Story of a child who fell in love with learning

                                                        A child who became a teacher

As educators, we are permanently anchored by the thought that we teach kids, and they are bound to learn from us. This thought is invalid, as the teaching and learning process is always two-way between the learner and the teacher. We imagine it as one way because we are conditioned to learn from our elders, and when we assume that role as educators, we tend to fall into the same trap of doing it. The experience that I am sharing here shall shatter this thought out.

Teaching doesn't have to be a one-way process.

The story follows the class held on 23rd January 2025. When the little human was all set to learn double digits with an abacus, she was exploring how to use the abacus by using three rods and fingering. In the 30 mins of the class, 20 minutes were spent on the above activity, and the last 10 minutes awaited to open the graph of the highest learning outcome through her teaching. I casually asked her to act as a teacher, calling out some double-digit numbers to add and solve to involve her. She excitedly asked me, " Should I start with the '90s or '80s? Can I call the numbers faster? Will you be able to add them? How many numbers are we going to do? How many sums? Do I get to give you some points if you do it right? What if you get it wrong? Ok, how many points each and so on?”

Earlier, in Role Swift, conversation in the class was observed, teaching from the teacher's end and learning from the child's end, which is a general thought. The moment she was asked to act as a teacher - things got to the broader picture. Her observations on the teacher's teachings, her shift in her personality to become a teacher, and her curiosity about playing the role hit the core value of teaching and learning processes. Moreover, one thing to be highlighted here is - she even asked me to show her the fingering of mine. Ha, Ha! She played my role without any guidance.

As we all know, children love to imitate us. Her acting as a teacher didn't surprise me. What surprised me was that she could relate to the concepts learned that day and reciprocate the same with details. Let me explain it here - we dealt with the formulas of + 90 and + 80 with the double digits. I picked any random double digits on the first note and followed it with +90 or +80, and she did the same while enacting me. Is this all about imitation? With my experience, I would say no. It was more profound than just acting as a teacher. The child could interrogate, produce the same, and excel in learning by creating the questions, examining the fingering of her teacher in the version of a learner in front of her, and evaluating my answer by doing it along with me. WOW MOMENT doesn't end here. After 10 minutes of this activity, we were supposed to sign off the meeting. She asked me to wait to show her quick writing. She grabbed her notebook so quickly to produce this for me. The eagerness and urge to write this is special and close to my heart. Here is the note for you!

The little human's lovely note from her love for learning!

This clearly shows the joy she experienced in acting as a teacher to her teacher. Moreover, it clearly states that the learning and teaching get more profound by allowing the child to pause and deliver. The point to be noted here is that while doing this, the child did only three sums, but the learning is deep-rooted and can never be uprooted. This memory stays close to her heart to find more profound joy in learning. Suppose the teacher had held that 10 minutes; the teacher could have read the numbers, and then the child could have done them. It's monotonous. By switching roles, the child could use the 3 H's - Head, Heart, and Hand to create a memory forever to fall in love with learning.

Head - Analyse how the sums can be framed and solve them using the correct formulas.

Heart - Joy expressed in the form of a note and shown in the face throughout the process

Hand - Calculating the sum using right finger movements on her tool

Points to Ponder on:

Never get carried away by the volume of the learning. Look at the depth of the knowledge and teaching process. Create more memories to cherish.

Appreciate note:

The trust the parents of this child had in us gave us space to get absorbed in the learning and teaching process, which created a happy memory forever related to learning.

Have you ever played the role of the teacher to your teacher?

• YES
• NO

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