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).

Teachers and Child Psychology

Salam. I had never done this before, so go easy on me. This is my first time writing something on the Internet. I am actually a little old for this kind of thing, but, I am a little childish on the inside. I like playing games; any kind of board games will be just like putting a fish into the water as I will master it quite naturally. Personally, I think that you should be a little childish if you are a teacher like me. You'll have to master the knowledge and the technical know-how of tackling your students, and nothing is better than being at their level to know how they feel, what they want. It is funny that you think you know what your students want but you actually didn't. Yes, it is true that you are not supposed to succumb to everything your students want, but still you have to show that you understand them by leveling yourself once or twice and heed to their demands (as long as it does not degrade you as a teacher). I had once postponed my lesson because everybody was not in the right mood for the lesson, so I took them to the language lab to play Scrabble.