What Teaching Taught Me

(so far at least, based on a few weeks' experience)

1) It's such a high! As they say, with great power comes great responsibility. And it IS a lot of power, as well as responsibility! You quickly realize that you can control an entire room full of teenagers and you can do with them as you wish!!! You may walk in and see most of them sleepy or just plain lazy (and I don't blame them, by the way, the heat is making me sooo lazy too), but you can speed up the class and get everyone excited, jumping out of their seats, fighting to get the right answer first! Or you can quietly find a hook that intrigues them enough to just give you their focused undivided attention. Either way, it's really draining, mind you! 

My kids

You control the tempo, the volume, the solo acts, etc. You see, you have to play conductor of sorts - prompting the kids to participate, getting them to actually do all the hard work, encouraging them when they get it right, correcting them when they get it wrong, helping them find ways never to repeat their mistakes, let them play along at their own pace in their own way yet make sure they still keep up with the rest of the class, eeufff! Because ultimately you need to ensure that they all work together with you in harmony. Oh and yes, you also have to find a way to get them to practice what they've learnt at home! BUUUUT if you're successful, there's nothing more rewarding than feeling the energy in the room (you really do feel the crescendo!) and having everyone stay on past class time because they don't want to go to their next lesson.

Showtime!

2) You shouldn't walk in thinking you're a teacher. Because you really need to think like a student instead. If you can successfully put yourself in their shoes, see what is difficult in their eyes and why, only then can you be a successful teacher and find the right ways to reach them and engage them. Only then can you think of creative ways, exercises, and ideas to bring sometimes really boring facts to life. Like for example, the class was finding Shakespeare very difficult - they just couldn't get the vocabulary, let alone remember it. So when I realized how they all love to draw, I challenged them to a game of Shakespictionary to shake things up. Let's just say the word meanings became much more memorable after they got a turn at the drawing board. Much like my background in marketing, I've come to realize that teaching is all about the packaging of the material/content in order to change the way a person thinks and behaves.

Speaking of behavior...

m'mates

3) You have to take certain decisions about your style of discipline. I was having a discussion the other day with some teachers who use certain tactics in their classroom that I'm not too fond of myself.  So they asked me in turn what I feel is the best way to discipline the students. My reply went something like this... Of course I would want to have the children's respect, but in order to do so, I would want to create a culture in my class first. One that promotes experimentation, spontaneous participation (ie. fun), and above all else, teamwork. I am but a team captain, maybe a more experienced and older member of the team, but still just an equal member of it. If we can all respect each other equally on the field, have everyone engaged and playing ball, with one clear goal in mind and a collaborative strategy to get there that plays on our different strengths, then I don't foresee any teacher vs. student conflict. Because a teacher vs. student relationship doesn't exist in the first place - we're actually on the same team! In fact, if you've truly earned the respect of your students/team mates with tough love vs. discipline, with a single look of disappointment you can make them feel guilty for walking in late. And trust me, you would be effectively changing their behavior because they wouldn't want to disappoint you next time.

The "look"

4) Correction's a draaaaaag! It's quite painful, really. Especially when you want to give as many comments as possible to help the student improve his/her writing, but then realize you have 200 more papers piled up waiting for your attention. Let's just say, I've had to get creative even with my method of correction, so I'm testing a new way of getting it done this week. I hope it will create some healthy competition and encourage them to give each paper their best shot. I'll then read the papers and highlight the sentences the entire class can benefit from correcting for each other during the next lesson. Let's see how it goes...

ALWAYS

caught

correcting!

5) "Students don't want to learn" is a load of crap. That's just a lazy teacher's excuse for the class getting bad grades. But it's not the truth. It's our job as teachers to make them passionate about our subjects. The truth is, the biggest troublemakers, you know, the ones that sit at the back and love to act up and pick on the girls and disrupt the class because they apparently "don't want to learn"... get this: they're your biggest ally as a teacher. Because they're really really smart! And they're resourceful, opinionated, charismatic, and most importantly, they're leaders. So if you can just channel their otherwise negative energy to the benefit of your classroom, you can be sure no child will be left behind. Good luck winning them over though, teens can be a tough crowd!

I walk in with the objective of getting the back of the class to sit up
(whether I manage to achieve my objective is another matter, ha!)

PROPS TO ALL YOU AWESOME TEACHERS WHO MAKE IT LOOK SO EASY!