2021 is finally here.
2020 was a challenge in so many ways and we still have a way to go to completely recover from the devastation of the pandemic.
But if you are a passionate teacher, you must be more determined and excited than ever to be the best you can be.
Do you want what every great teacher wants?
To make a difference in the life of every student you teach?
To instill a thirst for knowledge that will enable each student to eventually become his or her own best teacher?
Great teachers strive for two common goals:
– to become a little better at their craft every day, and
– to avoid making the same mistakes twice.
Even the greatest of teachers make mistakes.
They just try not to repeat those mistakes.
No great teacher has ever told us, “my goal is to be perfect and to know everything there is to know about teaching”.
That’s because all great teachers know that no one ever finishes learning to teach – ever!
But all great teachers strive to improve on a daily basis.
They strive to take small steps, each day, toward improvement, not perfection.
There are no definitive answers to becoming the perfect teacher.
But there are daily activities that will help to improve your teaching and your students’ learning.
For in looking back, all great teachers hope to have instilled an insatiable quest for knowledge, a hunger never filled in each and every student whom they have had the privilege to teach.
But we have to be realistic.
Because of the many demands placed upon you and the many unpredictable occurrences in your classroom, there may be days when you simply don’t have the time to participate in the daily activity.
As soon as you walk into a school, any school, you can sense the level of excitement and energy or lack thereof in the building.
The same is true when you venture into a classroom or hallway of a school.
What is it that differentiates the places that are exciting to work from those that lack the energy and excitement essential to a high functioning school?
One factor is the morale and motivation of those who work there.
How can you get your schools to be like the high-excitement education center?
Once that spark of excitement is ignited, are there things you can do to build on this momentum?
How can you maintain the energy of the first day of school all year long?
There are many ideas that will help you improve teaching and learning in your classroom and that will help you to better establish what all great teachers enjoy – that important positive rapport with students.
With so many requirements placed upon you, as teachers, it is often easy to lose sight of the fact that though the content you teach is very important, students won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
The relationships you establish with your students will help to determine how much content they will or won’t learn while they are in your care.
Everything in your classroom literally “speaks,” setting the stage for learning.
Every detail says something – about you and your attitude towards teaching and learning.
Your classroom environment is loaded with cues and consciously or unconsciously students pick up on them.
These cues influence the students’ expectations and ultimately their entire learning experience.
That’s why it is vital to listen to what your classroom is saying and turn it to your advantage.
What if students took steps beyond what they thought possible?
What if you kept students engaged in their learning longer, unleash their motivation and cause their learning to occur naturally”
It is the first day of school and as a student hurries to the classroom, his heart races with anticipation, yet hesitation.
Fear, yet excitement.
As he approaches your classroom, a flood of pictures, sounds and feelings fly through his brain and he wonders, “What will this year be like?”
These first moments of class tell him everything about you, your subject, your style, whether the class will last a few seconds or an eternity – and, of course, whether he will succeed or fail.
What will this school year be like?
Will it be “school as usual”?
Or will he discover a place full of wonder, excitement, intrigue and respect?
What if your teaching and learning design closed the gap between your world and your students’ quickly and naturally every time?
What if you could design lessons that captured students’ learning styles, unleashed their motivation and set them up for success?
What if you could teach more, faster, and increase the impact of what your say?
What if students hung on to your every word?
What if you spoke with such clarity that there was little room for misunderstanding?
What would happen if your joy and passion about learning radiated through all you said and did?
What would be the impact on your students?
What would be the impact on you?
What would happen if you implemented what you know to improve the presentation of curriculum in a dynamic way?
Would your students participate more?
Change their attitude about learning?
Comprehend your curriculum better and retain it longer?
You bet.
Would you feel more energised?
Inspired?
Hopeful?
Most likely.
Would you feel more confident and competent?
Sure.
And finally, would your school be a better place to come to?
I felt like that every moment when I taught and it still gives me goosebumps when I think about it.
Perhaps that’s why, the previous Minister for Education asked me do the professional development of teachers.
Inside every teacher lies a better teacher waiting to emerge.
Limitless possibilities lie waiting to be unleashed inside every student.
Swami Vivekananda said, “education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man.”
Find your greater teacher, enabling you to manifest that perfection and help your students find their greater selves.
- Arvind Mani is a former teacher who is passionate about quality education. He lived in the US for 35 years and was active ly involved in training youths to improve their speaking skills. The views expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper. He can be reached at theinspiredteacher9@gmail.com
