was witnessing violence in the classroom, both among students and between teachers and students. Luckily, I was eventually able to have an open conversation about these issues with my volunteer supervisor, and she took action to help me address this issue. ...continue reading "Sshrishti"

My classroom experience at Sshrishti is always an adventure, to say the least. Here is just one of my many stories about this wonderfully unpredictable place:

A few weeks ago, I was asked to cover one of the teacher’s classes. This is something that I’ve become fairly used to, although I was originally not sure I would be comfortable teaching by myself. However, this time, when the bell marking the end of English class rung out, the teacher was still mysteriously missing. Luckily, my Hindi stills are now solid enough that I was able to ask another teacher, “Ma’am kehan hai?” “Stationary class,” she replied, and then turned to begin the next period with her own class. As you might imagine, this answer did not really clear anything up, and I returned to the classroom perhaps even more confused than when I’d left it. I had no choice but to follow the students to the computer lab next door for computer class, which was totally fine with me, as I was excited to show them some ESL games online. I had decided to come prepared with these in order to combat the students’ tendency to play Minesweeper every time I turned my back. However, when I went to pull up the first game, the page wouldn’t work. The students started to chuckle and explained: “No internet, ma’am.” A computer lab without internet? That I certainly wasn’t expecting, and so I let them explore Paint, Word, Excel, etc. I kept peeking at the door throughout the class, sure that the teacher would return any minute… ...continue reading "Sshrishti"

As many of you might be relieved to know, my work at Sshrishti has changed drastically since that first day in the slums. From now on, after discussing all of my volunteering options with my supervisor, I have decided to divide my time between teaching at the Sshrishti Learning Center and working in the main office. My experiences in the classroom have really run the gamut - from successfully introducing the present continuous tense to a well-behaved group of students to being handed a dictionary on the teacher's way out and instructed to "teach dictionary." One of my favorite moments came when, after teaching me a hand clapping game, one of the girls looked quizzically at me and said, "dost"? Fortunately, I'd learned that word in Hindi class the previous day and knew that it meant friend. "Friend," I nodded, as she then grinned and held out her hand for me to shake. The children at Sshrishti are wonderful, and I'm constantly reminded of how incredibly rewarding teaching can be. On the other hand, I've also become familiar with many of the limitations and challenges of the Indian school system that I've learned about in my socioeconomic development class. It can be especially difficult to overcome the incredibly large class sizes, sometimes 40 or more students, and the resultant wide range of abilities existing within a single class. ...continue reading "Sshrishti"