Finding the 'Teacher' in me

I love teaching. Period.

What as a child was a game comprising of a blackboard, chalk pieces and imaginary students grew to be something I innately enjoy. I love teaching. Teaching in its rawest, purest form. I discovered the love for teaching during my sociology classes at MCC when we had to present on small topics and literally, teach the class that topic. Then during the course of PhD, my Professor gave me the opportunity to do a few MDP (Management Development Program) sessions. Sir is a fabulous teacher and I have never known anyone teach HRM the way he does; I realise that a lot of techniques I use are what I learnt by observing him. I will be eternally grateful to him for that (But I have to muster up the courage to share this blog piece with him).

I walked into the world of training and coaching almost accidentally. For a few months, I trained students in English for a competitive law exam at a coaching centre. For me, it was about going back to Wren and Martin and reliving the fabulous English classes held at the rock, by my school English teacher. Then, I slowly moved on to do more trainings in various HRM topics and also my research area - Work Life Balance. Working with corporates and academic institutions have their own flavor and their own challenges and adapting to that is a new learning for me each time.

Post PhD, my first Job was with an academic institution and primarily focusing on research and MDPs. Here, I did sessions for scientists and for labor managers and sessions for people at the grass root level. Some of my best field work experiences were at Assam and Nilgiris and these sessions were an integral part of that. 

Over the years, I have now begun teaching a gamut of topics from communications to mentoring to personality, motivation and leadership; and also work life balance, gender sensitization and research methodology to name a few more!

Some teaching experiences of course remain special and my one such experience has to be taking the complete Behavioral Science course at DoMS, IISc a few years back. I thank the professor who gave me that opportunity. I loved Wednesdays and waited for my session (Imagine a teacher saying that:)). A fabulous bunch of energetic and enterprising students, some of whom were kind to mail and wish me today and for sure made my day! From using case studies to analysing a session topic using a famous movie, the course saw me explore new avenues of teaching. I learnt as much as I taught. This has to be my most favorite teaching experience to date! But wait, another outscores it.

I love the way am a teacher to Ira at some precious moments when am teaching her something. It could be how to do some craft with cotton, make book marks, paint with veggies, tell stories, ...just about anything!

Finding the 'Teacher' in me has been the most overwhelming thing because it makes me happiest when am teaching. I have been lucky to have some fabulous teachers from school, college and institute, some who have taught me and some with whom I have interacted over activities and other things. I have learnt so much from everyone , that it cannot be summed up in a few lines. I am eternally grateful to each of my teachers. They have impacted my life and helped me impact the lives of others in many many ways. 

As I write this post, am in Mumbai prepping for a session on Personality tomorrow. Am thrilled and the 'Teacher in me' is doing a happy dance!

Happy Teacher's Day world!

#teacher #teachersday #loveteaching