Me and my classroom

Me and My classroom

‘Lions Club Activities’ in a real classroom

It is my pleasure to share my experience to share how i utilized club activity in my real classroom.

Some months before, as a member of Lions club of Kathmandu Peace and Education, i thought to involve students in the program organized by our club. our club organized an interaction program on corporal punishment. Along with twenty Access students i participated in the program. The U.S. Government, Department of State English Access Micro scholarship Program, in Nepal is implemented by Nepal English Language Teachers' Association. The two-year outside of school classroom program provides a foundation of English language and leadership skills to public school students.

Access students actively participated in the program at Joseph High School. Child psychologist and educational scholars spoke on the program.students listened their speeches and note down the important points related with corporal punishment. The program basically focused against corporal which is directly or indirectly related with peace because when the environment is punishment free the environment is  peaceful and students can learn in a friendly environment. 

As the speech was over, the floor was open for interaction. students along with their guardians asked their queries to the speakers. mostly, students asked the questions and very few questions were raised by the teachers and guardians. Access students raised most of the questions.As they were from government aided schools , they shared that punishment is still in existence in their schools and they express their desire to get their teacher as a counselor rather than dictator.

Afterwards, we came back to our classroom and discussed about the program. i thought to make them express the reality behind corporal punishment at their home or community. i divided them in groups and let them share their experience on corporal punishment.most oft hem shared with me that their parents punish them for their mistakes however, they don,t want such behavior from their parents. they also shared that their peaceful homely environment changes into worse environment because of argument among their parents and parent;s arguments indirectly functions as corporal punishment to them that affects their study. some of them shared that there are such people in their community who always come home late by drinking alcohol and bit their wife or children. similarly, some of them shared that there are such friends at their school who are the victim of their own parents as their parents drink alcohol and disturb them to study at home . because of such environment they are unable to complete their homework and they again get punishment at school for not completing homework in front of the class.

I had never thought that corporal punishment is still in existence at home, community and schools. I had thought that due to the advancement in teacher trainings and techniques in teaching, punishment may not be the major concern in educational sector. however, after listening to my students, i came to know that there are ample arenas of corporal punishment in educational sector and different programs are necessary to aware parents, teachers and students about corporal punishment.

After the discussion on corporal punishment, next day,i thought to make them write something on corporal punishment. i divided them in four different groups and let them think of a situation on corporal punishment either at home or school and develop such situation in a short story form. students worked in their groups and developed different stories and shared those stories in front of the class. one of the groups wrote story about a brilliant student who used to be the model student of the school left his study due to the nervousness as his math teacher punished him very badly. another group wrote developed the story that one of the arrogant teacher at school hit her student with the chalk that made that student blind and the teacher went to the prison. another group developed the story where a strict teacher changed his behavior after attending the program on corporal punishment.

This is how i conducted another interaction program at my classroom and our students developed their writing skills and were very happy that their stories were published somewhere. similarly, they shared with me that whenever they saw somebody else punishing their children or students they share such events to them and are raising awareness in the society. Therefore, our club activities are being helpful to bring change in the society.