Saturday, August 31, 2013

New School Year Resolutions

   Every teacher probably agrees with me when I see every end-of-year or start of school year period both as tense and stressful moments, though very enthusiastic to start again. The never-ending cycle of challenges adds to the experience and expertise of every teacher wherever /she happens to teach. Every world has a set of challenges to face. You might say that change is slow, so sluggish even, in our developing world, but this does not exclude the fact that our teachers are learning new things each day, even though they are not of urgent need now, but who knows? Let us keep crossing our fingers for a better system everywhere in the world. However, let us remingd ourselves that the system cannot change if teachers , the icon of development and new learnings do not alter their ways of teaching and adapt ways that do conform to the age spirit. With all of this taken into consideration, I might seem a 
I do have many resolutions for this new year's start and I am willing to implement them. Nonetheless, I shall not forget to direct your attention to this article I have had such a joy reading and it has inspired me to translate my thoughts into words.Here is the link :  http://newteachers.tes.co.uk/content/get-best-start-your-teaching-career                  

Here are my resolutions. The order is at random. Hope they do ring many bells to you, too!
 1- Reflect, Rethink, Revise, Revisit : I do sincerely think of empowering my relfective practices by keeping a personal teaching journal where I can revisit my practices, my teaching style more objectively and scrutinize the way I teach, even if that means filming myself and asking my mentor's or my colleagues' advice.
2-Evaluate more. Evaluate my learners' progress and get more feedback from them whether directly or indirectly.
3-Smile more. Smiling does not only spread positivity but it also helps lighten the weight of stress on all.
4-Obliterate stress by learning through fun and funny activities.
5-Love my pupils and treat them warmly, equally and sensibly. Every learner is a wealth to discover. Wish my pupils' number per class would shrink.
6-Understand my learners, their needs, their motives, their ambitions and teach accordingly. 
7-Trial and error is  the key to success, but success is not final and every success is followed by a series of failures we must learn from in order to take steps forward.
8-Interest the learners more and more by tackling subjects and topics of interest to them. 
9-Overcome negative feelings. At some stressful periods, negative thoughts reign and as a teacher/ a learner, we do feel very low and we need that encouraging word that makes us move forward. We may pretend to be self-sustaining creatures, but we're more positive when others do appreciate what we are doing even with an appreciative smile. 
10-Nurture creativity in my pupils , whether tech creativity or non tech creativity. 
11-Sustain, support my learners, whether low achievers or high achievers during the learning progress.

   These are my resolutions. I am sure I will do my best to concretise most of them. Hindering blocks I would certainly meet every day, but with the aim in mind, I will work harder and overcome , hopefully, most of them. 
Visit language garden http://www.languagegarden.com/PlantMaker2/index.html to make beautiful plants :-)


   Wish every teacher/ learner a fresh start and Happy New school year. Enjoy every bit of your teaching/ learning and life will be merrier.