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My classroom - Kingdom of Peace, Harmony and Happiness
“A good teacher, like a good entertainer first must hold
his audience’s attention, then he can teach his lesson”.
John Henrik Clarke
A classroom should be a place where children should feel happy to be there in and
should feel free to interact with each other, and feel secured in the hands of their
teacher. A good teacher teaches, a best teacher explains, an excellent teacher
inspires, Inspiring ones learners is not that an easy task. Before we approach our
learners we should prepare ourselves to meet each and every child who tends to be in
a different state of their mind.
We as an inspiring teacher should start our class with an ice breaker session, this
would bring the learners get their mind focussed into the present. I would like to quote
an ice breaker session which very frequently is included in my classroom. As I enter
the class the students are highly active, busy with all their full fledged enjoyment and
entertainment, but as a teacher when pupils see me they are forcefully stopping all
their deeds and unwillingly sit silent to pretend as if they are ready to listen to me. But
as a teacher I realize their state of mind and would like them to be involved in learning
with the happy , entertaining state of mind they were a few seconds ago in.
To make the learners unknowingly come to learning ice breaker session play an
important role, for example as a part of introducing my learners to my class without
disturbing their state of mind, I enquire what in the day was the most happiest moment
of the day till then, may be few children remind of children celebrating birthday that day.
I greet the children celebrating birthday and make one of them answer a thought
provoking question as to “how many days old? “ was the child, usually everybody thinks
of asking the age of the child and the child has a habit of answering it in years, but this
question of “how many days old are you?” would surely make every child in the class
think of their age in days. This is one Ice breaker which can make every child reach the
same level of mind.
From the lecture 3.2 on ’Reflective practice’ I do agree with this philosophy of teaching
and learning by making learners involved in what they learn. As my subject is Biology I
mostly make learners emphasise doing activities described in their lessons by doing
and drawing observations from their experiments. These activities are then discussed
in the class with peer groups and each child is actively involved in the discussion
regarding the same.
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I also agree with the three R’s discussed in the lecture 3.2 namely Retrospection,
Review and Reorientation. As a teacher in high school we handle children of different
classes belonging to the same grade. Say for example once i come to the end of a
session in one tenth grade class, I go for retrospection, thinking back about the
situations and experiences I had in the class and review it not to repeat the similar
undesirable situations in my next class. The good experiences could be used as a
reorientation which i can use in my other classes.
Once we involve learners in their learning activities, learning would never be a
boredom to them , they start enjoying learning. This precious deed is what is expected
of a teacher in her classroom.I swear to make my classroom a kingdom of peace by
not incorporating corporal punishment, a kingdom of harmony by treating every child of
my class as my own and a kingdom of happiness by involving every child in learning
activities in the class. Thus I conclude with words of Deval Patrick
“A great teacher who is full of excitement and love for her
students can make all the difference In their lives”
Deval Patrick
An essay written by Mrs. Sapna Ullas
for a coursera on “Foundation on
teaching for learning - Being a
Teacher” on Coursera