Saturday, March 23, 2013

From corporate to school

Ever since this transition happened 6 months ago, I had made several attempts to write about it.

From air conditioned workstations to wide open classrooms,
From staring at the computer all day to teaching and shouting at children,
From waiting for elevators to climbing the stairs,
From door step pick up by AC cabs to walking to the bus stop for the school bus,
From full fledged cafeterias to small canteens selling only samosas,
From taking a coffee break to getting coffee served to you at 10 45,
From big pay checks to small pay checks,
From quiet carpeted floors to noisy tiled ones,
From computer mouse to red pens,
From report submissions to lesson plan submissions,
From team huddles to teacher's meeting,
From timelines to meet SLAs to timelines for paper corrections,
From acting sophisticated and well mannered to being wild and full of life,
From handling data to handling children,
From clean dry restrooms to single attached ones,
From eating quiet lunches to noisy sharing ones,
From dreading Monday mornings to looking forward to them.

My list can go on. Teaching has been fun so far by God's grace. The people I work with are more than I could ever ask for. The love and laughter we share makes teaching life all the more fun. Children, no doubt add to it. They can get on your nerves, drive you crazy, make you bite your teeth and increase your blood pressure. But when the most irritating student wishes you and gives you a rose for Women's day, it really brings a smile on the face.
Children these days are so much different from what we were at that age. Handling them (40 at a time) and making sure they go in the right path is no easy task.
I thank God for where He has placed me today and ask Him for strength to do my job well.