To Teach and Learn

Now that winter has come, I like the cold weather while teaching. The cold weather is my ally in the classroom. The cold keeps my students awake and active and it, in turn, keeps me energized. I tell my students that we draw our enthusiasm for the lesson from each other. Though teachers and students volley the lesson's mood and progress, the teacher has the maximum strike. If they look dead it sucks the energy out of me but if I am dead then there is no other ignition to light up the fire in the classroom. If I see my students cold and shivering but very alive, it gets me going. That is why the cold is good in the classroom because it eases my effort. It an oxymoronic idea to have the students feel cold and fire at the same time. So, the Cold creeps into my classroom and I welcome it. It sits on a chair and is with us. Some of the boys wrap their kabneys around their bare knees as the Cold comes and caresses them. The caressing is kind in a strange way. It doesn't have the w...

It is true that the maximum time an average person can concentrate is very less. The period spent concentrating is refereed to as Attention Span. There are two types of attention. They are focused attention and sustained attention. Focused attention is known to be very brief but sustained attention is the longer span of time when one is able to concentrate. The literature on this says that most healthy teenagers are unable to sustain attention on one thing for more than 40 minutes. Within the 40 minut time span one needs to re-focus repeatedly on the same thing many times. This ability to renew attention permits people to "pay attention" to things that last for more than few minutes, such as long lessons. Now what is important in a classroom for a teacher is to gain the attention of the students. At the College of Education we were taught many ways to gain attention but what they didn't teach us was how to retain the attention we gained. It is easy to gain focused atte...

A class mirrors a teacher's mood, spirit, enthusiasm, thoughts, energy... This is what I have come to realize with my six years of teaching. Like the over used maxim, " you need two hands to applaud" , it is true that teachers and students have to work together to enjoy a lesson and produce good academic results. However, teachers are the driving force in this commune between the parties. When I am feeling low, I see my students dull. Even the slightest show of fatigue or boredom is magnified under my glasses which then becomes powerful microscopes. The best thing I have realized in such a situation is to mobilized my teaching passion, renew it and reenergize to set our moods right. The most useful thing has always been cracking jokes to refresh their minds, it is a skill and I am sharpening it daily.  But, if I lose myself to anger, all is lost. The promise of an energetic lesson and the happiness of delivering my lesson are destroyed. The frequency of these l...

Just a few weeks ago there was a debate on the national TV, BBS (Bhutan Broad Casting Service)  ‘Is Teaching considered a Noble Profession in Bhutan?’. I followed the debate show and couldn’t help but feel sad for the teaching profession. This profession is by virtue of what it does, very noble. There is no doubt about it but what is amiss here is that though it is a noble profession very few people want to become teachers. By definition, Noble means ‘showing fine personal qualities or high moral principals or ideas’. It is exactly what should define a teacher, a synonym to a teacher. But do we have noble teachers? This question I feel is more important to debate than ‘Is the Teaching Profession considered Noble in Bhutan?’ As the final vote count at the end of the debate, teaching is considered noble but are the people who become teachers noble? Do we have noble teachers? or Is it enough to have Good teachers? If one looks into history, one will find that teachers...

Western or foreign students in movies and books are interesting. Movies like Dangerous Minds, Coach Carter , and books like To Sir with Love or The Water is Wide  portray students who are challenging. These stories are about ordinary teachers who love their job. Imagining these movies and books I cannot help but feel lucky to be teach my students.  I feel lucky to have students who are genuine in their effort to learn.  I am thankful to have students who put up with me during hot sweaty Punakha afternoons.  I am proud to have students who work hard to do their best. I am thankful to have students who are genuine in the respect and I am grateful for the friendship we share. Though I share jokes with them, they know that there is a line between us which we should respect.  My classroom is safe because there are no guns or knives. Students are not high or intoxicated. And they listen to me when I reason with them. They challenge me and the book when i...

Exam hour, A Different Experience It is a beautiful day. The sun is shinning. The birds are chirping. The sun’s ray flicker on the leaves as they rustle in the gentle breeze that gushes softly from the river below. Inside the class, the fan swings its hands slicing the air like a warrior in a heated battle. The fan’s rotating sound is disturbing. Other than the soft flipping of the pages, falling pencils and pens and a little cough here and there, nothing is heard in the room. A pin dropping on the floor can be heard. Naïve but stern faces over papers are a spectacle to observe as each individual face has a story to tell. First, there are the ‘no-nothing’ faces that are the easiest to spot in the group. It is amusing to watch them as they sweat and scratch their heads as if doing that will make the answers fall out of their jammed heads. Their eyes linger in mid-air thinking about what they should write just for the sake of not leaving the answer scripts blank. But at the same ti...