July 4, 2017

Meet Devi Karki, a dance/extracurricular activities teacher from Kathmandu, Nepal. She’s participating in TIEs’ 2017 summer cultural exchange program.

Let’s learn a little about her!

How long have you been teaching? What grades/subjects?

I’ve been teaching for 14 years. I’m a dance teacher, my specialties are Nepali folk cultural dance and classical dance. I also do ECA (Extra-Curricular Activities), like games, literature, and organizing school programs. In the past, I have taught English, Math, Computers, and Science.

Why do you teach?

I have wanted to be a teacher since my childhood. I want to educate Nepali children. Other countries think that Nepal is not well-educated or developed, and I want to develop my country through education.

What do you like to do when you’re not teaching?

I like to do interior design, like rooms and gardens. I go on Youtube to research arts and crafts and try to get knowledge from that and make my own creations. I read books and listen to music. I like to visit new places.

Where have you traveled before? Is travel important to you?

I have traveled all over Nepal, but I’m only a domestic tourist, not international. In the future, I plan to visit Spain, America, Australia, and India. In true travel, we can get knowledge from different environments, places, people, and cultures.

What are your strengths as a teacher?

My strength is that I can understand my students. They can be friendly with me and share everything. I try to help them with their problems.

What do you believe is the biggest benefit of the TIEs program?

We can exchange our teaching styles. Co-teaching is positive because we get different knowledge and we can integrate that knowledge into our school.

What do you hope to learn in from your partner teacher?

I want to learn about how to make a plan for Extra-Curricular Activities (ECA). In Nepal, we have lesson plans for academic subjects, but not ECA. I think academic subjects can be integrated into ECA, and that will make students understand these subjects better.

If you were an animal, what would you be? Why?

I would like to be a bird. Birds can fly all over and I could be a positive messenger for the whole world. The positive message would be that we are all people and we should respect our elders because they are our history and we can learn different things from them.

Stay tuned to the TIEs blog for more profiles of our Nepali and American teacher participants!