Teachers’ Day: From a Teacher’s Perspective

Coinciding with the Teachers’ Day today, I would like to write something about teaching and what it means to me. The best way I have learned to be a teacher is by looking at the way in which others teach me. Teachers are lifelong learners who relish the chance to grow and evolve. Moreover, the innocent enthusiasm of young students keep teachers young as they remind you to smile through.

In many ways, learning and teaching are ties to each other. Teaching means helping people to learn something. Teaching is learning, enriching and growing. Teaching is caring, motivating and inspiring. Teaching is collaborating/ equalizing, energizing and exhilarating. Teaching is dividing, equalizing and loving.

I gain fondness by seeing a person who learns and changes and gain understanding about the meanings of life and the world they live in and having the ability to be unselfish and worthy contributors to society. I help them to grow into what they want to be.

I have encountered many best students in my life who have in turn shaped my life better. They are Monu Tamang, Mahindra, Yangchen, Sonam3s, Susan, Karma to name a few.

A novice child comes into class not able to read. When he leaves in December, he will have become independent and understand the way of things and potential and creative solver.  I have to say, seeing the progression of a child and making a difference in a child's life from February to December is invigorating. That's what will make teaching mean the most to me.

Teaching to me means caring, nurturing, and developing minds and talents. It is about passion as it is about the reason. It's about not only motivating students to learn, but teaching them how to learn, and doing so in a manner that is relevant, meaningful, and memorable. It is about listening, questioning, being responsive, and pushing students to excel; at the same time, it's about being human, respecting others, and being professional at all times.

Teaching is more than just a job. It's a calling. It's an ever-surprising mix of grueling hard work and ecstatic successes, both big and small. To constantly improve teaching capabilities and to be there for the student, and to help with any problems they have, in or out of the class, to teach and delight are my motto of being in teaching.

There are many different learning styles as there are many ways to solve the problems. The ability to look at life in a different way and to explain a topic in a different way is one way.  Not everyone gets a subject as taught by every teacher. Images, pictures, trips, etc are some ways.

 

As a teacher I think, we need to have the ability to change, but it is also important to be able to keep hold of the good things. Some teachers may fear change, as change is uncertain, but it is not necessary for teachers to change everything they currently do in the classroom, but to change some things to make improvements. Change is a slow and difficult process, so should be taken step by step.

As teachers we should always remember the ‘Wise Old Owl:’

The wise old owl lived in an oak

The more he saw, the less he spoke

The less he spoke, the more he heard

Why can’t we all be like that bird?

The work of the teacher will not end. Its a continuous ripple effects on are always there somehow somewhere. We teachers must remember that if a student fails then: the teacher has failed; the examination system has failed; the evaluation system has failed and by and large the education system as a whole has failed.