Satyajeet Vijay (he/him)
IB PYP Music Educator | Music & Arts Coordinator
Oberoi International School, India
https://inthemidstofinquiry.com/
How did you get into teaching?
Belonging to a family with musical background, I grew up keeping the ambition to do something with music. I was inclined to sing and to play music. In my deepest thought not once did teaching occur to me. After completing my graduation, I pursued to do my masters in music again. My passion for music gave me the confidence to move further and to learn more. Hence, to match up to my expenses, I created a resume to probably become a part time singing teacher or to just ensure I have some finances in hand to support me. I noticed as soon as I created the resume there was a universal call perhaps that led me to a school which was not an IB though but valued my singing immensely. In fact I must confess I did not know something like an IB exists or what it is about. I continued teaching and then soon got a call for an interview from an IB school. I took a chance to move to this unfamiliar board since the school was well renowned and had a great brand name. Further here too during my interview, my singing and music knowledge was well appreciated which was very respectful for me. At joining I felt overwhelmed listening to the IB jargons and the teacher being a facilitator and teaching in the play way method. I understood nothing. Still me being a risk taker and with my go getter attitude I started researching, reading and asking a lot of questions about the IB way. This interest was noticed by my leaders and colleagues who helped me by providing me with a number of opportunities to be a part of the IB workshops. From here began my journey to be a passionate IB Music specialist. The inhouse and the regional workshops were always an eye opener for me to dwell deeper in my personal inquiry about IB. Moreso, like mentioned earlier all these leaders and colleagues helped me to understand the IB way of teaching. This inspired me to transfer my music knowledge unintentionally to the youth. Today when I see my daughter inclined to music, I realize that teaching is the only way to help the younger generation fall in love with music. It’s been almost a decade now since I have been teaching and everyday seems to be a new day, new experience for me. I enjoy the company of my students and helping them inquire about music. It’s a journey…
I realized that students are the ones who can keep you curious, can amaze you with their questions, thoughts etc. Just to be more specific, an example I would like to share here is when the entire world was doing online teaching learning and I too was a part of it. I had not met some of the students face to face at all since they joined the school while we were online. It was challenging for students and for parents. However; it was beautiful to see the enthusiastic parents still ensuring our students are on screen with all the things required right on time. One of these classes included creating a water xylophone and I was honestly very hesitant about how this will go or what will the parents say or I just hope no water comes on the device. But these were just some inner fears because as soon as the class started I saw not one student without these materials. I saw the parents supporting these 4 year old kids to help them understand. It indeed made my day. Another incident I remember in one of the sessions just out of the blue there was this little five year old girl who barely participated suddenly raised her hand and said she wants to sing a song. I was surprised and thrilled to hear her sing an old song so beautifully. After having a conversation with her, her father too came online and thanked me for being an inspiration for her. The parent then mentioned how this little girl wanted to do something for me since she would enjoy being a part of our music classes. These moments help make a teacher feel like a hero.
Who was the teacher who made the most positive impact on your life?
It has been my father because he is the person who has introduced me and sailed me through music. Music is not just my passion but it is in my blood and my family. Today my siblings too are in music all thanks to him. It is my father’s teaching that is helping me to adapt to the IB Philosophy which talks strongly about the transdisciplinary way of learning. The importance of making mistakes and learning from them and being responsible for your actions is what he taught to me through music. I have understood the importance of maintaining my calmness in all situations.
As a child I had always seen my father handling multiple roles balancing his work life, his passion and his family. I grew up in a family where I had seen my father working as a professional but religiously following his passion for music. He started training students at home for music. He has always been dedicated and honest to music. An authentic feedback whether it was in favor of the student or sometimes not pleasing for the student was provided by him. I grew up in a house where we three siblings were given the freedom to explore the various instruments and at dawn all of us were up to practice with our father.
What is a professional inquiry you are currently pursuing?
How to help EY students build on their inquiry?
As quoted by Benjamin Franklin ‘Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn,’ this is exactly what I'm trying to do.
I have been exploring ways to make the inquiry process in the Early years significant and challenging. The learning process should be such that it encourages students to ask questions and share their wonders. However; at the same time I also am mindful that these young learners are full of enthusiasm and curiosities. They want to touch and feel and smell and taste all the things to understand. Hence what better than the play way method. One such example is when the 5 year old students walked into the music class and were full of conversations and more conversations. During this time one student stepped out on the choir bench and screamt out loud for his friends to be quiet and maintain some peace. Another friend of his asked the meaning of peace. Soon the conversations started buzzing about peace which led into the big question ‘What peace means to you?’ It led to a big discussion which was taken beyond our four walls of the classroom. There were strong connections even in the homeroom classes about peace and its impacts. These young students have so much to share. They are open minded and curious! The feeling of belongingness and becoming a change maker is what every student wants. They want to know more, explore more, experience more and just get involved more. I am still learning to be a part of these kids' lives and learning from them. It is important to create a spark in every student's mind. The inquiry way method helps students to expand their prior knowledge and become problem solvers.
I have been making my notes from the book “Dive into Inquiry” by Trevor Mackenzie which has broadened my horizon on how to gradually pass on the responsibility to students to become agentic learners.
Why the EY
I believe the young children can be nurtured to investigate independently eventually leading them to become agentic learners. These changemakers need a direction and emphasis upon well being and building a bond of trust simultaneously. I have been inspired to be with EY. During my initial days with the EY students I was not sure what to expect or even if they knew what and why of things. It was during one of my sessions with the Skg students I was asking students some questions and a student questioned me as to why am I asking so many questions? This led to a personal class inquiry with these five year old students as to ‘Why do we need to ask questions?’ What is the purpose of asking questions? It was fascinating to hear the students share things such as questions that lead us to be happy, know more, to discover the world etc. Everyday seems to be a new day for me. There hasn’t been a day when my wife, our five year daughter and myself have been in the car and she hasn’t asked any questions. Something so common like an excavator or a bus stop is still new for her and the excitement in her eyes when the excavator is seen or a bus carrying so many people is indeed fascinating for her. They find happiness and joy in everything. There are questions and deeper questions and the eagerness to find out. The big picture leads to students developing the skills to put their learning to use. Working on shared goals, finding solutions to problems and celebrating the joy of solutions is surely important for every student. Something that I am still working at is the use of technology in the early years classrooms. Although technology is becoming prevalent in the field of education and integrating it with our core subjects is a great idea I am still trying ways which will help the young students to independently handle the device to research or even to look for ways to connect with other global citizens, maybe just to interact and know each other virtually.
What is a personal inquiry you are currently pursuing?
Am I being balanced?
Balancing my way out…
I wish to believe that at this point of time in my life Iam learning to be a go-getter. Handling multiple roles and ensuring I can manage my time and prioritize my goals is a big goal for me. The world is constantly changing and it is a necessity for educators to keep up to the pace of these changes. I remember as a young child I had always heard my parents say to not watch too much television as so much screen time is not too good for children. However; in today’s changing times we as educators managed to move ourselves and all our students from a face to face teaching learning to behind the camera zoom meetings. Switching back and forth and channelising my thoughts in the right direction at the right time is something I need to work upon. Valuing time, setting goals, making a schedule and pausing to reflect is a mantra I remind myself everyday. Every decision requires a process which involves careful and critical thinking. There are surely times when I am not able to bounce back comfortably or without any stress because I know at the back of my mind that some decision I take in a day might be disagreed by someone. Reading, researching and developing the readiness to move on from one thing or one wondering or rather one thought to another and making a decision that is not just right but in fact ensures the demands of the different stakeholders is being agreed upon without dropping anything. Hence being more influenced or by healing myself spiritually I take time out to read some motivating books like Amazing Secrets, The IKIGAI journey.
What three best ideas do you have to improve the teaching profession?
Openness towards sharing and listening
As responsible educators and citizens we must encourage the team of facilitators to have conversations that lead to discussions and enable the community to ask and to share. As a school we involve the teachers to come together and share their best practices. Another aspect of building healthy relationships amongst teams is to celebrate their joys and self joys with everyone. Bringing a cake for my colleagues birthday and sharing some treats on my birthday is a way to say “I care.” We have been doing regular collaborative planning between the specialist and homeroom teachers. We have regular professional development days where teachers are given opportunities to sign up for the sessions in which they need more guidance and support. The trust between these teachers and the speaker is clearly evident through these sessions. Well being is a driving force to keep everyone motivated. Sharing and creating a community of learning opens doors for building trust,regulating work, collaborating to come up with decisions that best suit the student community and creating an atmosphere of well being and appreciation.
Connecting with real life examples
We are always striving to make students into global citizens. It is important to develop an international mindset. One of the important factors to lead to critical thinking is by making real life connections. I always believe that it is always important to share your own personal experiences with the student community. These experiences involve something like how I was stuck in a big traffic jam and due to that I reached late for school. On one occasion I had a brief communication with my students about my aspirations to become a famous singer. I showed my youtube channel to them which was a real inspiration for many students. The students came to know a different side of me. It was overwhelming to even notice that this was shared by the students with their parents as I received a lot of appreciation from them. It is always okay to say that as a teacher even we have had situations which did not have an instant self discovered solution. We have researched, we have risked, we have tried and we have not always been successful but yet we have not given up.
Creating a culture of celebration
Yes, celebration means to enjoy an event or a day but how about being okay to celebrate the acceptance of our own mistakes. It simply means you are brave enough to accept the responsibility and in a way are now committed to bring a change. Just to highlight, I remember , when I was given a new role which involves various responsibilities I indeed got carried away by trying to accomplish all of it by delegating work, creating agendas, plans, and to maintain the timeline I kept going.
During this journey, I didn't realize if I was skipping the well being of the people involved or am I being completely present to listen to the challenges faced by these people. In these kinds of situations, I feel the human instinct naturally self realizes and reflects or someone gives you a knock for it. I was blessed to have been given a gentle knock as a reminder to pause and think.
We must ensure that we let students make mistakes. It is this mistake that might lead to students wondering about the right answer or the right method or just the right way. During this process the student might even come across some things to explore taking a personal inquiry forward.
You gotta see this!
My life is a journey which is filled with beautiful experiences. To ensure a culture of sharing I have tried capturing my classroom practices, best moments and my love for the PYP here in
My Music Channel - Satyajeet Vijay, My social media - Twitter Instagram Facebook
Facebook Page: PYP Single Subject Teachers Collaboration
Twitter Community: SSTs’ contribution to PYP