To be frank, I always, and will continue to think that teaching is a noble profession. Since young, I always looked up to my teacher. Many told me that:
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| A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others. |
To illustrate my point, perhaps it is good that you watch the following video:
The title of the video is "The Most Difficult Lesson". Basically it is a video in which some teachers share about their experience in teaching and dealing with students. The main theme revolves around "Am I a Good Teacher?". If you don't understand Mandarin, I have translated some of the statements by these teachers (in bold below). I will also talk about my thoughts about these statements that resonate with me.
"As a teacher, I want to share everything that I know with my students.".
Tyson speaks:
Yes I do too. This was my thought when I first started teaching. However, subsequently I realised that this is impossible due to time constraints in class. Apart from that, I also need to address the majority (i.e. the average students). If I share everything that I know, most students will be confused and it will be ineffective delivery on my part.
As you can see, I am stuck between what I want to teach and teaching the knowledge required by the exam.
As such, consider this question: Should a teacher share everything that he/she knows with the students in order to qualify as a good teacher?
"For me, the student's understanding in a subject is more important than covering the entire syllabus in class. This is the main reason why I complained a lot about my career. Imagine that when it is almost time for final exam but you still have a lot more topics to cover with the students, tell me how can the students sit for exam?"
Tyson speaks:
Exactly my feeling ๐ญ๐ญ If the students walk out of the classroom thinking that they don't understand what I taught, I will feel that I am a failure. But if I can't finish the syllabus, students will not have adequate knowledge to sit for final exam. As such, I find myself always caught in this struggle. Should I speed up my teaching in class? Or should I slow down and conduct more additional classes for my students (hoping that my students don't hate me for asking them to attend more class)? If not additional class, then should I record additional videos for students so that the students can watch the video themselves at home? If I record video, will they even bother to watch them?
Although one can argue that students shouldn't complain as we are kind enough to sacrifice our extra time for the students, one cannot deny the fact that the students' opinion matter to us as well.
As such, consider this question: Should a good teacher focus on getting all their students to understand part of the syllabus or should he/she focus on covering the entire or almost all of the important areas of the syllabus?
"When I teach, some students will nod in class. When I see my students nodding in class, I know that they have absorbed the knowledge, but I start to wonder whether what I said was 100% correct or not."
Tyson speaks:
Sometimes this happen to me also. After the class, I will spend some time to reflect about the things that I have told my students - whether or not I have covered the syllabus sufficiently in class? Have I accidentally said something that is wrong in class? When I accidentally said the wrong stuff in class (yes this can happen to us, we are not perfect, we are human too), I actually felt very bad and I will apologise to my students (I believe that when we make a mistake, we should apologise). Sometimes I hope to minimise such events from occurring, because I am afraid that my students will start to be sceptical. Will they start to doubt whether I am a good teacher or not?
As such, consider this question: If I may teach the wrong thing in class, do I still deserve to be a good teacher?
"I remember I had a student who is quite good in his studies. He told me this shocking statement, "Teacher, I think that after I studied chemistry, the biggest rewards that I get was that I become 100% sure that I will dislike chemistry forever".
Tyson speaks:
The truth is, this statement can be really hurtful to a teacher who is very passionate in teaching.
I never had a student who talked to me like this before. However, I do have a similar experience when I was conducting training on "Financial Management for NGOs" recently. After the training, one of the participants approached me and told me the following:
"I think you delivered a good training. Actually, I am good in speaking, I am also good with writing, but I am never good with numbers. That is why I am quite slow when it comes to financial management. When you explained the steps by steps of accounting for NGO, you managed to explain and illustrate the concepts clearly to us. I can follow what you are delivering just now. However, after this training, I finally understand that being a club's treasurer is something that is too difficult for me. I can now confirm that this is not something that I want to do in my club."
You want to know the truth? The truth is that I am not sure how am I supposed to feel after listening to it. I always hoped to make accounting easier for someone (even secretly hoping that I can change someone's mind - from disliking accounting to having an interest in accounting). But here I am, someone telling me that after they attended my training, they now confirm that they will never like accounting. Should I be sad or...?
As such, consider this question: If I can't make all my students to be interested in the subjects that I am teaching, am I still a good teacher?
Luckily, I meet a good soul (a psychologist) who gave me some words of wisdom. If you faced such issue, perhaps such words of wisdom may help you too. He said,
"I don't think you should think in that way. See, you made her realised that she don't like accounting, and I think that this is a very important thing. The worst thing that can happen to her is that she didn't know that she dislikes accounting. Imagine that if she didn't know about this and she accepts a treasurer's role, she will definitely have a bad time herself. So I think that you did the right thing. Making someone realise that something is not their interest is also an important role that an educator should do. Remember that each individual is unique and they should have an autonomy to choose what they like to do in life."
"A student once said this to me, "I want to tell you something. Do you know that you are a terrible teacher? Your teaching is really terrible. You are also very bad in leading the class." After I listened to this, I felt so sad that I have this really awful feeling - the feeling that it is a shame for me to be standing together with my students on this land. I felt so bad that I don't deserve to be standing together with my students in Taipei".
Tyson speaks:
Oh my god!
This statement is so damn hurtful!
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I consider myself very blessed - I never had a student that told me such statement before.
But do consider this - I believe most teacher actually feared this. We fear that our students don't like us. We fear that our students find our class to be so terrible that they rather to be elsewhere in this world but not inside our class.
As such, consider this question: If certain students give us such a bad comments, are we still a good teacher?
However, trust me on this. Despite feeling hurt, we will still need to calm ourselves down and continue our teaching life. No matter how shameful you felt when you face your student, we will still want to force ourselves to finish the semester with them.
As you can see, this is a balance that we need to strike - a balance between our emotion and what we are supposed to do. Even though we feel hurt, we can't really say we quit, because we feel that it is our responsibility to teach no matter what happened to us.
In the video, the teacher who received this bad comments still decided go back to class the next day, after gathering all her courage. I think I can relate to this feeling because it will be a difficult thing for me to do if I were her. This is what she said in the video:
"When I entered the class the next day, I felt shocked that my students actually took the liberty to list down the things that I have done for them for the past three years. At that moment, I felt that my heart was healed by these bunch of students."
Tyson speaks:
I am also very blessed to meet some students who are really close to me after I started teaching. At the time when I was sad, it was them who gave me the supports I needed. Sometimes, we really have to realise that it is impossible to get everyone to agree with us. All we need is just some supportive students. They are the one that will restore our faith in humanity.
Someone in Facebook summarised the challenges faced by a teacher nicely in the following post.
It is said that the teaching process is just like bring the students to swim in the ocean of knowledge.
After a while, you realised that you are only the one who reached the shore. Then you have to swim back to the ocean and pick the students up one by one.
Sometimes you may even realise that the students that you have picked up yesterday have gone back to be ocean. You need to pick them up again today.
When you felt very tired, you realised that there are some students who swim further and further from the shore๐ฒ
Well, I guess we should appreciate the fact that the students are willing to swim. What can you do if the students are too scared of the water? Or what should you do if the students just prefer sunbathing on the beach?
So to my students who supported me all these while and if you are reading the blog, thank you very much! You have no idea how your support meant to me when I was really down.
Question of the Day - Am I a Good Teacher?
According to the video, this question of "am I a good teacher" is "the most difficult lesson" for educators. It is also mentioned that this lesson is "the most difficult to be experienced in our life". It is also said in the video that "the most important lesson for an educator begins with their own reflection about themselves."
Let's see how the teachers in this video answer this question:
"I must tell all of you (my students) that I can't answer this question as at this moment. This is because I still have a lot of things to work on in order to be a better teacher. I can only answer this question as I progress through my entire teaching career."
"If there was a "good teacher" graduation certificate, frankly I don't know if I deserve that certificate or not. I don't know if I can achieve the passing mark in order to receive such certificate from all of you (my students)".
Tyson speaks:
On whether am I a good teacher, I can't really answer this question. I can't give a definite answer to the questions that I wrote above (the questions in purple). I think these questions should not be answered by me, but it should be answered by my students.
In any case, regardless of I am a good teacher or not, I just want to tell you that I am always learning and thinking about how to be better every day. No matter what is the answer, regardless of whether I felt hurt or otherwise, I want to tell my students that I am trying my best to impart my knowledge to all of you. I know that I am not perfect, and I think I will never be perfect. But what I know is that I will constantly improve myself in all aspects of my teaching career. I will always be willing to help you if you need help from me.
I also believe that you have the potential to achieve great things in life. As the saying goes,
As such, consider this question: Should a teacher share everything that he/she knows with the students in order to qualify as a good teacher?
"For me, the student's understanding in a subject is more important than covering the entire syllabus in class. This is the main reason why I complained a lot about my career. Imagine that when it is almost time for final exam but you still have a lot more topics to cover with the students, tell me how can the students sit for exam?"
Tyson speaks:
Exactly my feeling ๐ญ๐ญ If the students walk out of the classroom thinking that they don't understand what I taught, I will feel that I am a failure. But if I can't finish the syllabus, students will not have adequate knowledge to sit for final exam. As such, I find myself always caught in this struggle. Should I speed up my teaching in class? Or should I slow down and conduct more additional classes for my students (hoping that my students don't hate me for asking them to attend more class)? If not additional class, then should I record additional videos for students so that the students can watch the video themselves at home? If I record video, will they even bother to watch them?
Although one can argue that students shouldn't complain as we are kind enough to sacrifice our extra time for the students, one cannot deny the fact that the students' opinion matter to us as well.
As such, consider this question: Should a good teacher focus on getting all their students to understand part of the syllabus or should he/she focus on covering the entire or almost all of the important areas of the syllabus?
"When I teach, some students will nod in class. When I see my students nodding in class, I know that they have absorbed the knowledge, but I start to wonder whether what I said was 100% correct or not."
Tyson speaks:
Sometimes this happen to me also. After the class, I will spend some time to reflect about the things that I have told my students - whether or not I have covered the syllabus sufficiently in class? Have I accidentally said something that is wrong in class? When I accidentally said the wrong stuff in class (yes this can happen to us, we are not perfect, we are human too), I actually felt very bad and I will apologise to my students (I believe that when we make a mistake, we should apologise). Sometimes I hope to minimise such events from occurring, because I am afraid that my students will start to be sceptical. Will they start to doubt whether I am a good teacher or not?
As such, consider this question: If I may teach the wrong thing in class, do I still deserve to be a good teacher?
"I remember I had a student who is quite good in his studies. He told me this shocking statement, "Teacher, I think that after I studied chemistry, the biggest rewards that I get was that I become 100% sure that I will dislike chemistry forever".
Tyson speaks:
The truth is, this statement can be really hurtful to a teacher who is very passionate in teaching.
I never had a student who talked to me like this before. However, I do have a similar experience when I was conducting training on "Financial Management for NGOs" recently. After the training, one of the participants approached me and told me the following:
"I think you delivered a good training. Actually, I am good in speaking, I am also good with writing, but I am never good with numbers. That is why I am quite slow when it comes to financial management. When you explained the steps by steps of accounting for NGO, you managed to explain and illustrate the concepts clearly to us. I can follow what you are delivering just now. However, after this training, I finally understand that being a club's treasurer is something that is too difficult for me. I can now confirm that this is not something that I want to do in my club."
You want to know the truth? The truth is that I am not sure how am I supposed to feel after listening to it. I always hoped to make accounting easier for someone (even secretly hoping that I can change someone's mind - from disliking accounting to having an interest in accounting). But here I am, someone telling me that after they attended my training, they now confirm that they will never like accounting. Should I be sad or...?
As such, consider this question: If I can't make all my students to be interested in the subjects that I am teaching, am I still a good teacher?
Luckily, I meet a good soul (a psychologist) who gave me some words of wisdom. If you faced such issue, perhaps such words of wisdom may help you too. He said,
"I don't think you should think in that way. See, you made her realised that she don't like accounting, and I think that this is a very important thing. The worst thing that can happen to her is that she didn't know that she dislikes accounting. Imagine that if she didn't know about this and she accepts a treasurer's role, she will definitely have a bad time herself. So I think that you did the right thing. Making someone realise that something is not their interest is also an important role that an educator should do. Remember that each individual is unique and they should have an autonomy to choose what they like to do in life."
 |
| Seriously, I am really touched by such words. Thank you for giving me another perspective to ponder upon. I felt way better after listing to what you say. |
Tyson speaks:
Oh my god!
This statement is so damn hurtful!
I consider myself very blessed - I never had a student that told me such statement before.
But do consider this - I believe most teacher actually feared this. We fear that our students don't like us. We fear that our students find our class to be so terrible that they rather to be elsewhere in this world but not inside our class.
As such, consider this question: If certain students give us such a bad comments, are we still a good teacher?
However, trust me on this. Despite feeling hurt, we will still need to calm ourselves down and continue our teaching life. No matter how shameful you felt when you face your student, we will still want to force ourselves to finish the semester with them.
As you can see, this is a balance that we need to strike - a balance between our emotion and what we are supposed to do. Even though we feel hurt, we can't really say we quit, because we feel that it is our responsibility to teach no matter what happened to us.
In the video, the teacher who received this bad comments still decided go back to class the next day, after gathering all her courage. I think I can relate to this feeling because it will be a difficult thing for me to do if I were her. This is what she said in the video:
"When I entered the class the next day, I felt shocked that my students actually took the liberty to list down the things that I have done for them for the past three years. At that moment, I felt that my heart was healed by these bunch of students."
Tyson speaks:
I am also very blessed to meet some students who are really close to me after I started teaching. At the time when I was sad, it was them who gave me the supports I needed. Sometimes, we really have to realise that it is impossible to get everyone to agree with us. All we need is just some supportive students. They are the one that will restore our faith in humanity.
Someone in Facebook summarised the challenges faced by a teacher nicely in the following post.
It is said that the teaching process is just like bring the students to swim in the ocean of knowledge.
After a while, you realised that you are only the one who reached the shore. Then you have to swim back to the ocean and pick the students up one by one.
Sometimes you may even realise that the students that you have picked up yesterday have gone back to be ocean. You need to pick them up again today.
When you felt very tired, you realised that there are some students who swim further and further from the shore๐ฒ
Well, I guess we should appreciate the fact that the students are willing to swim. What can you do if the students are too scared of the water? Or what should you do if the students just prefer sunbathing on the beach?
So to my students who supported me all these while and if you are reading the blog, thank you very much! You have no idea how your support meant to me when I was really down.
Question of the Day - Am I a Good Teacher?
According to the video, this question of "am I a good teacher" is "the most difficult lesson" for educators. It is also mentioned that this lesson is "the most difficult to be experienced in our life". It is also said in the video that "the most important lesson for an educator begins with their own reflection about themselves."
Let's see how the teachers in this video answer this question:
"I must tell all of you (my students) that I can't answer this question as at this moment. This is because I still have a lot of things to work on in order to be a better teacher. I can only answer this question as I progress through my entire teaching career."
"If there was a "good teacher" graduation certificate, frankly I don't know if I deserve that certificate or not. I don't know if I can achieve the passing mark in order to receive such certificate from all of you (my students)".
Tyson speaks:
On whether am I a good teacher, I can't really answer this question. I can't give a definite answer to the questions that I wrote above (the questions in purple). I think these questions should not be answered by me, but it should be answered by my students.
In any case, regardless of I am a good teacher or not, I just want to tell you that I am always learning and thinking about how to be better every day. No matter what is the answer, regardless of whether I felt hurt or otherwise, I want to tell my students that I am trying my best to impart my knowledge to all of you. I know that I am not perfect, and I think I will never be perfect. But what I know is that I will constantly improve myself in all aspects of my teaching career. I will always be willing to help you if you need help from me.
I also believe that you have the potential to achieve great things in life. As the saying goes,
้ๅบไบ่๏ผ่่ไบ่
Literally translate to: green is born of blue, but beats blue.
It means that the student can become superior to the master.
I wish you all the best and thank you for reading this post! To my students, my wish is that one day you will greet me on the street and tell me the stories of how you transform yourself to be a better person in your life.๐
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