Emi 643: My Teaching Philosophy and Creativity

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To my second point, as a teacher who wants to make a difference in students’ lives, I always respect my students. This important value of being respectful to others is lacking in most people nowadays. People especially the younger generation (in my observation) often demand to be respected without reflecting on whether they have respected others first. I vow not to be as such. When I show my respect to others, I am doing right to myself and to God but I should not be expecting reciprocation. Really, who I am to judge or to dictate how others should act? Therefore, in class or anywhere in the school, I greet the students first because why should I not? I talk politely to all students and being a patient person, I always answer students’ questions the best I can. I do not mind repeating my answers over and over until the students understand. If the students still face difficulties in comprehending, I start to evaluate myself whether I have explained properly or if I can do better. I then attempted different teaching methods, approaches or discussed with other teachers on how to teach better. Blaming students for their weaknesses in studies would be an easy way out but I try not to go down that path. The only problem being too patient is that students are not scared of asking me questions, so I am always being bombarded with queries and I often find myself unable to answer them all. For many times, I wish that I can have more time to guide students individually and do more personal interaction discussing their tasks instead of a few, short scribbles at the end of their essays. In respecting the students, I was never angry at them when they do mistakes during examination or in exercises. Instead, their attempts in answering are highlighted in class and I continue to encourage them to do better. I only punish students for two reasons – forgetting their books and neglecting their class assignments. If they fall asleep or become inattentive in class during my lesson, I blame it on my weak teaching method. If they do mistakes in their worksheets, it is because my explanation is not succinct enough. But when they forget to bring their books or do not finish their homework, the lack of effort is on them and thus they deserve to be punished. After years of implementing this discipline on my students, my school’s English passing rate in Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) steadily increases because students attempt all sections in the paper. The impact of making a difference in students’ life is truly felt when I teach weak classes because students that were expected to fail, achieve a passing grade. The feeling of satisfaction is beyond words.

My last point in making a difference in students’ life as a teacher is by relating my teaching to important or current events. As an upper secondary English teacher, I have the freedom to choose my own topic as long as it falls in one of six main themes – Science and Technology, People, Environment, Social Issues, Health and Values. For example, in People, I taught my students about Martin Luther, his speech “I Have A Dream” and how he fought against discrimination. Initially, the students’ only prior knowledge on the title “I Have A Dream” was to a song by Westlife. Their curiosity was peaked when they were told that the song was derived from a speech by a black man in 1963, who in the end, was assassinated for something that he passionately believed in. I showed some pictures on how the blacks were discriminated in the United States. After the introduction, I read the edited speech together with the students and explained the difficult vocabulary. Then, I played the recordings. Students’ feedback was encouraging as many admitted that they were touched with his emotional and inspiring speech, especially at the end of it. Most importantly, they learned an important history event in language context. The lesson ended with comprehension exercise and short journal writing. Another example is I taught the students on an earthquake that occurred in Sichuan, China in 2008 on the themes of Environment and Values. I received in forwarded email, several heart-wrenching comic stripes on the unfortunate disaster and I was so engrossed with the comic stripes that I chose to use them in my lesson. Besides, students always enjoy reading comics more than winding passages, so the idea was appealing to me. In lesson, some students cried as they read the stripes on the sacrifices of people to protect their loved ones during the earthquake. They were curious to learn more about the earthquake and they asked more questions than usual in class. The lesson ended with a comprehension exercise which I constructed myself. These two examples are how I used lessons to make an impact on students’ learning by relating the lesson to important events and daily happenings. I do admit that there is a lot of work and research to be done beforehand but well-thought lessons will be captivating and truly interesting to young learner.

Teacher is one of the few professions in the world that deal with young children and being able to make a difference in them. Many people, regardless famous or not, can name at least one teacher who changes their lives. Teachers, I believe, have the most important job in the world because their actions will determine how the future on Earth will be like. I am really honoured and glad that I have been given this wonderful opportunity to make a lasting impact in the lives of my students. Lastly, my three methods to make a difference – fun in classroom, respect the students, bring in meaningful lesson – have worked well and make me a better teacher.

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Part B

Creativity in the Classroom

Teacher is a profession that requires a lot of creativity. For me, a teacher is also a performer who is able to perform a variety of skills and abilities so as to capture students’ attention and understanding. In all my years as a teacher, I am always receptive to more creative ideas on teaching. I had great sharing with some dedicated and experienced teachers and their ideas have helped me to bring more fun and creativity to the classroom. Therefore, watching the three videos on creativity is a great delight.

The first video I watch is by a speaker named Jonathan Tilley. He has a vast experience as a performer, singer and director and hence, is the right person to be talking about being creative. I agree with him when he says that everybody is a creative person – we are all creative in cooking meals, designing the interior of a house or deciding on the outfit of the day. Creativity is such an abstract keyword that there are many other words to describe