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Shyam Sharma: Years of Mess

Jin's and Mingfang's stories are about people who learnt the theories of teaching, which they couldn't put into practice because of whatever reasons. But when I first became a teacher (it was in a small private school in Butwal in 1994, while I was doing my BA) I didn't even have the luxury of ideas and experience from my college. I went to class with so much excitement that I believe only this infectious passion compensated for all the terrible things that I did to my students--including lecturing over the top of their heads. One day, when I took a surprise test with questions whose answers I had not already trained my students with, I was shocked to realize that only very few students were catching up with my teaching. I was pretty popular among students as a friendly teacher, but I hated myself for neither doing the right teaching nor knowing how to do it. Gosh, I can't even give a coherent form to this story--it was years of professional mess before I began to be somewhat satisfied with how I did what I did. This attempt to write has made me realize that I should draw lessons from those first years. . . (I will update this attempt with more insight). Thanks, Prem, for prompting us to start writing, because writing stimulates reflection, and reflection enhances professional self-development.

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Deepak Chhetri: Excitement and Frustration Combo

when I first became a teacher...  it was fun..... what a great profession is teaching!