When an 18-year-old boy still remembers his kindergarten teacher, who taught him in the school when he was just 3 years old, that is a love of learning. And the reason for this is the memory which is alive deep in his heart.
The boy can still cherish those old memories of him with his teacher singing and enjoying the nursery rhymes, being in her hands, moving round and round and round in circles and dancing with his teacher “Beauty ma’am”. It is no less than a miracle remembering the name of the teacher when the boy was just 3 years old. So in one sentence, I can say that the love of learning lasts with the last breath of life and passes through generations.
It is true that I am a teacher by chance but the interest of teaching is in my blood. This is what I believe. I am a good teacher, no matter inside the school campus or outside the school. Of course, initially joining the job of a Teacher was my need but gradually this need converted into interest and has become a part of My Life.
Indeed, life cannot be led without money. To survive in this world and to be alive we need money. Hence I also needed money and did this job. However, I started getting connected to my job deeply when I experienced the joy of this job by receiving sweet and loving reflections from my students. Teaching in a school is a soulful job. Each and every day makes you feel alive.
You will experience ups and downs but when you will come before your students, you will forget everything, all bad phases and tensions and you will get involved with your children in a positive way. In this whole process, if a teacher can touch one single heart out of 40 students, the teacher should understand that his work is done well.
As a teacher, I do not focus on the negative parts of my job. Of course, sometimes I panic when I am overloaded with work. But the next moment I calm myself, sit silently and then think that I will do my best in whatever task is assigned to me and even if I fail in completing my work, it is also a learning for me. I take my work as a continuous learning process. There is a famous saying that ‘everyone can't be Jack of all trades’.
I also can't be the Jack. But I can try at least. Personally, I believe that everyone should maintain a balance between a family life and a professional life. We have our responsibilities and roles towards both. We cannot avoid any of them. So things should be planned in such a way that they should not disturb each other.
I also believe in equal distribution of work in any system. Those who are good performers are overburdened with more and more work whereas those who perform badly are given front work. Sometimes such things disturb the balance in the system as well as in personal life. I also want to say that the system should analyze and provide equal opportunities to all employees. So that all will work with a happy framework of mind.
Now let's talk about love learning and hate learning. A class full of 40 students includes 40 different personalities with different interests, IQs, hobbies, behaviours, values, family backgrounds, society etc.
Hence they all perform differently in their assessments. It is usually observed that children are weak in major subjects based on concepts, which does not happen in 1 day, one month, or 1 year. Students get weak year by year. Becoming weaker in any subject may have several reasons. For example, a child could be weak in math or science because of not attending classes regularly, being busy in co-curricular activities, or because of dislike for the subject or subject teacher. But the less marks do not decide a child's wisdom or his potential.
Also, there are different types of children for example some children learn under pressure whereas some learn when they are happily ready to learn. So a teacher must develop a rapport with these students. In the starting period, teachers should take some time to understand students' mindsets so that learning can be done positively. Until and unless a child is not connected with the teacher, the subject being taught by the teacher will be difficult to be understood by the child.
Gradually students will develop fear or hesitation with the subject teacher and hence stop asking questions. Day by day he/she will keep on moving to the next topic with piled-up doubts in their mind. That is how they become weak and weaker day by day in the particular subject. Becoming weaker in a subject ends the interest in that subject. And the student finds the particular subject boring and stops paying attention. Also, try to run away from that subject and ignore the subject teacher. Hence love learning can only be done if the child is happily ready to learn.
In my opinion, a teacher should look presentable and approachable. Each student observes his or her teacher minutely, small talk by a teacher means a lot to the student, and a small encouragement done by the teacher can be a big effort in bringing change and improvement in a child's performance.
Once the child feels connected to the teacher, it means the teacher has won the half battle. Because the child will put his or her best effort into making the particular teacher happy, the child will try not to leave the chance of complaint, and s/he will focus more and more. That is how the child will start moving towards this step of Improvement.
Mohini Rai
Sunbeam Suncity