I am teacher

I am a teacher.

I was born the first moment that a question leaped from the mouth of a child.

I have been many people in many places.

I am Socrates exciting the youth of Athens to discover new ideas through the use of questions.

I am Anne Sullivan tapping out the secrets of the universe into the outstretched hand of Helen Keller.

I am Aesop and Hans Christian Andersen revealing truth through countless stories.

I am Marva Collins fighting for every child’s right to an education.

I am Mary McCloud Bethune building a great college for my people, using orange crates for desks.

And I am Bel Kaufman struggling to go Up the Down Staircase.

The names of those who have practiced my profession rings like a hall of fame for humanity… Booker T.Washington, Buddha, John Dewey, Leo Buscaglia, Moses and Jesus.

I am also those whose names and faces have long been forgotten but whose lessons and character will always be remembered in the accomplishments of their students.

I have wept for joy at the weddings of former students, laughed with glee at the birth of their children, and stood with head bowed in grief and confusion by graves dug too soon for bodies far too young.

Throughout the course of a day, I have been called upon to be an actor, friend, nurse and doctor, coach, finder of lost articles, money-lender, taxi driver, psychologist, substitute parent, salesman, politician, and a keeper of the faith.

Despite the maps, charts, formulas, verbs, stories and books, I have really had nothing to teach, for my students really have only themselves to learn, and I know it takes the whole world to tell you who you are.

I am a paradox. I speak loudest when I listen the most. My greatest gifts are in what I am willing to appreciatively receive from my students.

Material wealth is not one of my goals, but I am a full-time treasure seeker in my quest for new opportunities for my students to use their talents and in my constant search for those talents that sometimes lie buried in self-defeat.

I am the most fortunate of all who labor.

A doctor is allowed to usher life into the world in one magic moment. I am allowed to see that life is reborn each day with new questions, ideas and friendships.

An architect knows that if he builds with care, his structure may stand for centuries. A teacher knows that if he builds with love and truth, what he builds will last forever.

I am a warrior, daily doing battle against peer pressure, negativity, fear, conformity, prejudice, ignorance and apathy. But I have great allies: intelligence, curiosity, parental support, individuals, creativity, faith, love and laughter all rust to my banner with indomitable support.

And who do I have to thank for this wonderful life I am so fortunate to experience, but you the public, the parents. For you have done me the great honor to entrust me with your greatest contribution to eternity, your children.

And so I have a past that is rich in memories. I have a present that is challenging, adventurous and fun because I am allowed to spend my days with the future.

I am a teacher … and I think God for it every day.

BEING AN ENGLISH TEACHER IS …

English is the kingdom of Sleeping Beauty. You must awaken Her in yourself and the whole kingdom will come to life and be yours.

It’s nearly thirty years as I’ve stepped on this challenging yet noble path of teaching English at a secondary school – and I still enjoy it!

Nothing else in the world can be so rewarding and inspiring twenty pairs of inquisitive eyes waiting for the miracle to be performed.

So, what is a teacher? Why is s/he so special in the life of every child? On whose blessing am I given this precious right to touch the hearts and souls of the younger pupils and let them touch and play the strings of my inner world? Has this gift been passed down to me genetically from my parents, both teachers (my Mum’s an Excellent Teacher and my Dad’s a Merited Teacher of Ukraine)? So, what am I?

I am a MAGICIAN – my students make me believe and feel it. I can do anything and everything in the world on my students’ wish.

During the First bell Ceremony, on September 1, I can’ but keep looking at the place where the first graders are standing. I watch their worried eyes and a warm feeling of anticipation overwhelms me – I already love and adore them, for the next 12 years we will live a happy, full of unforgettable moments life together.

I am an ACTRESS and a SPECTATOR - put on the “magic” hat of Mary Poppins which takes us around the world in an eye-wink. We dramatised the best world’s tales, made masks and puppets ourselves, taught them to talk and perform.

I am a DOCTOR and a PATIENT- “What’s that? A tear in the eyes? ” – my healing hand strokes a head or a hurt knee…

And my headache instantly relieves at the sight of happy smiles, bright sunny eyes or a sudden unexpected quick kiss on my cheek…

I am a WRITER and a READER – I write stories and plays, poems and songs for my students to study with enjoyment. How many tales I’ve read with my students and for my students!

Being an English teacher means being an INSPIRER.

As all my students run their own journals or diaries, I’m an avid reader of their creations: poems and fairy tales, fantasies and even novels. I’m trusted to read their top secrets and I’m urged to answer very personal questions or to give a piece of wise advice…

Being an English teacher of teenagers is fantastic!

It means being a TRAVELLER and a DISCOVERER: we save the Earth from eco - catastrophe or organise a search party to find Loch-Ness Monster in the deepest lakes of Scotland and elsewhere. We fly to far-off planets and galaxies to contact other civilisations, meet weird creatures and star-kids, and build castles in the air. We dream of a Magic School for every pupil to be happy in with lessons of Telepathy, Fantasy and Space Travels.

Together with my students I celebrated all the main holidays of the English-speaking countries observing their customs and traditions, making costumes, singing traditional songs and playing games.

Being and English teacher is being a SCIENTIST and an INVENTOR, a RESEARCHER and an EXPLORER, a … (an unfinished list of occupations), for only English has no boundaries in expanding prospects for everyone.

And at last there comes the final year with its special atmosphere of friendship and partnership.

Being an English teacher with the seniors has a unique aroma of confidence. It means being a FRIEND and a COUNTERPART, and a PARTNER. Why, they are grown-ups, just like yourself.

We debate and role-play life situations, make projects and presentations – this is the life of a mini – society with its obstacles, challenges and problems. We seek the solutions in hot discussions. And we find them!

This elevates us to the skies in triumph and teaches life lessons.

Being and English TEACHER is being a STUDENT too: lots of confident compositions make me sit up late at night plunging into the ocean of thoughts, ideas and revelations. I learn from my students a new truth, they make me see the things I previously haven’t noticed or paid no attention to. They made me a bookworm: I look through piles of books and magazines while preparing for the classes.

Being an English teacher means being a very RICH PERSON: for the main treasure of the teacher is his/her students, devoted friends who live practically in every corner of the world; every my student has a little piece of my heart, though my heart hasn’t diminished, it has become even bigger filled with my students’ love. The wonderful success stories of my former pupils about their accomplishments have become my success too: I’m privy to almost all professions of the world due to my pupils. Owing to them I penetrate deeply into the knowledge of the universe.

I feel proud of them.

Thank you, my dear students, that you are like that!

Thank you, my dear students, you have made me the one I am!

Thank you, my dear students, sometimes you make me feel the happiest person in the world!

IT WILL LAST FOREVER …

I am a counselor psychologist to a problem-filled child,

I am a police officer that controls a child gone wild.

I a travel agent scheduling our trips for the year,

I am a confidante that wipes a crying child’s tear.

I am a banker collecting money for a ton of different things,

I am a librarian showing adventures that a story book brings.

I am a custodian that has to clean certain little messes,

I am a psychic that learns to know all that everybody only guesses.

I am a photographer keeping pictures of a child’s yearly growth,

When mother and father are gone fore the day, I become both.

I am a doctor that detects when a child is falling sick,

I am a politician that must know the laws and recognise a trick.

I am a party planner for holidays to celebrate with all,

I am a decorator of a room, filling each wall.

I am a news reporter updating on our nation’s current events,

I am a detective solving small mysteries and ending all suspense.

I am a clown and comedian that makes the children laugh.

When we seen to stray from value, I become a preacher,

But I’m proud to have to be these people because …

I am proud to say “I AM A TEACHER”.

By Stacy Bonino

I am a teacher of English at school № 13 in Dnipropetrovs’k. I’ve already been teaching for 4 years. I like working with children and for them. Of course, it’s not a big period of time but still this experience has given me a lot. There is a Latin proverb that states: ”He who teaches learns”. Firstly, I understand the key point of teaching better. Secondly, I am aware of a lot of methods and techniques to be flexible and creative in my work. In this respect the first goal for me should be constant self-education to be aware of the language development and new methodology trends.

I think I have always wanted to be a teacher. My grand-father made a blackboard for me and I could write there. We read, learnt English words, wrote dictations and translated easy texts. In spite of the fact that my grandparents had studied German at school they did all my English tasks. They learnt some English words and phrases after my lessons.

As a child I was inspired by a wonderful teacher named Larysa Stepanivna Shamenko. She is a teacher of English at school № 73 in Dnipropetrovs’k. Larysa Stepanivna taught me that no star was too far out of reach, if I put my mind to accomplishing my goal I could make it.

The secret in the art of teaching is that there is an audience waiting for you to perform. And the students are the appreciative audience. Good teaching is guiding students to discover the connections between what they have already known, and what we are learning, so that it will become their knowledge. I try to create the situation and atmosphere that can help them make the first step to learning English.

I always choose a proper kind of work for every student. It’s very important to make each student understand that s/he is making progress.

I widely use interactive activities like filling in charts, quizzes, warmers, mind-maps. It’s necessary to organise different phonetic, vocabulary and grammar exercises. I use signal cards, cassettes and illustrations.

A teacher of English has one great advantage – s/he can speak to his/her students about different things on various topics. I teach students to communicate in different situations, to express their thoughts about business, politics, sports; to speak about their personal interests. But it needs great patience, skills and professionalism.

All that makes studying English enjoyable both for the teacher and the student. In conclusion I want to say: “A teacher knows that if s/he builds with LOVE and TRUTH, what s/he builds will last forever”.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Dear colleagues,

On behalf of the English team I would like to congratulate you on our professional holiday – Teacher’s Day. Among all our holidays it’s the most touching and the richest in flowers, words, hugs, and happy tears. It’s the holiday when we remember all the teachers who on one way or another have influenced our career and sometimes our way of life and thinking. Teachers are sacred people and to be a teacher is to be a friend, encourager, counsellor, mentor, expert in everything, facilitator, cultural bearer, as well as a master of our own subject.

Faced with sometimes overcrowded classrooms, very tighten budget and great expectations you nevertheless have great desire and keep on working magic with your students. You not only instruct and teach them but also often help obtain confidence in life, inspire them with your enthusiasm and example of your own devotion you conduct your lessons in creative and dynamic way to catch the attention of the whole class or sometimes tailor your teaching to individual students with a lot of different learning secrets and miracles. You have chosen the most challenging and the most rewarding profession. It doesn’t give you much money, but it gives you more – the light and love in your pupils’ eyes, the smile on the face when something is at last understood and grasped, the joy and pride watching your students at their graduation, a lot of thanks from grateful parents and finally your internal satisfaction that it is you who has made the difference and done something important.

I would like to close up with great words said by Haim Ginott “I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher I possess a tremendous power to make a person’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a person humanized or de-humanized.” Opening the door of our classroom let’s always keep these words in mind.

TO BE A TEACHER IS …

Two years ago I graduated from the University and after that I started working at school. I must admit that being a teacher isn’t easy. Besides I think that teaching is a real challenge to your character, abilities and talent. I suppose you must have a real vocation. Because it is very hard not to get out of patience, to be gentle and friendly, to work every day persistently so that you can give all your knowledge to children. To be a good teacher you must be genuinely interested in what you are doing.

Teaching is a constant stream of decisions. It means where the children are there is also something new, unknown and unexpected and interesting that always evokes different decisions.

I might as well add that this sort of work demands great patience. As for me it is very difficult to get up at a very early hour and to go to bed at least at 11: 30 pm with no rest in between. Besides the teacher has to be able to withstand being confident in an air tight classroom for six hours with twenty-one “monsters” and to correct 103 term papers. And some other examples that demand great patience:

- patience when a pupil asks to repeat the directions the teacher has just repeated for someone else;

- patience when the kids forget their lunch money for the fourth day in a row;

- patience when one third of the class fails the test;

- patience when the text books haven’t arrived and the semester starts tomorrow and many others.

But … after your parents your teacher may be the most important person in your life. Moreover I can say the teacher is like the second mother. As it is she who brings up in children such qualities as responsibility, respect, industry, persistence and enthusiasm; she teaches them to be attentive to other people, to appreciate love, kindness, honesty, charity. In my opinion, she can even mould their character. And besides she may also sacrifice for the sake of children.

After parents a teacher may be the most important person in a kid’s life. Moreover I can say the teacher is the second mother as it is she who brings up in children such qualities as responsibility, persistence and enthusiasm; she teaches them to be attentive to other people, to appreciate love, kindness, honesty, charity. In my opinion, she can even mould her pupil’s characters.

And what about our pupils? What do they think about us, their teachers? It seemed to me appropriate to ask them: What makes a good teacher of English? Despite the diversity of pupils the responses were as follows:

- thorough knowledge of the subject; as one pupil said: “It doesn’t matter how nice a teacher is if she doesn’t know what she’s talking about”;

- how the teacher goes about imparting that knowledge, in other words, methodology; what the pupils requested most often was a variety of activities within a lesson:

“If we just do drills, I fall asleep.”

“It’s nice when you have a little grammar, and then a dictation, and then some reading or a discussion.”

“Discussions and debates are my favourite way of learning.”

- a sense of humour and teacher’s ability to take the tension out of the process of learning English:

“If she can laugh once in a while, you don’t get so nervous about making mistakes”.

“ When the teacher is smiling at you, you want to make another try.”

- how well the teacher is prepared for the lesson;

- a conscientious attitude toward pupils’ papers;

- discipline (although mentioned specifically by only a few, was hinted at by many);

- over half of the pupils had something to say about the pupil-teacher relationship. Most often, they expressed a desire for a sympathetic teacher who “remembers what is was like to be a pupil”. They felt that the teacher should “know each pupil as an individual” and there was a frequent demand for justice: “She only talks to the best pupils. Doesn’t she know I’m trying? ”

A significant number of pupils expressed a fear of being embarrassed by teacher’s caustic wit: “They ought to be polite to us. We are people, too”;

- almost half of the pupils had something to say about the character of the teacher. A majority of the responses praised a teacher who is confident and who obviously enjoys his/her profession.

- a teacher’s voice was also mentioned:

“It shouldn’t be monotonous, too.”

“You have to hear him/her in the back row.”

- a teacher’s appearance: “She’s always neatly dressed. It makes things business-like”.

But as one understanding pupil wrote: “A good teacher is someone who tries to do everything I have listed above. But I understand that teachers are only people like me”.

I reckon that it is very important to know what they think about us and we, teachers, have to take into consideration their opinions. Why? Because when we know what they want it helps us to become a perfect teacher.