Teachers are Good Listeners

A good teacher is not he who gives everything to the students; he should also take something from them. In other words, he should not always be a 'sage on the stage' kind of teacher rather he should be a 'guide by the side' type of teacher. Teachers nowadays should not be as all-knowing as they were before, because the students' minds have expanded due to its exposition to various knowledge and information ranging from any kinds of media such as the television, the Internet, the newspapers and the magazines. Many of the students also attend tuitions to add to what they get from the formal classroom. Therefore, it is only appropriate for the teachers to listen to what the students want to say. We should give them the room to express their opinions, to expand their creativity, and to state their stand in whatever issues we invoke in the classroom discussion. The curriculum today also pave the way for them as it requires the classroom environment to be more 'student-centred' rather than 'teacher-centred'. During my practicum at SMK Mengkuang, I insert a lot of group discussions in my lesson plans. True, we should not put it into every lesson we planned; we should also alternate it with individual works or partner works (with their friends sitting on their right, left, back or in front of them).