Divya SharmaDubai, UAE
A promise at the interview. Kept.
Keeping a promise made at a job interview.
- Now
- Science coordinator and grade 4 class teacher, Dubai
- Before
- Hired as a grade 2 class teacher without a B.Ed
- Programme
- PgCTL, a UK level 6 course, in four-hour Saturday classes
- Next
- More responsibility at school and, one day, a school of her own
Divya was hired to teach grade two without a teaching qualification, and promised the principal who took the chance on her that she would get one. Years later she finished a UK level six certificate, took revision out onto the school field, and was promoted to science coordinator.
A promise he had heard before.
The missing B.Ed came up in the interview itself. Divya Sharma remembers the principal raising it before he offered her the grade 2 class, and she remembers her answer: she would get her B.Ed someday. He had heard that before. “Many teachers actually promise me, and I know it’s not going to be easy,” he told her. “Let us see.” She insisted that she would. “At that time, I wasn’t sure how and when,” she says.
“He must have seen something in me since he offered me a job without B.Ed,” she says. She has since graduated from PgCTL. “Today, when I stand tall with a UK level six certificate, I wanted him to know I did it, sir.”
Revision, out on the field.
When the course reached the module on technology, she tried Mentimeter with her pupils. She also learnt a strategy called inside-outside circle, found it interesting and engaging, and wanted her colleagues to try it too. The timing was difficult. Final exams were approaching and her class was only doing revision. “I am not someone who gives up easily,” she says.
So the strategy became the revision lesson. She told her students that the day’s class would be on the field, and they were very excited. The rules were discussed and decided before they began. The activity went very well, she says, and the students were happy with an innovative way to revise. Her own part was small: “I, as a facilitator, simply watched and acted as a timekeeper.”
Whatever I learned during my four-hour classes every Saturday, I tried to implement that in my classroom.
How students feel now.
Apart from academics, she says, she learnt how to be confident and how to take risks. It gave her an insight into how students feel at present: the stress and pressures they have, the difficulties they face, how they interact with their peers while collaborating, how they go about presenting their own work. “This helped me understand my students and my own grade 12 daughter,” she says.
Another advantage was interacting with teachers from other schools, through which I became aware of my strength and weaknesses and became more reflective.
Coordinator, and a school someday.
She was promoted to coordinator of the science department at her school in Dubai, where she is also class teacher to grade 4. Her philosophy for teaching science has always been to involve every student, and she quotes a proverb for it: “I hear, I forget, I see, I remember, I do, I understand.” The programme, she realised, seemed to follow the same principle. She wants to take on more responsibilities and executive roles within her school. At some point, once she has the necessary experience and funds, she aspires to open a school of her own.
