Gratitude Note

Clay Maracle

Clay with the students of discussion class

One of the most valuable volunteers of Manzil is Clay. He started working with us in 2017, after which he had to leave and go back to the USA, his home country.
However, he enjoyed volunteering here so much, that he was back in a year’s time. He works as a Supply Analyst in Delhi and makes time to come to Manzil in the evenings for the classes. Initially, he used to work with core members and help them with admin work. Soon, he joined the Discussion class as a volunteer teacher. He loved the class so much that after he returned to India, he joined the Discussion class again and is now one of the most active volunteers in the English Discussion class. He generally facilitates "The Discussion" on Mondays.

He is also quite accommodating and works as a reliable substitute teacher for when the other teachers can’t make it for class. His classes are great and are based on current affairs, which help to make us aware and add to our knowledge about our country and the whole world. Apart from this, he shares everyday experiences with us, even from his work, which helps us to learn something new. As he has a different origin, he is always eager to learn from anyone he meets, especially about their culture. A few days before Holi, there were very few students present in the class, so he asked us to talk about the history of Holi and Diwali. Along with that, he also shared a famous story about Christianity. We exchanged our cultural knowledge in his class, which created a really good environment for everyone to open up.

Class

He is the perfect fit as our teacher as he is very open with all of us. In his class, we get more chances to speak and more importantly, there is a freedom of thought that emerges, which encourages us to speak without feeling constrained. We always have a lot of fun. He is very calm and emotional and never scolds anyone. He also gives us a comfort zone to share all our problems.

We thank him for his current and previous work with the Discussion class. Students of this class are now in the new advanced level class named ‘The Ultimate Discussion’, all thanks to his guidance.

As every teacher is unique, he has his own and new style of teaching. It's like 'Learning through fun'.

Written by Jyoti Bisht, Aarti Bhatt (Discussion Students) and Reena (English Coordinator, Manzil)

Edited by Ananya, The Former Practice Teacher, Manzil