Message from my Sis:)
On Saturday, I have a chance to join a education conference organized by St. Mary's Secondary School. It was their 100 years celebration so they had invited 2 famous speakers (who are also Christians) to give a talk. They are Dr. Low Guat Tin and Mrs. Lim Chye Tin. Dr. Low was an associate professor at the National Institute of Education, Singapore while Mrs.Lim was her sister, she was the former Dean of the Academy of Principals, Singapore. They were both more than 65 years old but their passion for teaching was still on fire. I would say this is the most exciting conference I ever attend because both of them carried out the talk with the most relax way - with lots of jokes, laughter and activities! They always believe that adding some humor in our teaching keeps the classroom alive.
There are 2 topics: 1) Tools to engage learning; 2) Sustaining the passion to teach.This is what I learned from the conference:
A) Tools to engage learning:-It is important to get the attention of our students. Unless students are paying attention to the instruction, it does not matter how good the lesson is. 1) How to make the lesson alive?- Voice variety - use different tone while talking,avoid monotone.- Gesture - Teachers not just have to be a teacher in the class, he/she has to be an actor/actress! Act in the class!- Arousing students' curiosity -Giving hint of the work you will be giving but not telling them what is the result they get. E.g: teaching them to fold some origami before class but do not tell them what are they folding.- Challenge- always give them challenging questions so that they can think and take up the challenge to find out more about what they are learning.
2) A teacher must always ready to give their heart.
B) Sustaining the passion to teach:
1) Where are you in reflection to what you want? Do you have a clear vision on what you want to achieve as a teacher?
Vision requires: love, faith, faithful and truth.
2) What is passion?
- a great desire for something
- an intense emotion
- flow
- spend time on it
3) Passion in the driving force.
It gives us lots of energy to do our work.
It spread excitement.
It make us work even harder.
Have a zest for life.
As a teacher, we must always constantly remind ourselves on our vision, recharge ourselves physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. It keeps our fire burning. When we are passionate about teaching, we are willing to spend extra time for our work.
Teaching is not a job, it is a vocation. As a Christian, we must give 100% to our work everyday. And most importantly, go extra miles for our students, it is all worth in the end of the day. All the hard work pays off when you see growth in the students, even a little growth in them.Lastly, this is the quote she shared with us:
'The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation.' Mark Twain'
