Happy Teacher's Day!!
It is now my fifth years in service. The year where you could at least claimed to have sufficient knowledege of the way around of the teaching world. The year where you would have actually meet 95% of all the "dinosour". (Quote: different park, different dinosour)
Every year since my teaching career started, i would come up with a saying or a quote or a reflection of my teaching journey. This is not to push / force people who read it to singing praises to teachers, rather it is a motivation to myself to evaluate my "teacher-ness". However, this year i failed to come up with any. As my Whatsapp and Facebook wall started to get flooded by all those well wishes and lovely speech, i became more withdrawn. a question popped in my head, am i worthy of all the praises and good thought people have of me? That i couldn't answer. i felt like i didn't own all the greatness people readily sang out loud. i couldn't come up with any. I can only say, thank you to let these people know that i appreciate being appreciated.
I was doing a report on T&L observation in class for my superior. So i started counting marks. so was my train of thought, they started to build up. i have one very simple question.
What makes one a good teacher?
Is it a matter of instructional alone with no room to bend the structure?Pure theoretical?
Is there really no room for humanity and human weakness or human error?
Is it a matter of ethical consideration only, again with no room for humanity?
Do you implement what work, or you go ahead with what seems to suit the system? (Not your students)
And so therefore, i couldn't claim that teacher's day is a day for me to celebrate. Because somewhere along the line it would always come back to what is prescribed to be right by the system / the traditional values of teaching. I dont know but looking at the T&L evaluation, all the flying colors and my mark is nowhere near "flying". hahaha
i couldn't claim my rights as a teacher on the basis that i didn't performed well according to the marks given.
At one point, i was embarrased by all the well wishes.
And to this point, i still have the question lingering : Am i a good teacher?
How "good" is "good" anyway?
