6 Things I Have Learnt As A Teacher

We are about to finish this academic year. And I am both emotional and kind of relieved at the same time. Although, I have enjoyed teaching and sad that I am not going to teach some of my students anymore, I am also happy that I will get to rest.

I cannot believe how many things can teaching teach you. I feel like a grew as a person.

And one of the best part of it is that, finally I got to experience being on the other side and seeing through a teachers eye…

I have learnt that teachers do have favorite students.

Okay, alright, I know I am not supposed to say this. However, there are some students who were not easy to teach. There were times I would take a deep breath before we start the class and I would keep checking time. As soon as we hit 1 hour sharp, I would just say “We are done.” So, if your high-school teacher every told you guys I love you all… Well, I don’t think so :)

Like the way you have students you are not a fan of, there are students you really feel connected to…

And I really cherish them. I love them. They are respectful, cheerful and have smiling faces. I feel kind of blue that we are about to finish the classes with them. And I know that I will always remember them fondly.

Sometimes, I have no idea what the answer is to a question.

And when that happens, I am honest with them 90 percent of the time. However, sometimes letting the students know that you are wrong might be a dangerous precedent :)

When I don’t want to make it obvious that I don’t know the answer, I usually ask them “Well, what do you think?”, “Why don’t you search about it and let me know?”, “Hmm, let me show you the picture in Google.”

I remember our teachers used to do this to us sometimes. And I think it works. I hope I am not fooling myself :)

There is always a way to explain things simpler and clearer.

I have a great amount of patience when it comes to explaining. Which is crazy as normally I have huge short temper :)

And as a teacher who have taught kindergartners, A2 level students, adult students and so on, I have met students who have diverse level of English. Some of them could talk to me almost without any problem, while others would get confused with the simple tenses. And regardless, I would always find a way to make the topic more easily understandable.

I love this so much and thought worth mentioning it, because it shows the power of words to give someone the part of your wisdom they are seeking for. Isn’t that so cute? Understanding your students’ needs and giving them what you can offer is pretty amazing.

Sometimes you feel like a failure.

This feeling usually comes and hits you when you ask a very simple question you have just covered a week ago, and your students look at you with blank eyes. I never get angry at them for that, but I feel so disappointed in myself. I feel like I failed to teach them properly to the extent they can’t even remember a single thing.

This made me realize how bad some of our teachers must have felt, when we scored lower in their classes. I thought it only affected me, but probably they thought they failed to teach us, not we failed their class.

I started to quiz my friends unintentionally

During the class if we run into a word I think my students wouldn’t know, I would ask them if they know the meaning. If they say “yes”, then I would ask them “What does it mean, then?” as a confirmation. This way I make sure that they do know what is that word.

Funny thing is, I started to do that with my friends. If I am talking to my friends who are not fluent in English yet, and I think the word I am about to say is difficult, I ask them if they know that word or not. When they say “yes”, I should stop there, right? Well, I ask them “Then what is it?” :)

I think it’s not my place to quiz my friends, and I usually try not to do that mistake again.

These are pretty much things I have learnt during my teacher-phase.

It was a roller-coaster-like experience. Sometimes it was going down and sometimes up. I am happy I got to do this. And I am happy that I got to meet quite a lot of amazing people! :)