Lessons From Students

Hands down, no doubt, the best way to learn is to............ TEACH.

It may have occurred to you as bizarre at first. It sounds just like the "chicken or egg paradox". How can you teach someone when you're actually learning? Isn't that unethical and unprofessional? Yes and no.

When Andy was just a helper or even later a TA(teaching assistant), he made lots of mistakes in his teaching. He didn't know what students were thinking about, what approaches to use or how to draw a more organized chart for grammar. Was he not teaching then? Not that he taught the wrong lesson but it wasn't the best way for students at that time. "The best way to learn is to teach" does not mean when you don't know anything and go on teaching anyways. That is unfortunately the cases for some people... The term implies "being adaptive". As a teacher, you can't teach one way and apply to all.

Often times, the way people view teachers falls on two extremes, slackers or saints. Neither is good. On the one hand, some professional teachers don't get enough respect and on the other, people show too much respect... so much to an extend that we are gold. When that happens, problems follow. Here's the thing. Teachers are not all-knowing, all-powerful and one above all. We're merely human, or those who know a bit more in some fields and are willing to pass that knowledge to more people. We may know more but sometimes the best way to share the information is never known. It is always different. One of our real tasks, or true purpose... is to find that difference in students. So yes, we could make mistakes, thinking what might have been more beneficial for some people but ended up being wrong at the time. That is still teaching.

We learn from our mistakes through teaching and thus teach better in the future. A key feature of teachers is to be able to reflect on themselves. Everything we do, everything we see and hear, every decision we make, could be a potential lesson. We aren't judges but we must be open for oppositions. Of course, it isn't easy; nothing meaningful is easy. We have to be philosophers and never stop producing more ideas, extend them and apply them.

From "bad" students to "good" teachers, we have to be able to see what we lack from our "projections" which are the very people we teach...

Lesson 1:

First and foremost, the one lesson that changes the world is love. Though when it comes may vary among people, eventually you'll learn that it's impossible to teach without love. To be selfless and genuinely think on behalf of others are not something equivalent to money. At the beginning you may like the job, but the reason you stay is definitely out of love. You can't buy love; you can't afford it. Once it's inside your system, you'll never work/live the same. Moreover, what's life without love? Everything goes down from the moment you act against it. The world could have been greater than it is now even if we just show ourselves or others a little more passion.

Lesson 2:

We make troubles and hurt one another, yet apologies may never come. That's okay. One of the passive skills that teachers have is to bear; we can take a hit and a thousand more hits. When you forgive others, you pardon yourself from the problem as well. After all, no one's perfect. We become teachers to help you grow into a better person, not to control and make-believe. Therefore, there's nothing you could do that doesn't deserve our forgiveness.

Lesson 3:

Nothing's fixed and there's always room for change so we change accordingly. Students ARE NOT PRODUCTS. They are not to be applied to a module; the module should apply to them! Yes, there are basic principles and rules to follow. However, having flexibility in your teaching is not any less important than setting up ground rules; rules are dead but we aren't. One common misunderstanding is that if you provide freedom to the less powerful(students), it will backfire and generate disorder. That's not true. People who say or agree with that notion confuses freedom to indulgence which is huge in difference but often exercised together. Creating a student-based learning environment does not mean students take over the lesson. Only an unfit "teacher" would misinterpret the two.

All we talk about has been directly for teachers but really, we meant it for everyone that reads thus far. You may not be teachers but you have definitely taught someone and when you did, you were learning subconsciously. What we would like to do here is to help you realize or remind you of the effect you have on yourself and on others when you become involved. When you teach and whatever you teach, you are engaged in someone's life. You are... making a difference. Just remember to make a good one.

#selfreflect

#motivation