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My Journey as a Maths Teacher – Part 2


 

🧒 From Grade 3 to Guiding Future Teachers

It gives me immense pleasure to be of some help to my younger mathematics teaching colleagues like Shruti Goel, Laly, Preeti Garg, Misha Nambiar, Rajendra Paliwal, and many others—across subjects and across schools.

But things weren’t always this way.


📘 The Indore Phase – Simplicity, Struggle, and Silent Growth

After leaving Mumbai in 1988, I served as a school teacher at Choithram School, Indore, till 1992. I even taught Grades 3 to 5 in a single session. Yet, the spirit was always high. I loved taking classes, creating activity sheets, and even wrote articles I mailed to U.S. education journals—long before emails were common.

If there was one shortcoming I admit, it was in checking large stacks of answer books. I often rationalised, “I’m a creative person, so it’s okay.” In hindsight, it wasn’t—but the honesty helped me grow.


🔄 The Decade of Churn (1988–1997)

It was a whirlwind decade. Imagine this combination:

  • Ph.D. work in progress

  • Three job transitions

  • Tutoring assignments

  • Young children at home

  • My father's passing

  • Moving cities (including a stint at Pravara Nagar near Shirdi)

  • And other unspoken hardships

Through it all, one thing stayed steady: my commitment to becoming a better maths teacher.


💡 The Shift to Research-Driven Teaching

My time at Choithram School marked a turning point. I met Mr. Bramhdatt Tiwari, a trained school counsellor from Canada, who taught me to break maths teaching into three essential dimensions:

  • Conceptual clarity

  • Operational fluency

  • Problem-solving ability

This framework changed everything.

I also met Mr. Jiten Sharma—a friend, mentor, and to this day, a thought partner in building Moghe Education Consultancy into a meaningful educational entity.



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