Author: Rafic El Helou

Teaching: A challenging yet exciting way of life

The topic of this week’s class is one of the most interesting topics we touched on throughout the semester. The readings about critical pedagogy, particularly the thoughts and ideas of Paulo Freire, are enlightening and thought provoking. They led me to realize that I signed up for a difficult yet exciting task as a future teacher. I am part of the generation that is tasked to change and challenge the “banking model” of education where we fill the minds of passive students by “knowledge” and test them on how well they memorized the material. I am part of the generation that is responsible to equip the young minds by the needed tools to become active, curious, tolerant, and creative individuals where students are able to “create possibilities” and “construct knowledge”. Our role, as teachers, is to teach eager minds how to  think critically and create new solutions to new problems rather than repeating what has already been done.

This responsibility is challenging and can be overwhelming at times. However, when teachers embrace the curiosity and love of knowledge as a way of life, teaching comes naturally and becomes an easy task. As teachers of the new era, we have to have certain qualities and need to reflect those qualities to our students through our personality, teaching style, delivery method, flexibility, and expectations. We have to be tolerant so we learn different things from different people like Paulo Freire noted. We have to be directive and dialogic, but not manipulative, static, and authoritarian as noted in Dr. Fowler’s presentation. We have to think critically, challenge ourselves, keep on learning, learn from their experiences, adapt to change, be curious, and become thinkers themselves. Above all, we should reflect those qualities to our students, rethink our teaching methods to suit the needs of the 21st century, be energetic, be prepared, and be passionate about our mission.

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What kind of teacher are you?

I am sure that my answer to that question will change as I gain more experience in teaching and as I keep improving my teaching stylethrough experience. However, I have come to the realization that the way I was taught should not be the way I teach. I live in a new era where I have more educational resources at hand along with many new challenges. I will be a dynamic teacherwho is open to new ideas of teaching in a diverse world and willing to adapt and improve my teaching style to fit each student’s needs through effort, dedication, and incorporation of positive feedback.

One of the first qualities I aspire to have is passion. Teaching is not just a job but a skill, a hobby, and a way of life. The way you convey the material to the students will either have a  positive or negative impact on their minds. Therefore, I will prepare my lectures and be energetic in the classroom as I find joy and reward in inspiring students and make them enjoy what they are learning. To do that, I intend to incorporate many teaching styles and create an interactive and dynamic learning experience. My lectures would have changes in rhythm and style every 20-25 minutes in which I incorporate real life examples and relate them to the class material. I aspire to create learning focused lectures by putting more emphasis on learning and progress rather than the grade, and I will definitely encourage group work and information sharing.

I also aspire to be flexible, and approachable. From my first few experiences in teaching, I realized that could be a challenge at first. When I was teaching, I felt a lot of responsibilities on my shoulders and tended to be much more serious than I usually am. Standing there in front of 40 students who consider me an expert in the material can be a bit overwhelming. For the first few minutes, I was nervous but as I went into the material, I realized that I started to relax and teaching became more natural. I started to pause, joke, and share my experience on the subject. Students were much more enthusiastic and more receptive and responsive to the questions. I realized that I needed to be myself: approachable, energetic, and flexible since more of who you are is reflected in the way you teach. Creating an enjoyable learning atmosphere for everybody is an easy task when professors are comfortable with the way they perceive themselves and reflect that in the classroom. 
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