MANUAL TO TEACHING

Every new teacher wishes there is a manual to teaching. Unfortunately, there isn't.
Teachers are required to undergo training, but what is learned in colleges, from books etc are only very helpful in preparing teachers the basics. However, there are more to it that can only be learned over the years of teaching.

Even after spending 19 years teaching, I'm still learning and testing new methods. We need to be in par with the changes over the years.
The closest to a teaching manual is experience + creativity + patience + observant.
So, here I would like to share a glimpse from my 'manual'.

A) Who is the best person to teach you how to teach?
Answer : Your client aka your students. Every student has similar traits but never the
same. So, never assume.

B) How do you know what you're supposed to do?
Answer : You don't, at least not immediately. You'd need to quickly get to know and
recognize each student's character, ability, strength, weakness and problem be
it in academic, social, personal or discipline.

C) How do you know whether what you're doing is right or wrong?
Answer : You don't know exactly, but through experience + creativity + patience +
observant you'll get as close to being right.

D) When do I give up on a student?
Answer : Never ever. There is always hope because I always believe every child wants to
learn. It is up to the teacher to push a student to the maximum capability of the
child.
Example : A child is not capable of drawing a rocket, then at least teach the child to
connect the dots and color a picture of a rocket.

E) Do you use a cane to push a student?
Answer : Avoid the cane if possible. I say if possible because some students like my own
son needed a cane to jump start him when he was 6 years old. He refuses to
learn anything because he misses his mom. So Pn Zai, his kindergarten teacher
after exhausting every other method (when he was 5 years old all
other teachers had given up) and against all her beliefs, had to
show him the cane in every lesson for the first two months. She never used it on
him. Since then on, he successfully scored 8As in his PMR. My son is a shy, timid,
quiet, low profile boy in school.
So, before using the cane or shouting at them, KNOW YOUR STUDENTS.
I myself found my most impossible hardcore students responses to gentle cajoles
from me. Don't be sidetracked by their rudeness, because that is their way to
cover up their weakness.

This post is getting to be too long. So, I will end with a reminder.
A teacher is a powerful person. A teacher is capable to make a child do what they believe they can never do.
So teachers, use your power to the full.
HAPPY TEACHERS DAY : GURU PEMBINA NEGARA BANGSA