5 Things We Understood After Being with Children
Being in a social sector helps you in so many ways. It helps you in understanding the society you live in, helps you in understanding different people and more importantly it helps you in understanding yourself. We are working in a social sector , in the community centers specifically and have learned great deal of things. It has shaped us, made us more aware and more conscious.
Being a teacher doesn’t mean only to impart knowledge, it means learning something in return. Something value, something beautiful.Here are the things we learned being a teacher.
MULTI TASKING
One’s ability to handle multitask jobs is a critical skill for success. And YES we learned it!!!
Handling together various jobs assigned to you comes with responsibilities and at the same time opportunities to learn more and more each time. The process of multi tasking makes you CONFIDENT and RESPONSIBLE. While being associated with this organization we learned this very well.
PRO ACTIVENESS
If someone is pro active, they take the initiative by acting rather than reacting to events.
Pro-activeness is a process which we learnt being with the community children here, by taking the initiative to lead the community centre at Touching Lives. We individually took upon the responsibilities to sustain a new community with the help of experienced colleagues and the results were both helpful and satisfying. It filled us with a new vigor when we realized that by being pro-active and by taking this initiative; we are increasing possibilities to influence the lives of the community children both as an individual and as an ORGANIZATION.
GROWING WITH CHILDREN
IN THE PROCESS OF TEACHING OR FACILITATING, YOU LEARN SOMETHING VALUABLE. Process of imparting knowledge means learning to put that knowledge to use at the same time.
We introduced a term called Origami (art of folding paper into shapes to represent an object) at one of our community and taught them to make a paper boat. But at the end of the session we were surprised to see that these little souls knew about this art form much better than us. They made paper lanterns and paper house and joyfully showed it to us.That is when we realized that when you teach, you also learn something. Like we taught them the meaning of origami and in return learned how to put origami in use.
APPRECIATION HELPS MORE THAN MARKS
WHEN YOU ENGAGE YOURSELF WITH CHILDREN, YOU REALIZE THAT SHOWING THEM GRATITUDE AND GIVING VALUE TO EACH OF THEIR LITTLE WORKS MAKES A LOT OF DIFFERENCE.
When you appreciate their works, it boosts up their motivation levels and they come out with amazing creativity of minds. This appreciation also adds on their curiosity levels. Suddenly you will see that they don’t need to take any exams or any test to prove their worth. Only your appreciation, gratitude and humility will help them to grow and evolve.
ACCEPTING CHANGES
EVERY CHILD IS UNIQUE.
Every individual has their own set of interests and no one could be perfect in everything they do.
Similarly, children have their own interests and their own uniqueness.
For example: If a child is excellent at painting but is not good enough with logic or Mathematics that does not mean that he is dumb or less intelligent. It only means that certain aspects are still not clear to them.
We would only like to say that a teacher/mentor/facilitator should go on to take a session with a SMILE and HEART. That will help both a child and a mentor to evolve together. That will help everyone to present themselves with creativity and imagination, which will further help in exploring different possibilities.
As Told by Alisha Daredia and Arzoo Fidaai.
To know more about Touching Lives, visit http://www.touchonelife.org