Happy Teacher's Day 2019 - What I learnt from my students!

                        #MondayMotivation

We meander a path and we get lost and we find ourselves again. There are some things in life that give us immense joy. The joy that cannot be quantified and explained in tangible terms. I get that joy from teaching.

From taking short presentations in college in PUC to teaching different classes and different schools as part of NewsPaper in Education.

From doing MDPs with my guide during my PhD days or even teaching English to CLAT aspirants.

From teaching Masters students from Management, Design, Electronics, Public Policy or even Psychology to teaching new recruits, home grown managers, senior leaders or change agents.

Teaching has been a mosaic of experience for me. While everyday this year, I remember my teachers and share my gratitude and love, this year, I will share what I have learnt from my students and am eternally grateful to them. Teaching at my Alma mater is ofcourse like homecoming.

For two years now, I have been teaching in academics and also training in corporates. Each new corporate training session is a whole new world with different organization's and their niche cultures and employees. Each new academic batch is a new challenge because it is learning to teach an almost similar syllabus in a new way to keep your interest and to invigorate the young minds.

Each day, I take away something new from my students and I learn in leaps and bounds. I have met students with so much grit and determination, some finding their paths, some determined about their goal, some battling big challenges, some breaking stereotypes, some creating their own destiny. I listen to their growth stories and am in awe.


1. Always be up to date on the topic you are teaching. Use current examples.
2. Build a bank of examples, anecdotes and stories.
3. Know your books, your movies and your series. Comes extremely handy working with a young crowd. Instant connect guaranteed.
4. Contextualise the examples to the group you are speaking to.
5. Work with ground cases to understand the importance of practical solutions.
6. Respect every voice and Empathise with the narratives that are shared.
7. Encourage the listener in everyone, the talkers are often plenty.
8. Get the silent ones to speak up, they often share the deepest wisdom.
9. Think there is no box to bound your creativity or theirs.
10. Interactive teaching works across academia and industry.
11. Games work even in academic set ups (Tried and Tested)
12. Case studies are a great tool to use.
13. Story telling is a fabulous technique and a must have skill.
14. Ask questions, reflect their thoughts, ask again. Let them do the larger share of speaking at times.
15. Distractions happen. Don't make it personal. Make things relevant.
16. Attendance is only a small part of the larger picture. (I have once taught a corporate session with 6 participants where 30 were expected. I respected the time and commitment of those 6 participants).
17. Exhibit energy and enthusiasm. The participants or students will reflect and mirror the energy you show.
18. Not all beginnings are perfect. Never let a minor hitch cause a crease on your forehead.
19. Sometimes planned things fail. Let go and move on.
20. Sometimes you will have that one person who just is not there. Let it be. May be the person is having a hard day.
21. Plan a session such that it is amenable to change, to accomodate different moods, different narratives, different weathers and different days.
22. Do not enter a class or a room with pre conceived notion about the batch or the city or the organization. Be the blank slate that will absorb everything.
23. Every growth story inspires someone in the room. Encourage participants to share.
24. Retain the curiosity, retain the awe, it can only make the journey better
25. Be kind, be honest, be pragmatic, never give false hope, be optimistic. And smile because it only guarantees a smile in return.

#Gratitude #Happiness #LoveTeaching #HappyTeachersDay #DoWhatYouLove #GrowthStories

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