Back to school
Reflections and introspections from 9 days of "teaching" writing
“I cannot teach you writing.
I cannot teach you photography.”
These are the first two lines I said as I began to teach in my school's beautiful 5th-floor classroom in Pune.
If you had a chance to read my previous post, you would know that I have been in Pune for the last 10 days for a very exciting and interesting project - To teach writing, storytelling and photography to students.
I entered into the classroom after 5 years and it honestly felt really refreshing to do so. I was visibly nervous and not so visibly anxious and yet the excitement of co-creating this experience helped me calm myself and be the teacher that my students deserve.
Now, coming back to the first two lines in the beginning, I genuinely started my class like that.
It’s quite simple in my head. Writing can not be taught. Photography can not be taught. I never formally learnt any of these things myself. Not to say that I am proficient now, I am still a student of both these crafts but I don’t think it’s possible to “teach” such creative pursuits.
This is exactly what I shared in class as well - A mentor or a teacher’s role in teaching such creative pursuits is only to create conditions for the students that will allow them to be creative. A mentor in this case is then only like a suction cup that sucks away the unwanted debris/particles to make way for water to flow.
Debris here being the anxieties, insecurities preconceived notions and mindsets around creating and water being creativity!
My task as a mentor was to facilitate The Story Project such that by the end of the 9 days, students should have a story written by them along with a photograph on the lines of Humans of New York. The story must be in first person narrative documenting the life of a person who is following an unconventional career.
Over the 8 days, we played writing games, did many activities together and brainstormed on topics leading to very interesting discussions and conversations.
I introduced writing exercises and games to the students that would enable them to get over the mental block of writing on a blank piece of paper. Similarly, for photography, there were exercises around observation, patience and listening, basically everything that happens before the button is clicked.
Day 1 - We discovered writing and creativity as concepts and deconstructed them such that we’re able to access them without shame or self-doubt. Later, we did morning pages ( a free writing exercise), and a story circle (forming a story collectively in class with each student adding one sentence each) and I also played a game whose name I invented in class itself! 10 words taxi - quickly writing 10 words that come to mind when you see the word that’s written on the board. The one who finishes writing the 10 words has to say taxi!
10 words taxi enabled us to get started on the conversation of careers as I picked up the following words for the game -
School
Pune
Career
In the 10 words that students wrote in career, most words were actual careers and from there I branched into the discussion of conventional and unconventional careers.
Day 2 - We read a few stories from Humans of Bombay and Humans of New York and we together understood what it means to write a story in the first person. Further, students wrote a short story in the first person.
Day 3 - On this day, I introduced photography to students. Rather than talking about photography, I linked it to what is required for a photographer before they actually shoot the photo or click the shutter. Here, I introduced them to observation, meditation, listening and patience. I also narrated the story of how photographers wait for months to get a photograph of a snow leopard.
Every day students were given some homework that would lead them to their final project, Till the 3rd day, students had an idea of 5-10 people around them in career and unconventional careers. On the 3rd day, I told the students to get consent from 1 of them for an interview.
So, in the second half, we discussed the art of asking good questions, listening, conversations and finally interviews.
Day 4 - Few of the students came back with a few interviews they had done while the other half were supposed to go on the following day. Out of those who had taken an interview, few couldn't take photos and few did. So 4th day was a bit haphazard in managing different groups of students who were at different milestones in their journey. Regardless, we all did some activities, played games and read stories.
Day 5 - By this day everyone had a story with them, a photograph and a voice recording. Now the task was to listen to the voice recording and write a first draft based on the conversation. The students were supposed to write a first draft and not worry about any structure, grammar or any flow. The idea was to just dump all thoughts on paper.
By the end of 5th day, every student had prepared their first drafts.
Day 6-7 - Using the student rubric, peer feedback and self-review spaces all students edited their stories and prepared their 2nd draft and 3rd draft. Photographs were also compiled and edited.
Day 8 - On the final day, I sat with each student to go over the final round of editing and just with simple suggestions, all students finalised their stories and had them ready in the template that we were going to use to present their story.
Day 9 - The final day of the project was the showcase where students were in charge of everything and they exhibited the different projects that they were a part of. All students had their stories displayed on the walls of the school and it was a very proud moment for me as a teacher.
Here are some photos from the event.
I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of coming back to the classroom to teach. I realised that the classroom is my happy place. I would love to go back to teaching again sometime soon. I also realised my growth as a teacher in the past 8 days. Earlier when I was a Teach for India fellow from 2017-19, I was only 20 years old myself and I did not have the patience in me to handle a class. I would often have breakdowns and mostly I would be stressed by the situations in class.
In the 8 days, there were many such events that were emotionally demanding but I realised that I was much more patient and calm.
If you have read till this point and if you’re aching to read the wonderful stories written by children, check out the document below which is a compiled PDF of all their beautiful documented stories.
As a feature of all my newsletters, I share one song, one book, one plant-based meal, one film/video that inspired me, and some photographic updates from my life.
Since this week was unlike any other, I am going to take the liberty to shake some things up! I didn’t cook anything the past week, I couldn’t read a word and nor could I be consistent with writing on Instagram or LinkedIn. Even last week’s newsletter got postponed to this week. I was feeling quite guilty the entire week for not being able to stick to my routine of doing all of these things, especially the newsletter and posting on Instagram.
However, I spent a lot of quality time here in Pune with my friends catching up and that has been beautiful! I realised that I had spent so much time being alone in Bir that I was beginning to miss the feeling of having friends around. I am glad Pune happened, for many reasons.
I had some amazing meals over the past few days. My friend Jhalak who has been kind enough to host me in the past 10 days made some brilliant food.
I had Litti Chokha for the first time in my life! (It’s funny that I had it in Pune for the first time since it’s a Bihari dish) I had it without ghee because I am vegan and It was lovely. If you enjoy the taste of brinjal like I do then you will like it too.
I also had my favourite Jackfruit Biryani after almost 2 years. When I used to live in Bombay, Jackfruit Biryani was my most ordered dish.
Jackfruit Biryani There are many more food updates but I think I will pass for now.
I had the opportunity to watch Manthan on a big screen. A film by the legendary Shyam Benegal, Manthan is India’s first crowdfunded film which was entirely crowdfunded by 500,000 farmers who donated Rs. 2 each.
A photograph I took of a frame I found very interesting! A tree finding its way ❤️
Thank you for sticking through this super long mail. I loved writing about my experience here and sharing it with all of you. If you have any suggestions, feedback or anything you want to share I am all ears. Write in the comments below or reply to the email. Have a lovely week ahead!
Hello Rishabh,
I really wish I was one of the students there , experiencing all the fun and creative learnings which you have so beautifully described ! Sorry my like and comment is coming late !! It is such great work you are doing . ( I am feeling proud to have known and following you !). Keep sharing and inspiring. Thank you. :)
I absolutely love this! Taking inspiration from your teaching pattern for my own experiments and exercises in writing!