Page 5 - Teachers of India Stories

Neelam Lund

ello all, I am Neelam Lund
and I am a volunteer with
HSpark-A-Change Foundation
(SAC), an NGO that provides educa-
tional support to children from low-in-
come backgrounds. I have been teach-
ing the children for the past 5 years and
enjoying it. Since the lockdown when
we were told to go online to teach chil-
dren, initially I was not confident at all
as I am not a technology savvy person.
But the love and passion of teaching
made me research on my phone and I got started with a few hiccups each day!
it was a challenge for me to teach online. because I realised that children get
bored if I continue with the same topic for a few sessions so I decided to teach
them the same topic in different ways.
For example we did verbs, adjectives, nouns in a game format. I gave them ran-
dom words and told them to identify if they were nouns or adjectives or verbs.
Each right answer would get 5 points. Children started enjoying it very much.
I keep taking new topics after a few weeks so that their interest is maintained.
Planning and making lesson plans for both my batches needs a lot of research
and time. Teaching these children has now become my passion.

The only hitch is not all of them have earphones so I have to constantly shout
to make myself heard. Some students do not have an Android phone so they
come to their batchmates houses for joint sessions. Their eagerness to learn also
motivates me to teach. I wish the government would come up with a plan to
sponsor cheap tablets for children to get the benefit of online learning.
I am happy with myself when my children have learnt something and the
best part is that they call me in case I am late in calling them for class which
is a reward in itself. I am thankful to Nirmala, founder SAC, for giving each
volunteer a free hand to teach our students during the lockdown time. Blessed
to be a part of SAC.