Collaborating with a group of six of my peers, to create just two posters, proved to be somewhat challenging. Initially, the clash of everyone’s ideas, input, and perspective detracted from us as a group. Each member seemed to have a different idea for the content and layout of the poster. In the end, I figured that I would have to compromise, and be more open to some of the others’ ideas, while also making sure that at least some of my ideas were implemented. In the end, we all cooperated and were able to complete our visual aids.

Since, we were thorough with the course material, we assumed that the teaching bit would come to us naturally. This proved to be a serious mistake on our part as teachers.

When the time had come for us to visit the Middle School, we were all quite timorous. The idea of speaking in front of a group of forty students was quite nerve wracking, but we reminded ourselves that we were well prepared with our teaching material.  On entering the classroom, we noticed that all the boys and girls sat separately, each group occupying a halve of the classroom. 

We began the session with a very brief introduction of ourselves in Hindi, and explained the activity that we had arranged for the students. Looking back, I think that we should have spent more time introducing ourselves and asking some of the students about their backgrounds as well. Talking to the students about our school, and our trip to Nagpur, would have made them more comfortable to ask questions, which would have given us some insight into their lives as well. After the brief intro, we dove straight into the topic assigned to us. We realized immediately that our visual aids were not large enough for the students at the back of the class to view. We all knew very well that we could not compromise on the visual element of our teaching session, because our explanation alone would not allow us to engage our audience in a stimulating, yet enjoyable informative session. What we did have was a large blackboard at our disposal, which we could use to draw diagrams and write formulae. Explaining these diagrams and formulae in Hindi was a tough task. We did not know the Hindi translations for a lot of the jargon used in physics, which caused the presenters to stammer while teaching. Although this did reflect some lack of preparation, we used depictions of physical phenomenon to compensate for this blunder. In addition to this, we made sure to ask questions to our audience to see if they were understanding what we were teaching. The students' enthusiasm to answer our questions, gave us the confidence we needed to continue our lesson. It was incredibly motivating to see their response to our lesson. We encouraged every member of the class to answer a few questions. Although a few of them were a bit hesitant, some were confident enough to come up to the board and write their answer or explanation. It was wonderful to see all our students encouraging one another to go up to the board, and to see equal participation in the activity from the girls and the boys. 

I’m very grateful for the opportunity to get a glimpse into the lives of students living in a rural locality, through this activity. Some of the most notable aspects of the school we visited include the following. Minimal space was allocated as the school’s sports grounds. In addition to this, the student had to use water pumps to get clean drinking water. Lastly, I noticed that the girls and boys were asked to sit separately in class. This made me realize that there were probably thousands of other rural schools, including this one, that required development to ensure that the girls and boys are receiving equal opportunities in class, and the facilities required to develop their athletic abilities. By visiting, interacting and contributing financially to similar schools, I could help children slowly get the education they deserve. However small the impact may be, it could still make a slight difference in the lives of a few students.