No matter how great a teacher could be in teaching and learning, there is one thing that no teacher out there should forget is that kids do not learn from people they don’t like. It is that simple. If you are an educator and you don’t really care whether your kids like you or not, you are simply in the wrong profession.That doesn’t mean every kid that comes across your way as a teacher, must like you or will like you.
However, showing that you care sincerely has to be a part of your instinct, a part of who you are as an educator. Without caring, you will never trigger neither the love of teaching and educating in you nor the love of learning in your students because at the end of the day those kids will learn how to add, subtract, divide and multiply. They will also learn how to write, read and speak properly.
But will they ever taste the joy of learning?Will they ever retain it in them and eventually take it with them in the real world? Will they ever be touched by the truth of your care to the point of caring themselves for others in the real world? It is taking the time to care first that allows us (educators) to connect with those kids. Building a connection of trust with them that would open the taste of learning in them through the process. This is a part of human relationship within its complexity of work and emotions.
Our job as educators is to lay down that work ethics on the table surrounded with love and supported by trust, encouragement and appreciation. Be nice with your students while being firm. This is called tough love. Be a good listener. Follow what you say to your students and implement it as you say it. Say what you mean and mean what you say to your students while watching your language. Make sure to be fair all the time when you deal with kids and watch every word you say in front of them.
Kids are smart and innocent human beings. They are powerful judges who can feel the truth no matter how deep it is hidden in the soul. In fact, kids are capable of connecting only with the truth till they discover the opposite of the truth. Once teacher loses students’ trust, no matter what technique and strategies of teaching s/he uses, learning will rarely occur as it should be.
Teachers should never underestimate the ability of the students to distinguish between who cares and who doesn’t care. My advice to you teachers is to stay honest, fair, faithful and firm with your noble mission while doing the right thing all the time.
Rabahi Yazid M.ED.
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