Guidance for Future Volunteers at Dhikure School

by Amelia Calvert, volunteer Nov-Dec ‘16

This guide is based on my personal experience as a volunteer at Shree Dhikure Primary School for three and a half weeks in November to December 2016. It aims to give future volunteers a range of ideas for teaching, based on what worked when I was there. Things may have changed by the time new volunteers read this so I cannot promise equal success but only write what worked for me! I should add that I am not a trained teacher nor have I done a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course but I have done a lot of private tutoring and am a trained Occupational Therapist. I am also very creative and would actually say this was the most useful trait, enabling me to create fun and interesting lessons that seemed to suit both the school and the students.

Essentially my experience of the school was very positive and I found the children diligent, fun and engaging. They both worked hard and played hard with a contagious energy. The school itself had a good structure in place as follows:

10 am – Assembly

10.30-11.30 am – First lesson

11.30-11.40 am – Break

11.40 am-1 pm – Second lesson

1 pm – Lunchtime

1.50 pm – Third lesson

3 pm – End of school

The teachers were all very helpful with regards to translating for me and would happily join in with any lessons as needed. Essentially I was given free rein to teach how and what I liked which was a great opportunity.

The number of students was a maximum 18 but usually only ever maximum 15 in any one day due to sickness etc, sometimes less. There were officially five different classes but I taught three of them together and two of them separately, as follows:

* Classes 4 & 5 for an hour each in the morning

* Classes 1, 2 & ECED (nursery) all together for the lesson after lunch

I took with me a random selection of objects that became my ‘props’ in the classroom. The best things were stickers as children loved these for their pencil cases, books etc and made a good treat at the end of each lesson. I also took:

* dice

* pipe cleaners

* origami paper

* water balloons

* coloured card

* playing cards

* tennis ball

* marker pen

* photographs of UK scenery

There are a huge amount of materials you could take out that would be useful but I would just choose what you would like to use, and ensure it will all fit in your suitcase! I used everything I took out at some point then left with the school for future use. I could

have also done with sellotape for a few things but made do with zinc oxide tape from my first aid kit! Likewise my first aid kit scissors were very handy. At time of writing there was a relatively good stock of paper, pens etc stored in the office but I didn’t rely on using any of these because some were expensive and kept for future use. I did use a couple of the cheaper items for a group artwork on the last day, namely large sheets of basic white paper.

On the first day I met all the students, asked their names (which they wrote down in my notebook – great for future reference) and looked through their books to see what they were learning. I didn’t have a lesson plan. After this time I got a feel for their level of English, resources available, engagement levels etc and started planning accordingly, brainstorming all ideas for topics and methods of learning from my own knowledge and experience. There were a lot of posters and signs hanging on the walls of classrooms with some English topics, along with their ‘syllabus’ textbooks (provided by the government) but seeing as I was only there a relatively short time I decided not to follow a structure as such but to choose topics that I thought would be most useful and teachable. In no particular order these included:

* Time-telling

* Everyday phrases

* Actions/verbs for everyday use

* ‘In the kitchen’ vocabulary

* Colours

* Animals

* Maths/numbers

* ‘Nature’ vocabulary

I mainly used word cards for all of these that I created and left in the office in small envelopes for future use, in case of interest. I used a variety of learning techniques, sometimes asking children to draw – e.g. kitchen objects which they then labeled; sometimes asking them to make actions e.g. for learning key action words/verbs; other times using picture cards for teaching names of objects. I would also dictate and spell out the English words we were learning to encourage their comprehension and listening skills.

As much as possible I would ensure children wrote down words we were learning in their exercise books to help them remember and have to refer to later. I would sometimes give them five-ten minutes to remember a list of words before then testing them on what was written, checking spelling etc. Occasionally we would then play games like hangman on the whiteboard to test their memory of these words. I would often ask the children to work together on certain tasks, which they seemed to enjoy while ensuring that everyone had a grasp of the learning, some students having a better grasp of English than others.

I particularly wanted to encourage applied learning and get the children to think rather than just read from textbooks. They were good at copying paragraphs of English without understanding what it meant, likewise reciting the alphabet over and over without actually being able to read words. For the younger group I kept it very simple learning a few words at a time and moving about as much as possible – e.g. use of actions, getting them to write on the board, etc. Acting out animals was fun for them, as for the words, ‘jump’, ‘run’, ‘sing’ and so on. One thing I always did was to recap on the lesson from the day before at the start of each lesson, if just for ten minutes. The teachers commented on this being a good thing to do. I also think this helped reinforce learning so that the children didn’t just learn words one day then forget them the next. I was very conscious

of them having to learn a whole new alphabet with English and felt practise and repetition was key to their remembering words.

Where possible I would test the children on new words and phrases learnt outside of lessons, such as during break times or on the walk home, when we often overlapped. I also did a big overall ‘test’ near the end for classes 4&5 together on all the topics I had taught them in the form of a game. This involved two teams and different rounds (with points recorded on the whiteboard) for each topic. Each team had a set time in which one team member would communicate to the rest of their team through actions/pictures etc as many English words/phrases (written on small bits of paper they picked out of envelopes) as they could relating to each set topic. The competition element of this seemed to work well and encourage students to try even harder than normal. I made occasional use of the whiteboards provided in each classroom though was conscious that the pen supply was limited.

Sometimes we moved desks and benches outside for classes when it was warmer in the sun of the playground than the shade of the classrooms. I think this also helped mix things up a bit with a different learning environment for the children. Similarly I would try and be as practical and hands-on with teaching as possible because the children had a lot of energy and seemed to respond well to being on their feet, moving around etc. For example, for the lesson on telling the time we made giant clocks in the dust of the playground using playing cards for numbers and sticks for hands. This seemed to work particularly well and really engaged the students (and teachers!).

On the last day we didn’t have any lessons as such so I took the opportunity to do some art! First we wrote a message using dried beans for a school in England run by a friend of mine. I took photos for the English school and have asked them for a return message for Dhikure School. Then we made a muddy handprint collage where every child (and teacher) made a print of their hand in mud on a small piece of paper and wrote their name beside it. We stuck all the ‘hands’ together in a big artwork and hung it on the wall. It was a great teamwork exercise to finish with and good to have something to show for it. Lastly I produced some water balloons and we had a hilarious time playing catch with balloons exploding water everywhere!

Part of my itinerary also involved visits to neighbouring schools at Bhakre and Nalidanda, which I would really encourage other volunteers to do, if possible. This gave me the opportunity to appreciate things that ‘worked’ at Dhikure like their morning Assembly – a lot more energised than at Bhakre and Nalidanda. It also made me recommend that all three schools – both teachers and students – make the occasional visit to each other for mutual learning. At time of writing only Dhikure School had ever had volunteers and I sense the children were a lot more use to visitors in general. Children from Bhakre and Nalidanda were quite shy in comparison to Dhikure, granted I only made half day visits but it made me appreciate the energy of Dhikure School and the zest of the children to engage with me and learn.

I have put together a photobook of my stay and there should be a copy in the office that will illustrate some of the above. I would also be more than happy to answer any direct questions if you wanted to email me on ameliacalvert@hotmail.com. Have a fabulous time in any case!

January 2017