Devi, who chose to become a teacher at the age of 16 due to her family’s financial circumstances now says it was the best decision she ever made. Devi started teaching after she completed her tenth grade and financed her further education with her income. Ever since the beginning of her teaching career, English was Devi’s favourite subject and she loved teaching it to her students.
“I didn’t know how to begin a class when I first started teaching. I was very young and a teenager who needed a job to support her further studies. But, with each passing day, I realised I was learning something new and how much I enjoyed teaching. I decided to continue my career in teaching from there,” she shares.
For Devi, teaching was not only her bread and butter, but it was her passion. She enjoyed teaching to diversified group of students and learn new things from them in return.
“I am always learning something when I teach, and no learning is ever wasted. After all, to teach is to learn twice,” says Devi.
Now, at the age of 45, Devi has become more passionate about teaching. She is keen to learn new teaching methodologies and adopt them in her class full of new generation.
To enhance her teaching skills, Devi is participating in Teacher Activity Group (TAG) sessions that the British Council conducts under English Language – Teacher Education Project (EL-TEP). TAG is a peer-led support groups that teachers can join as part of their professional development.
“These sessions are the opportunities for teachers to come together and discuss ideas, share teaching or classroom challenges and learn ways to overcome them,” says Devi.
“For a long time, we teachers in Nepal have been practicing a teacher-centred learning approach, where class activities are centred on the teacher. But now this traditional approach needs to be changed. The new teaching approach must be student-centred that focuses on students’ interest and knowledge development, and that’s what the TAG is teaching us,” she adds.
“The TAG sessions and training have completely changed my outlook towards teaching and helped me improve my teaching skills.”
Today, Devi is exploring different interactive learning activities and ideas to make English learning fun for her students, and especially support weak student group in her class to improve their English language. Devi wants them to enjoy English as much as she does.
