Why I want to reflect on teaching

A good teacher, like a good entertainer, must hold the audience’s attention, then he can teach his lesson. — John Henrik Clarke

There isn’t a better quote that defines my relationship with my students. I started teaching as a Teaching Assistant in September 2014. It took a year to realize how to be the entertainer as well as the expert (not just in the subject matter but also in helping them find answers to questions I did not know answers to) in the class to keep my students’ attention. Though now I am preparing to teach junior high and high school kids, the need to have them focused on the subject matter and what I am teaching does not change.

I remember the thoughts running through my head when I was first entering the classroom as a teacher. I was going to give a tutorial at a computing science lab. Though I had taken a similar class during my undergraduate degree, I was new to the software being used in this class. But that is not what I was nervous about.

As an international student stepping into a Canadian classroom in the role of the facilitator, it was hard to know what to expect beforehand. Do I do introductions? Will I remember all their names? What if I forget what I am teaching? What if I don’t know the answers to their questions?

It’s been over three years since that first class. And now I can play back the memory and add it to my experiences.

I am pursing an After Degree in Secondary Education from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. This is my first term of teacher training and my courses on Adolescent Development, Contexts of Education, Laws and Ethics in Education and First Nations Contexts in Education have made me reflect a lot on my own schooling in India and the challenges of schooling in Canada. There are lots of knowledge that a teacher has, not just related to her subject area but also in other contexts like classroom management, legislations that govern us, knowledge about the kids we work with, learning strategies and so on.

Through my blog posts on teaching, I want to share with you strategies I have used, what worked and what did not, what it was like to write my first course and, in general, I want to share the thoughts I have had through my teaching degree and how they have helped me grow to be a better teacher. Bullet journaling also helps in the reflection because that is where I house my thoughts every day. Most of what I will write on this blog will be based on the snippets I wrote in my journal. Stay tuned!

Also published on Medium.