Aakash- Sky Is The Limit

“The influence of a good teacher can never be erased.”
A teacher is like a bottle of scent that consumes itself to give fragrance to others.
When I say teacher, I am sure, your thoughts would have steered to the golden nostalgic school days, where you could actually visualize and gaze in awe at that beautiful moment when your teacher calls your name.
Each one of us has a story where we have that one name in our mind as our “favorite teacher”
. As a kid, I used to really adore a few of my teachers, the way they spoke, the way they carried themselves, and most importantly the way they took care of each and every student.

In the awe of admiring my teachers,I sometimes used to enact them with the same poise , same style and play the famous teacher game with my sibling.
The dummy blackboard and colorful chalks. A treasure box filled with a myriad of memories.

Years passed by and to my amazement that dummy blackboard and classroom setup actually turned into a reality, when I joined a school as a teacher. Though it wasn’t planned, somehow I landed up in the teaching profession, which I opted just to have fun.

The first day at school and that too as a teacher,though I was a bit nervous whereas at the same time the little girl inside me giggled and asked - are you yourself mature enough to teach a bunch of kids?
I immediately shifted my subconscious thoughts and asked myself to act mature, though I myself wasn’t sure about it.
On the same day, I was asked to take charge of class 5 as their class teacher.
I entered the class with the class attendance register and as usual our Indian ritual, the students wished gooooooood moooooorning maaaaa’am in a peculiar rhythmic tone to which I somehow managed to control my laughter.
It actually felt good after seeing such innocent faces, with sparkling eyes and pious smiles. All of them looked adorable to me until 2 minutes, when they started shouting altogether. All of a sudden those innocent faces bewildered my opinion and turned out to be like little minions scampering here and there singing “to ga no li ba ba banana”.
I asked them to be quiet but failed, and then I had to shriek at the top of my voice to mute their ba ba banana.
A sigh of relief, I acted being a little bit strict so that discipline could be maintained, finally got success in maintaining the autocratic style of leadership.
After a while, I realized that the setup of the classroom was normal with tables and chairs aligned in a symmetrical manner excluding one bench which was laid just adjacent to the teacher’s table. I enquired about it from the children to which one of them replied-” Ma’am this is named as punishment chair and has been kept purposefully for the naughtiest child, whose name is Aakash.
As soon as I called out this name, a cute looking kid stood somewhere from under the table.
All of them started prompting,Ma’am -Aakash,ma’am Aakash.
I looked towards him. He actually looked very innocent with twinkling eyes that poured mischief.
That day whenever I used to pass-by through the classroom, he could be seen either getting scolded by some of the other teachers or standing outside the classroom in punishment.
Days went by and I kept on ignoring his mischiefs especially in my class, because I had this intuition that somewhere something is wrong with this kid due to which he behaves in this manner.
One day, I had an immense headache and I asked the students to keep quiet and co-operate, but none of them followed the instruction. I turned towards the board to write answers and suddenly there was pin-drop silence. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was due to Aakash who took the ownership of being a monitor and made everyone disciplined. Everyone was astonished. Also, he helped me quite often without even asking, whether it was taking half the load off of the notebooks, bringing stationery material or medicines for everyone from the medical room.
This proved that my gut feeling was right about him.
I couldn’t sleep that night as I was continuously thinking how I could help him, as I knew that there was abundant talent in him.
The chapter types of leadership which I read somewhere in my books were also flashing by in my head.I decided that I should try to inculcate different styles of leadership in my teaching. I was sure that this would reap some magical outcomes.

I decided to opt for a coaching and democratic style where everyone is considered as a reservoir of talent and treated equally.
I knew that these students were precious gems with unbound talent.The need was to just carve them beautifully.
The next day, the first thing I did was, I made a sticker and pasted on that bench which said STAR CHAIR instead of the punishment chair. I told them that for me everyone's a star and is very precious.
I decided that I l be friends with the students but at the same time would be authoritative too, so that discipline could also be taken care of.
It was raining that day, I didn’t make the students study that day instead I asked them to make paper boats.

Everyone was so happy and I could easily figure out the genuine smile on Akash’s face. I spoke to him in a calm manner and asked whether he is facing any problem.To which he sobbed and replied, everyone scolds me and makes fun of me. I don't feel like coming to school.
I gently placed my hand on his head and said," I am proud of you Aakash,because you are the only one who understood your teacher's pain,you are so responsible and also very talented.I am sure you are capable of achieving great heights.
He stopped crying and smiled,as if he had gathered his lost confidence back and promised me that he would definitely become a star.

After that day, whenever I used to come in the class he used to smile while sitting on the star chair and then do the work with immense focus.

If we have a peculiar look at this entire journey,I was the one who had to deal with multiple people.Thus, it was the amalgamation of different leadership styles which helped me in achieving what I desired for.
Sometimes,being authoritative worked, by being visionary, sometimes pace-setting worked,by making everyone do the same thing that I was doing. A plethora of times, democratic style worked,where I asked everyone and involved everyone to make sure to give an impact that everyone matters.

You all might be wondering what happened to Aakash. Well, gradually his grades improved. The results of the half yearly exams were astonishing.

My efforts didn't go in vain,as everyone scored well.One thing which left everyone amused was that Aakash got the highest percentage. All of them understood that to err is human and they are not supposed to make fun of anybody.

They begin to laugh with him instead of laughing at him.
After the results,he came to me with a flower in his hand and said maam ,I am not the star anymore as I have conquered the meaning of my name and now sky's the limit for me.