According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, my personality type is shared by approximately 1% of the population, making it one of the rarest types. Myers-Briggs (also called the
Jung Typology Test) identifies 16 personality types in total. I and others like me tend to "regard problems as opportunities to design and implement creative solutions" and are "driven to resolve differences in a cooperative and creative manner." Perhaps it is these qualities which are manifesting themselves right now in the school where I have been placed.
Since I am the first ETA to be placed in this particular school, I envision myself as pioneering the way for future ETAs. But even more than this, I really want to do what I was chosen to do--to "assist in teaching conversational English and some composition to middle and high school students." After all, this was why I wanted to participate in this specific program in the first place.
However, it turns out that, prior to arriving in our schools, our roles may not have been clearly communicated--either to the schools, or to us ETAs, or to both.
One point does seem to have been communicated clearly (at least in my school): ETAs are to be paired with a regular classroom teacher. However, the interpretation of this point is where confusion arises. What does it mean to be "paired with a teacher"? It seems to me that one thing was especially not understood clearly, and that is the difference between teaching assistant, and teacher's assistant.
Also included in this confusion is whether or not ETAs are supposed to be teaching curriculum. We ETAs were explicitly told at the beginning of the program that our purpose is to teach spoken English. But we were recently told by someone else that our schools were told that we should be teaching curriculum, since the students last year didn't take non-curriculum classes seriously enough. (Ironically, I have found the exact opposite to be true.) It is obvious that something has been miscommunicated. It's just not clear what.
It is a sad fact that most students can make it through a full 12 years of government school without ever creating a sentence of their own in English. All of the ETAs have noticed that their respective government
schools rely heavily on memorization as opposed to actual learning. So the whole purpose of offering spoken English classes is to give students exposure to the English language as it sounds in everyday conversation, as well as to allow them to try their hand at creating meaning in the language for themselves. And for many of them, this would be the first opportunity they would have to do so.
Till now I have been working with three different English teachers--one each from Class (Grade) 6, 7, and 8. In the beginning I was having the opposite problem as the other ETAs, many of whom had been given their own classes, in that I was hardly getting any teaching time. And the time I was given was given only at the last minute: Ashley, you would like to take some activity? Well, no, not really. Not when there are only five minutes remaining and the students' brains have already checked out.
So I proposed the idea of taking separate classes for Spoken English. I began with a trial run of two small groups from Class 8. One group of girls, and one group of boys. We met once a week for about one month before I recently proposed doing this on a much larger scale. I had seen huge strides in both small groups from Class 8. The kids were interested, excited about our class, and the girls especially started participating more during the regular class periods. So I proposed--politely, albeit with conviction--to my three cooperating teachers that I discontinue my regularly assigned curriculum classes and take small groups of approximately 10 students each for Spoken English during the students' free periods instead.
Now. Such radical ideas as this one are not easily received or accepted in a country and/or school system which function largely on a system of hierarchy and bureaucracy. Especially when the one proposing such a radical change is just a foreign peon like me.
Still, I took the pains of drafting a schedule that would make the implementation of my radicalism possible. Two of my three teachers agreed to release me from their curriculum classes so that I could be available for Spoken English. The third teacher is the wife of a government official of Delhi, so no one dared challenge her refusal to release me from her evil grip. (She's really a lovely lady, but this just drives me up a wall.) When I took it upon myself to appeal my position to her, she politely informed me that, as she was currently tied up with teaching Class 10 and other activities, she could not let me go on account of those occasions when she would be unable to make it to class. In other words, she wanted to keep me as her own personal on-call substitute (aka arrangement).
She neglected to mention her fondness of having me write questions and answers on the board after the completion of each chapter, which the students then copy directly into their appropriately named copies (notebooks). Which, I need not mention, involves absolutely zero interaction or spoken English whatsoever.
Anyway, now I'm just barfing up my frustrations. But this is a large part of my wanting to take Spoken English classes on my own. Not to mention that it would be completely feasible: Since my school is currently without a librarian, all Library periods are free. And since the Work Experience teacher also works in the school office, he is too busy to actually teach WEx, so those are free periods too.
So I completed draft schedule, which still included all of my regularly scheduled classes with the third teacher. After all, you have to pick and choose your battles, especially when the battlefield is in a foreign country. I showed the schedule to my coordinating teacher who, though not without some hesitation, agreed to approach the principal with with me. Surprisingly, despite her initial refusal to make any changes to the time table, the principal had little problem approving my proposed schedule the second time around. Maybe it was because I had given her some candies and a small American flag in celebration of International Education Week earlier that day. Nevertheless, it was a victory!
But that was on Friday.
On Monday I tried to present a copy of the newly approved schedule to my coordinating teacher, who now refused to accept it, and will not accept it until I check with the computer teacher that my proposed (and recently approved) schedule does not clash with the periods assigned to the training teachers (student teachers) who are in our schools till December.
When computer ma'am requested my new schedule from my coordinating teacher, she refused to give it to her--three times! Of course she did. How could she give a copy of the schedule when she would not accept it from me?! This is one of the many examples of bureaucracy and hierarchy in India. When I relayed the situation to computer ma'am, I suggested that I could just give the schedule to her directly. But, remaining true to the tradition of jumping through unnecessary hoops, she said she would try to get it from my coordinating teacher first. By the end of the day she took the schedule straight from me anyway.
Well, folks, here's how this part of the story ends. For now I shall continue going to all of my regularly scheduled classes, sitting quietly or writing on the board as I am required to do so. But, as long as students keep coming to me and asking for Spoken English classes, you can bet I'm not going to turn them away. If you build a good rapport with students, those who genuinely want to learn English will come--despite what any official schedule or institution says. After all, aren't these the students we aim to be teaching in the first place?
Some may say that I am wasting my time and energy in this battle against the system. And maybe there is some truth to this. But one thing is for certain: I'm not giving up easily.
