Magic in the classroom

“Miss Sumi is a sorceress!” I hear students hiss in class during their lunch break while I’m passing through. They don’t know I’ve heard them.

Okay, they said no such thing. And I’m in no way a sorceress. But there is strange alchemy that’s been working in my classroom lately.

Of late, I’ve taken charge of a small group of literary enthusiasts in what is a language and literature class. There are only seven students so it allows me to be like the eighth. We learn together in workshop like sessions, sometimes writing, sometimes sharing and discussing. And I’m less of a teacher and more a facilitator. 

I have to say I haven’t seen a keener bunch of learners in a long while. They all chose to take this subject and did so because of their deep interest in it. And how well it has reflected during class. The same sullen people who refused to look at the blackboard or raise their heads are now raising hands, nodding with approval, giving questioning looks, asking questions to friends, giving me rebuttals. They have started doing their homework without my constant nagging them. (Okay, maybe I have to nag a little bit once in a while.) Whatever the case, I can see that they are putting in a lot more effort into what they do. And their interest in the class has proven to be a great source of inspiration for me. One look at them and I know exactly why I’ve wanted to teach all my life.

We do a lot of creative writing. And the concentration of talent in the class has taken me by surprise. They write stories that are out of this world. They use metaphors that give me goosebumps. They give their stories twists and turns that make me gape in awe, in horror. These 17 year old kids – who would have known!

I let my students bring their personality into the classroom. It’s what they feed their stories with. I let them be emotional and jocular. I let them tease each other and talk to each other. I let them have their say. While this class must be liberating them from the drudgery of all other school hours, it is equally liberating for me – for I can shed all the teacherly roles I have to play elsewhere in the school. Here we function like friends, and yet, the learning has taken a quantum leap. Maybe there’s something in my classroom that educationists could look into. Because we need to do a whole lot of redeeming to our education systems to make schools worthy of the students we invite them into.

Today one of them gave me this cute little note that likened our class to Masterchef – likened themselves to the participants and me to a judge (not Ramsay, my student was quick to point out!). After reading through this extended comparison, I realized that what he wanted to tell me was how much he enjoyed writing and sharing stories and receiving feedback, and that it was a fun way to learn. You should have seen the grin on my face. (My students think my classes are like Masterchef! How can that not make my day!) But on a more serious note, job, salary, all those things aside, it was like for the first time, I was earning. This, here, is my real earning. This – this – is what I do for a living. Like how my grandmother has stored and locked up all her jewelry in the safe – it is notes like these that will go into mine.

I’m far from being a sorceress, but my students – all of them – carry something special in them. All I have to do is allow them to bring that to the surface. And that is what really creates magic in the classroom.

Ms. Sumi teaches English to high school students. When she isn’t in the classroom, she likes to read novels, write poems, and spend time in the kitchen. She is also a great appreciator of wildlife and considers spiders, cockroaches and leeches as some of her favorite insects.

http://www.parakhi.com/blogs/2011/12/08/magic-in-the-classroom