TODAY IS Teachers Day. What will you do to make your child's teacher feel special and appreciated? What will you as a student do to make your teacher feel honoured and valued? Help to motivate teachers to give of their best to their students and the education system.
Here is what a few teachers from in and around the Corporate Area had to say about gestures and activities from students and parents that make them feel special and honoured to be a teacher.
A little thank you card/note, and compliments from the parents go a long way with some teachers.
"When my students write me little cards saying you are special, and when the parents compliment me saying my child has done well or he was slow, now he has improved." L. Mason (Mavisville Prep.)
The sheer pleasure of seeing students learn, to be excited about the lesson taught and actually looking forward to a next day of school, make teachers feel honoured and proud to be called educators.
"There is an unexplained feeling when a child did not grasp a lesson and after a while he finally understands. The child will come with enthusiasm and exclaim, Miss I now understands. Thanks Miss." Andrea Alexander (Sts. Peter & Paul Prep. School)
When parents are involved in their child's education, assisting the teachers to make a difference, teachers feel that their efforts are not useless.
Whenever my students say, "Miss I really enjoy the lesson you taught today, will we be doing it again tomorrow?" Also whenever a parent take time-out to say "Miss Williams I have seen much improvement in my child's work and I will continue to work with you." - Ms. J. Williams (Stony Hill Prep. School)
When students act spontaneous and mischievous and parents appreciate the work teachers have put in the development of your students.
"Sometimes I have to leave the classroom for different reasons. Upon my return the children are all silent and tucked under the desk. When I enter the room they would pop up from under the desk and shout Surprise. And also when the parent of a child, who was in my class but moved unto another grade, still say, "hello, my favourite teacher, and its teachers like you we need in the classroom." Ms. Alethia Robertson, (Portmore Missionary Prep.)
Teaching is an honourable and noble profession, yet many people look down on the profession. As one advertisement asks, "if we did not have teachers, how would doctors and lawyers develop their expertise? One of the reasons, for the lack of respect by many could lie in the fact that most teachers are unable to afford life's basics such as putting a roof over their head and buying a vehicle on wages they are paid.
To develop and mould the minds of forty to fifty students every day for an academic year in a public school is an awesome responsibility. And if that teacher is in the classroom for over thirty years, that's one thousand five hundred students' lives that she/he has help to shape. Today, Teachers' Day, we should consider how we treat our teachers, and remember that our educators/teachers are the corner-stones of building an educated Human Resource base, our people. Government officials, what are you doing to make teachers feel motivated and empowered in the classroom? Students what are you do to receive the lessons that the teacher is imparting, are you attentive, and ready to participate in the teaching/learning process? Parents are you the teacher away from school, do you check on your child to ensure that all homework are completed, that he/she is participating in the learning/education process? We all have to a role to play in assisting the teacher in developing themselves and their students that they can both give of their best.
