6th October 2018
World Teacher's Day was enthusiastically celebrated by Teachers' Lounge at The Nest I/O in appreciation of teachers and honoring them for their contributions in shaping the young minds. The event was organized in collaboration with the OpenMic.
Teachers from all vicinity of Karachi joined for a thought-provoking discussion. Teachers’ Lounge is the brainchild of Saima Jawaid Khan, she is the founder and chief resource officer at Teachers' Lounge. OpenMic, a platform that encourages students to voice their opinion, led the event as a dialogue partner.
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| Saima Jawaid Khan |
The event started off with a dialogue session led by OpenMic.
In response to the question, ‘what motivated you to become a teacher and what are the aspirations that drove you to join this profession?
Huma Jabeen:
“I was a born teacher, from the beginning one skill persisted; I was a listener. If you are passionate to do something for someone then teaching is the profession you chose. I tell my students about everything, be it my embroidery craft or storytelling and I also listen to their stories.
Rehana Saleem
The main challenge for me when I joined the profession was I come from the families of doctors and engineers. When they came to know I want to opt for Teaching as my profession, my father and my friends opposed it.
I opted for Masters of Arts. This decision was not accepted and encouraged by my father at all. As time passed and when I used to tell him stories of Sindh and Baluchistan, the schools, the children, their condition, his mindset changed about this profession and me.
Finally it was when I was leaving for the UK for study, he said," I am proud of you".
He would tell everyone about me and how big the impact a teacher can make.
Asma Kamal Zuberi
In my case, it was my choice!. I choose to be a teacher. Two months long vacation and short hours of working attracted me. It was a decent choice but as time progressed I felt the essence of my work is missing. So I worked harder, took more training and spent hours planning. I sometimes slept with my workbooks besides me.
Tahira Khan
I used to play teacher-teacher when I was a child with cousins. Would beat my cousins as that was my experience and observation of the “profession”. After my masters, I had nothing to do so my parents came up with teaching as a profession and that’s the option I took. It’s then I came to know “teaching” is my passion and I am good at it.
In the beginning, I loved it and was always in my class and never left it. I wouldn't stay in the staff room. The idea of being outside when my students were inside the class was alien to me.
From then it’s always exploring myself and learning process.
Mehwish Rehman
My mother was a teacher and a role model for me. I used to copy all my teachers; how they dressed, which side of the board they wrote the date... everything.
Everyone in my family knew I would become a teacher.
After I did my masters of English, I got a call from Happy Home School for managing an event and content writing. I covered that event for them, afterward they asked me to join the school in the capacity of English Teacher, I hesitated but eventually joined.
The day I went to the class, the energy of the students surprised me. I take a senior level, class 5 till university level.
As for the challenges I faced during teaching I would say it has been a smooth sail. I never thought of being Deputy Headmistress and missed teaching so one day I asked my Principal to let me teach a class, she was surprised, "Do you have time?", I responded, "I miss it."
The second round of panel discussion was about challenges teachers face, career development, and job satisfaction.
Asra began the second round of discussion by listing the main challenges and asked the panelists about the challenges of today. She began asking:
"Its 21st century, the age of technology and ever-changing dynamic curriculum. No one can be sure of what future student will have, predict which type of job they are going to land on. Besides getting good grades they have to learn the soft skill, social skills, the biggest challenge is the instilling critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork and collaboration."
"Our generation has to step out and face global interactions more than ever before as in our part of the world we have a fixed mindset."
mindset. There is a lot of hype about us being open to change but our actions tell us we are not yet liberated from the conventional mentality."
"We need to develop a curriculum that is holistic to face the challenges. What our esteemed panelists have to guide us in this regard?"
Huma Jabeen
I believe the first challenge is the "workforce" in teaching. They are young, inexperienced and focused only on covering the syllabus. They are focused on only finishing a chapter of the book and the objectives in a way that transfers only the knowledge. It doesn't inspire the student to 'think logically', think out of the box.
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Member teachers of Teachers’ Lounge |
Why math can’t be integrated with ethics. I tell my teacher they can make their own problems to teach ethics. Suppose we are teaching arrays; Seven cars in one row, how many are in three rows? You can then discuss how we are so negligent in staying in a row, taking turns in a row and how this related to ethics and civil sense.
We have somehow assumed a (course) book is a Holy Literature; we need to read from start till finish without reflecting on its contents.
She asked the audience;
"Don’t you agree a dedicated teacher is the biggest challenge?"
Tahira Khan
Yes, we are short of dedicated professional teachers. 2nd challenge is “fussy parents”. When we were students some two decades ago, our parents never took our side stating,”Tum ny hi kuch keya hoga" (you must have done something wrong). Now parents enter straight to the administration office and argue about teacher’s complaint about a child.
This is a common perception we can’t find a (trained) teacher, I believe the teachers are available but they don’t have passion, sincerity, and dedication. On the other hand, no matter how much training is provided, sometimes there is no change; the reason is passion.
Rehana Saleem
Our teachers belonged to Boomers. We are their students, Generation X, our junior teachers are from Millenniums. So we are the "midstream" of teachers. We have worked with both the Boomers and the Millenniums and it's our responsibility to put forward the best of both.
I believe the intrinsic motivation is what produces good teachers. No external reward can bring that out.
Reward based parenting is responsible for the culture of dissatisfied generation X. So I would say let's pat them on the back and talk to them about their issues.
My teachers were upset the management didn't arrange for the teacher's day celebration, I tell them the cards, flowers, and cakes from their students is the real acknowledgment!.
Asma Kamal Zuberi
Young teachers are different from the generation before them; senior teachers, headmistresses, principals, and administration. They were old school.
Change should come from that generation. We, at the senior level of school administration, should put ourselves in junior teacher’s shoes. Intrinsic motivation, flexible timings, open communication, and growth opportunity will make a change not nagging about deadlines and "micromanagement".
One more thing I will add here is this generation is diversified and multitasking. They get bored easily and want change contrast to us who have to spend 20 years teaching the same subject.
Student is a customer in the eye of the school. The customer is always right. Parents as customers force management as to why their child doesn’t take a position. An "under pressured management" channels this pressure towards teachers. It's very common that management takes more admissions in a class that affect teacher’s quality of delivering the knowledge.
Huma Jabeen
This also seems like a challenge; mentors and teachers need to give "time" to students. To "connect" with them on an individual level. This might seems a daunting task provided we have only 45 minutes, but if you keep aside 5 minutes connecting with the children, it's possible.
Only a paradigm shift in terms to course completion and following syllabus can change that. Taking up both the roles as a counselor and a coach that enables A* grades for students within classroom limitation is what we call a dedicated teacher.
Asma Kamal Zuberi:
When teachers apply for the job s/he might have a preconceived notion of an 8-hour job, with two seasonal vacations. Your reach home and the job is done.
The true nature of the job keeps you occupied even when you are at home, of course, it makes you stressed but this is "passion".
Our school acknowledges stress factor and have allowed us a Yoga class weekly. It has helped teachers to give themselves time and de-stress. The Human factor should not be ignored if we want to enhance the quality of education.
Rehana Saleem
We have major seasonal workload weeks, where teachers are preparing for exams, checking papers and compiling results. Once that cycle is over, I tell my boss my teacher will relax for the next week; watch a movie, read a novel or sketch. They gave their best to us, this is what I can do for them.
Tahira Khan
A good team leader has good team members. A leader knows each and every one; people tell me they worked for a set up for 5 years and don’t know the names of their teachers!.
When I quote the problems of my teachers and how they can to solve them, they get surprised how come I know each and every one! Not just their name but their (life) stories too.
I currently have a team of 100 teachers and I know each and everyone personally. They come to me to discuss, I have given them space to discuss their problems while maintaining professionalism.
This drew us closer to a brainstorming session.
Saima came on stage to elaborate on the brainstorming session. This session was an engaging activity that involved teachers to come up with a lesson plan.
The event concluded by Saima Jawaid Khan, with a thank you note followed by a giveaway.
SURPRISE GIVEAWAY
A whole year of the free digital subscription of
The Reformer magazine!!
I am Saima Faisal, passionate math teacher and blogger. Share and comment below and let me know how you celebrated Teachers' Day!
