The following summary of the online event Erasmus in Schools organized by ESN VSE Prague is written by our English bachelor program student Aashutosh Gajjar from India.
If we were to define a year upside down, then it would be the year 2020. Everything just started normally but, right now it seems like an hourglass. Well, we have been always seeing this year as one which we never wished for, but we learned a lot of new things and adapted some changes. The pandemic affected everything. Who would have thought one day, we would be learning and attending our schools and colleges from our home! But yes, we are humans, we adapt and live with the change.
The most challenging work is to teach someone, through the technical stuff. And according to me, Teachers and Professors did a great effort in making our education more comfortable. It seemed like a dream coming true, I often used to think and wished, if in any case, won’t have to get out of my blanket and go out in winter to university. Instead, the school comes to us, and that’s what happened. I do really thank my university, VSTE for supporting me even in the worst global pandemic. It was obviously not a semester we were used to, but after a month, I actually enjoyed the quarantine learning. The ESN members were too friendly, and I do really thank them from the bottom of my heart.
Apart from learning, we did many activities and enjoyed them. I would like to share my experience helping the Czech teachers, from different parts of the Czech Republic. The activity was arranged by the ESN. Actually, it didn’t even feel like a task or responsibility, the teacher's subjects were matched with the exchange students, and then we just had to communicate with the matched Teacher.
At the first, I was assigned to help Petra Cervenkova, who teaches English to second-grade students at Skola Straz. It was an amazing experience for me to teach little kids. It was surprising to see the kids, understand, and learn online. I would say that was the best thing I did this year. I really enjoyed the conversation with the kids and the teacher of course. They were eagerly waiting to ask me a lot of questions, regarding everything which made me so happy. It rather felt like I was celebrating Teachers Day, which we celebrate in India, and teach our youth.
I taught them vocabulary and pronunciation. We even learned different colors in English. Overall, I enjoyed teaching the kids and helping the teacher, a little but satisfactory. I wish to help more teachers, even in the coming future. Such activities should be conducted normally so that we can get new experiences and even the teacher can make learning easy and creative.
