We were all filled with great enthusiasm and a will to enrich the lives of students when we stepped in a classroom for the first time. We thought that we were the luckiest person in the world to be given the responsibility and opportunity to bring about a positive change in the lives of thousands of students. However, the more seasoned educators quickly brought us down a notch and told us that this enthusiasm will fade over time.
Today, the field of education is evolving rapidly before our eyes. Educational institutions across the world are readily adopting novel teaching tools such as LMS portals (LMS full form: Learning Management System), online teaching platforms, smart classes and other school management software for improving their efficiency. This is a really exciting time to be an educator and play one’s part in transforming the landscape of education.
While we all feel a little depleted at times, we shouldn’t stop enjoying our teaching journey and feel like the excitement of a teacher’s job is only limited to the first few weeks of teaching.
As an educator, you must try to reproduce the excitement and joy of your early days of teaching throughout your entire teaching career. Here are a few proven tips which will help you in doing just that and ensuring that you enjoy your teaching and become a truly great teacher….
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Finding the ‘why’
We often advise our students to think about the reasons behind them choosing a particular course. This helps them in enjoying the whole process while giving their best efforts. After years of teaching, sometimes we as educators forget to give enough thought to our ‘why’ question. The answer to this question may help the educators by making them fall in love with teaching all over again, or it may help them realize that teaching is no longer a fulfilling career for them. Either way, finding the ‘why’ is an integral part of the equation that we should revisit from time to time in order to make our teaching journey as fulfilling as possible.
Keep Learning and updating yourself
As educators, we often lose touch with a learner’s perspective. It is often said that the day you stop learning is the day you stop living. In order to enjoy their teaching journey, educators should make sure that they keep on learning and updating themselves by attending various teaching seminars, trainings and conferences. Attending a teacher conference allows you to interact and learn from other teachers, who are excited about the same things and are in the same boat as you. This will definitely help in reigniting our love for teaching and learning.
Building lasting connections with students
When the students seem disinterested in the subject, we spend years mastering and learning passionately, it quickly dampens our excitement and will to teach. However, when we try to connect with the students and get to know about their issues, interests, likes and dislikes, they reciprocate that interest in the class. It may not automatically lead them to fall in love with the subject, but they tend to pay more attention in the class if they like the teacher and feel connected to them on some level.
Take Regular Breaks
It’s hard to love anything if it’s all you do every day. Educators have to deal with a lot of pressure and responsibilities, from preparing lesson plans, planning lectures and zoom meetings, designing projects and assignments, handling administrative tasks to communicating with parents, school administration and students, a teacher is never off duty. It’s vital to take a break to recharge our batteries every so often. Taking time off or reducing your workload will not only help you in coming up with new ideas and perspectives about your teaching, but it will also help you rejuvenate yourself and take care of your physical and mental well-being. Taking a break will remove all the mental clutter and help in reducing the built-up fatigue after teaching for a long time, so that when you return to teaching, you come back with heightened energy and enthusiasm.
Loving what you do is a surefire way to achieve greatness in whatever it is that you do. Educators should try to keep themselves motivated and teach with the same passion and dedication with which they started their teaching career. Happy Teaching!