The impact of a positive teacher to low progress learners
The impact of being a positive teacher can change the destiny of students.
Your calling as a teacher can give great hope and passion of learning in the students that you teach.
In the video below, Rita Pierson shared about some of her motivational stories on how positive mindset of teachers can make a difference in our students on the theme ‘Every kid needs a champion’.
This video has been around for many years and I had recently watched it again.
If you are a teacher and you are going through some difficulty times in teaching, I really encourage you to watch the video above to have a fresh motivation for your hard to teach students.
Relationship with students
From the video, you can realise the fact that we may not like every child in our class as we cannot choose who to teach since the allocation of classes is usually decided by school.
We can choose to have the positive mindset that we can nurture these students that we may not like their behaviours to become students that everyone will like.
Choose to be the change factor rather than accept what you see and leave it as it is. Make a difference and take up the challenge that you can change the child.
Just like Rita Pierson, I have been teaching low progress learners for many years. I have been teaching for about 19 years now.
I had many students who would score less than 10 marks out of 100 marks. Most of them really hated the subject that I am teaching since they did not have positive past experience.
Regardless of the motivational level of my kids who were very often from broken families, I choose to motivate them to like the subject.
I did mention in my last article about classical conditioning that a subject can be very boring but students can like the subject because they associate the fun experience with the teacher.
Regardless of whether I like the students, I will spend time in the canteen to eat with them and chat about things not related to lessons.
This is a great way to build relationship in an informal manner. You will be surprised that students, who start to like you, will want to do well in your subject.
Rapport
It really does not take long to build a rapport with your students if you choose to do so.
Sometimes, building rapport will need to be intentional especially for the very stubborn ones who are fearful to build connections with others due to the hurts that they had when their parents abandoned them.
I may not be the perfect teacher as I do make mistakes but I choose to speak positively to my students.
I focus on the right attitude rather than on how well they should do for my subject since I can always guide and lead them to find the correct solution using questioning techniques.
The fact is that they can forget things easily since most of them do not revise their work.
They may not even do my homework most of the time.
My only requirement when they do not do the homework is to remember to bring back so that I can go through the questions in class so that learning can take place.
My attempt is to remove the fear factor and bring back the conducive classroom environment where my students can freely ask and learn according to their pace.
Imagine our students may be regularly scolded by their parents at home. If we do the same in scolding them, we may not get connected with them to bring positive change in them.
Rapport can be easily established as students will know that you are genuine in helping and teaching them.
Looking at academic results
In the video, Rita Pierson shared about how a student only scored 2 marks and she put a ‘plus’ sign to it.
The student was wondering why he was given a +2 mark since he still failed badly for the test.
Rita Pierson indicated that he had scored 2 marks and he would want to get more next time for sure especially he did not score zero.
This really motivated the student to aim from 2 marks rather than to have a mindset of failure and stay where he was.
In my class, most pupils were already failing badly before they came to my class so the focus should be on the few extra marks of improvement.
Take small steps of improvement is better than no improvement.
It is really not practical to expect a student to pass when he/she has not even scored more than 10 marks before.
If you have been a teacher who has been focusing on the failed score, you may want to read more about the concept of growth mindset for your own professional development.
Joy of learning
Rita Pierson shared in Ted channel about bringing the passion and joy of learning to our pupils.
As educators, I am sure everyone can agree that the joy of learning can lead to lifelong learner.
Being passionate to learn can help our students to cope with the 21st century future jobs. They can adapt and learn new skills readily even in their adulthood.
We should not teach to just impact knowledge but we should teach to ignite the love of learning.
In conclusion
Believe in your students and believe you can make a difference regardless of the type of students you may have.
Believe that every child can have a future and you can be the turning point for every student that comes to you for education.
A teacher can make a difference and change the destiny of a child.
Disclaimer: This is my personal reflection and I am not in any position to instruct anyone what they should do. I am not responsible for any action taken as a result of this post. My post can only be a reference for your further research and growth. By reading this post, you acknowledge and accept that. All images and pictures were taken from google images that are free from copyright under labelled for reuse.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://fun2learn.vornix.blog/2018/08/08/the-impact-of-a-positive-teacher-to-low-progress-learners/
That video of Rita Pearson is all any new or old teacher needs to see to understand their role as a teacher. I hav Essen this clip several times, both on my own and in workshops or staff meetings. It is crucial for teachers to know the impact they have and how to navigate their students needs in order to help maximize each kids potential.
Thanks for your comment! You are totally right!
Hello, the motivation, dedication, vocation and heart that each teacher puts in imparting their teachings is paramount so that each student of the best of himself ... excellent post. I vote for you I very humbly invite you to visit my profile, I would love to have your support. Thank you.
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