MAYA AT B.D.S.V. IN MANDOGALU
ABOUT ME
Hello! My name is Maya Knierim. I am from the north of Germany. I live with my family and our dog near Hannover.
In my free time I like to go for a walk with my dog. I am a very nature-loving person. Therefore the protection of nature is very important to me.
Outside school I like to meet my friends and listen to music. I also took part in Fridays For Future demonstrations.
In the summer of 2019 I graduated from high school. Then I went to India to educate children about the environment and get to know their culture.
Now I am living in Himachal Pradesh as part of the weltwärts volunteer programme through my sending organisation Ecoselva.
ABOUT THE SCHOOL
I taught at the Baudh Darshan Sanskrit Vidyalaya Mandogalu for three months.
The B.D.S.V. is a branch school of the Central Institute of Buddhist Studies in Ladakh.
Altogether 70 boys and girls in grades 1 to 9 study at the school.
MY SUBJECT
My subject is called “Spoken English“.
I am given a lot of freedom, for which I am very grateful. I can decide for myself which topics I refer to in class.
Since especially the younger students hardly speak any English, the contents of the lessons are exclusively based on learning greetings, animals, fruits and vegetables, daily routines and other basics.
I also try to integrate artistic and musical aspects. I let the pupils draw and sing songs.
In the older class I try to encourage critical thinking. For this purpose it is useful to have group discussions. Among other things it is also possible to take up ecological topics, for example by asking questions like “Is plastic good or bad?”
PROJECTS
I think it is important to teach children environmental protection in a particularly practical way. That’s why we went to collect rubbish on some Sundays.
I also did some handicrafts with the children for a Christmas market in Delhi. We upcycled plastic bottles. In the end we made great bracelets and earrings. We also made some Christmas stars from recycled paper.
CHALLENGES
In the beginning, teaching was a real challenge for me. I expected the students to speak better English. Besides, I found it difficult to keep the classroom quiet and attentive at first. Most children hardly understood me.
Because they partly hardly speak English and I do not speak Hindi, communication problems arose.
Moreover, the level of English of the students within a class is very different. However, I have learned to see problems as challenges and to find solutions. For example, I divide the students into groups according to their level of English and give them slightly different tasks.
RELATIONSHIP
The teachers at the school are very nice and helpful. After school I like to enjoy some chai with them. I feel appreciated and I like to talk to them.
The children are also very important to me. It is simply unbelievable how kind and sweet they are. They hug me and take my hand. It gives me a lot of pleasure to communicate knowledge to them and to know that I am doing good to them.
Since the school is structured like a boarding school, I think it is very important to take care of them.
EXPERIENCE
I learned a lot in my first three months.
On the one hand, I realized that communication does not only happen through language. With the first graders I can hardly communicate via words. Instead, we communicate with each other through body language, gestures and facial expressions.
I have also found out how the students learn best. They are motivated by praise or rewards.
I especially like to give the students an insight into the German culture and to learn about their culture. In a morning session, for example, they sing melodious Buddhist songs. A special day for me was also the Teacher’s Day. The students performed a variety of dances and there was delicious food.
WORKPLACE FROM DECEMBER TO MARCH
Since the school was closed from December 15th due to winter holidays, I lived at Kalasan Nursery Farm in Pangna. There I worked with Johanna and Marie.
Sale in January:
The time of sale in January was a whole new experience to us (Maya and Marie).
We learned a lot of things and got a very good overview about the process of the sale including:
- Harvesting of the rootstocks and Apple Trees in the nursery
- Packing of the ordered trees for the customers, documenting and writing labels
- Management of the sale, like: invoices, payments, functional teamwork
I am grateful for great insights into marketing, distribution and sales and the hospitality of the Rawat family.