Random Thoughts about Teaching
I'm happy to read my students' blog posts and notice that they are doing fine in their Secondary schools. It brings me back to the past when I was in university. I saw those screaming kids running around the shopping centre with their parents yelling at them. I remembered accompanying my little cousins and not knowing how what to say to them. I recall feeling helpless with children, and being unsure if I would ever want to spend extended time with them.
After all, the statement, "I love children", that is characteristic of what many teachers would say, felt like a motherhood statement to me. A little too much of a motherhood statement. Something a single, young lady back then did not quite feel up to...as yet.
Fast forward to my teaching years where I learnt much about education through daily interactions with my students, and developed an innate sort of intuition when I spoke to them or read what they wrote. I enjoyed challenging their thoughts in class and engaging in open debates with them. I felt the thrill when I ganged up with a particular Primary one Art class I was teaching, to help spring their aged form teacher a pleasant surprise.
Early this year, when I made a trip to visit my cousins in Malaysia, they were amazed at how my little nephew was sticking to me, even though I had only met him for the first time, attributing it to my "teacher's touch". Similar remarks came from other people when they saw me teaching some children and teenagers at Karate class. Those days of feeling helpless with children now seems like a long walk back into history.
It simply proves that we humans are capable of things that we may never have envisioned before. Without trying, we'd never really know, right?
I've never known whether being a teacher was 'the right path'. It was a path that I simply trod on because I followed my heart. I wouldn't say that I discovered teaching. Rather, it was teaching that discovered me.
I don't know if I was ever 'called' into this profession. But I know I eventually fell in love with education.
After all, the statement, "I love children", that is characteristic of what many teachers would say, felt like a motherhood statement to me. A little too much of a motherhood statement. Something a single, young lady back then did not quite feel up to...as yet.
Fast forward to my teaching years where I learnt much about education through daily interactions with my students, and developed an innate sort of intuition when I spoke to them or read what they wrote. I enjoyed challenging their thoughts in class and engaging in open debates with them. I felt the thrill when I ganged up with a particular Primary one Art class I was teaching, to help spring their aged form teacher a pleasant surprise.
Early this year, when I made a trip to visit my cousins in Malaysia, they were amazed at how my little nephew was sticking to me, even though I had only met him for the first time, attributing it to my "teacher's touch". Similar remarks came from other people when they saw me teaching some children and teenagers at Karate class. Those days of feeling helpless with children now seems like a long walk back into history.
It simply proves that we humans are capable of things that we may never have envisioned before. Without trying, we'd never really know, right?
I've never known whether being a teacher was 'the right path'. It was a path that I simply trod on because I followed my heart. I wouldn't say that I discovered teaching. Rather, it was teaching that discovered me.
I don't know if I was ever 'called' into this profession. But I know I eventually fell in love with education.
Labels: reflections, teaching
posted by Jeanie Lee @ 5:17 PM.
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