A person who is seen as a nation-builder, who is expected to fulfil his or her duties in and outside the educational propaganda, who is the one of those many factors for a person’s career and who is very responsible for the growth of a country morally, ethically and intellectually: he or she is none other than a teacher.
An edutopia is something that every student craves for. A teacher can only come up with ideas to fulfil this fantasy which would otherwise seem bizarre. The teacher not only should be a teacher but should also be able to play a role of a friend who can stand with his/her students in their sorrows and their bereavements. The major goals in education can be stated in terms of pre-acquired knowledge and the knowledge yet to achieve. Great teachers somewhere are the mediators between these two stages. They build the bridge to connect these two. It is rightly said that:
“Teachers are those candles who burn themselves to give light to their students.”
A great teacher ensures that his/her student is brought up in a nurturing as well as a challenging environment. The young sapling in the form of students must face the coolness of the water that is poured on them as well as the hotness of the sunlight that is essential for their growth.
The teacher needs to create a welcoming and not a hostile learning environment. Every student’s view no matter how minimal, should be given importance. A teacher irrespective of his/her intellect and degrees, must take the teaching process as bidirectional. S/He should always be ready for the new things that s/he can learn from the students.
A teacher must create a sense of belonging in the classroom. Nobody, irrespective of their intellect, should feel alienated. Each student should feel that s/he is an integral part of the entire group and his/her presence is absolutely necessary for the educational outcome to be fruitful. A teacher should be away from any personal bias and should treat every student equally. Great teachers must also be good listeners. They should take time out of their way-too busy schedule to be available for their students. One of the abilities of a great teacher which can never be neglected is the ability to leave his/her personal baggage outside. Even if it is a bad day for the teachers, nobody gets to know. The teacher should impact in each child the desire to fulfil his or her dreams. The teachers must elicit their students’ best efforts and should always try to keep their mind engaged, so that even if they leave the classrooms they must feel alive with the fountains of new and innovative ideas. The teachers most importantly should walk their own talk.
These are some of the characteristics that the teachers must carry within themselves. But there are also some technicalities that a teacher must adapt in order to make his/her class even better.
In spite of being theoretical about concepts, a teacher must focus on vocational education. We might forget something that we hear as it involves application of only one sense organ, but if we are allowed to experiment on the same or see it live then the concept is expected to stay longer as we had all our sense organs working in the same direction.
A teacher is the fountain head of all knowledge. There is no doubt that s/he would know almost everything. But it is very important that the teachers must focus on bringing out the answers from the students. It is obvious that every student has some pre-acquired knowledge, attitude and skills. A great teacher must emphasis on taking that pre-acquired knowledge forward. This will not only raise the student’s confidence but also it will help the students in thinking more and more.
A teacher must know how to incorporate different teaching styles when one is not working. For ex: If an English teachers wants his/her students to feel the play, then that would never ever be possible if s/he simply reads out the play in front of the students. S/he must allot the students roles, so that when they play it, they feel it too. By this there is also one more advantage, i.e., they remember the lines of the play which not only allows them to fetch good marks in the exams but will also help them in the nearby future.
A teacher must show the excitement to co-learn which will make his/her students feel comfortable to express their own views and opinions.
A teacher must be like a compass which activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge, intellect and wisdom. A teacher can give students assignments which should be different from others. In the technical 21st century, use of internet to jot down things that have already been done, has become a fashion. To stop students from committing a sin like plagiarism, a teacher must introduce new and unique topics for the assignments. For ex: A student living in a certain locality can conduct a survey on that exact locality regarding something. This assignment for sure will not be available in any corner of the internet. This will not only make the assignment new and unique, it will also provide the student with a chance to know his/her surroundings better.
A teacher at times can take the help of guest speakers, who have expertise in particular fields. These lectures will help the students create an interest to know more and more about that particular topic. To make the assignments more interesting, teachers can ask the students to search it in a crossword puzzle, or in a collage or in a poster or jigsaw puzzle maps. The teachers must teach the student to read through the lines so that they get more detailed information than the rest of the world. Use of various aids like visual aids, recordings will help them in understanding the topics or the concepts.
I will conclude this with a thought that:
“A warrior wins the battle only if his weapons are pioneering, in this modern world the teacher is a warrior, with the educational propaganda as his/her battle field and the teaching methods as well as his/her characteristics as his/her only weapons.”
