Ms. Ambuja Iyer continues to teach mathematics at the age of 80
Ambuja Iyer, a Mathematics teacher, has taken up teaching online at the age of 80. A pioneer in the field of Indian education, Ambuja Iyer, is a Mathematics teacher who has taught around 50 thousand students over the years. Ms. Iyer's humility and genuine desire to teach Math and help people is what makes her endearing to her students. Shifting to this new mode of teaching, Ms. Iyer has been holding mathematics classes online with the same zeal and enthusiasm as she did 50 years ago.
Ms. Iyer decided to teach mathematics online after she saw teachers struggling to teach mathematics online. She prepared some useful tips and some good content and started a Math Forum with 50 other teachers on WhatsApp and started mentoring Maths teachers. Today there are 200 members in the group.
Apart from the forum, she also started Online Math teaching for classes 6 to 10 and started her YouTube channel as well. Her classes are free of cost and she has been mentoring teachers not just from India but also from UAE (mostly from Dubai), USA, UK, and Indonesia.
"I want to help students get over the fear of Maths and also help teachers who are suddenly facing Online teaching a big challenge. I feel there is not much of a difference in teaching Online or Offline, Math remains the same but if teachers get help as to how to make interesting content, they gain confidence," Ms. Iyer told NDTV.
"For me teaching is beyond class, caste creed or colour. Many poor students come to me for learning Maths. It is the hope and aspiration in their eyes that motivates me to teach them. And during this pandemic, it has become easier to teach many through Online. I have my own personal room in Webex. I also conduct classes through other tools," she added.
Ms. Ambuja Iyer started teaching mathematics online after schools were closed during lockdown
She completed graduation at the age of 17 and was selected to study in the Indian Institute of Sciences, but unfortunately with the untimely demise of her father, she had to shoulder familial responsibilities and immediately began looking for work. She was hired at her first job as a substitute teacher. The Maths teacher was absent, and she was asked to teach Geometry to a class of girls who were not much young.
With a sparkle in her eyes she says, "My USP is that I never gave my students any kind of homework. Teachers should impart education in a manner that, right from introducing lessons to revisions, everything might be done in school. I made most of my forty-minute sessions, and ensured that students completed their work in class. With incentives in the form of positive feedback and appreciation, students would always perform wonders! What the teacher teaches, should remain in the memory of the students for life, that is the best Gurudakshina, any teacher would want. Inculcating interest in math has been her primary objective as a math teacher."
"Today, I train hundreds of teachers across the country through online classes." She prepares the content five hours a day, writes everything down herself, which is then typed by a typing assistant she has hired.
"I would say that my journey as a teacher has been an accomplished one, but I won't, because it's not over yet! With 81 years under my belt, and all my initial zeal and enthusiasm, I continue to teach," she adds.