A teacher is considered as the second parent of students. Aside from imparting valuable knowledge and values which prepares them for the bigger world, the professional world, a teacher also acts like a person whom students could look up to. Becoming an educator or a teacher is not an easy job. There are a number of things that has to be considered in order to become an effective teacher. Here are the 10 most challenging parts of being a teacher and how to overcome them.
1. Being culturally sensitive
The Philippines is a country with diverse communities. It is made by different people with different beliefs and religion. In order to fully capture all of your students’ attention you must be able to understand the culture your students grew up with. That is including their way of living, their beliefs and their culture as a whole.
2. Being able to separate yourself from your personal life and your profession
There are instances that you’d be burdened by your personal problems. As a professional it is essential that you know when to separate yourself from those problems, because it may affect your manner of delivering your lecture. Once the students will notice something is wrong with you, they would be bothered and this will affect their focus and ability to listen and focus on your lecture.
3. Ability to communicate with parents
In tertiary level, most of the times parents are not updated or well informed regarding their sons or daughters academic standing. This is mainly because most of tertiary students came from far places. As an educator, you should have the ability to properly communicate with your students’ parents, especially if your students are into some problem academically or personally. You should know what words to say and when to say it.
4. Bringing out the best out of your students
This has always been a challenge to most educators. Since every school year a teacher will meet a new batch of students, bringing out the best out of them is a difficult task. A teacher has to start from step one in order to get to know these students. The best thing to do about this challenge is to set a concrete class structure, including the manner of giving your students their class activities. In this way you would be more familiar with how to get the best out of them.
5. Showing Fair treatment towards your students
Often times other students would assume that you are giving some students special treatment, especially when they see you talking to these students more often. In order to avoid this, you should clearly explain to your students the border line between you and them. They should understand the difference between who you are to them when you are in the classroom and outside it. Another important thing to do is to be transparent in terms of how they obtain their grades.
6. Constructing and planning your lesson
One of the most challenging parts of being a teacher is being able to construct and plan a lesson. There are a lot of things that you need to consider when you are constructing and planning your lessons. Some say it is an easy task since it is somewhat repetitive. But this is a misconception. Although lessons are repetitive, attitude and learning capability of students are not. Every time a teacher would encounter new batch of students, he has to adjust to the students’ learning capability and attitude towards learning. It is relevant for a teacher to become extra observant and to always have plan b and even plan c. When your planned lessons do not work, then use your plan b or plan c. A teacher should always be sensitive to the learning capability of his students. How easy for them or how difficult is it for them to catch or absorb your lessons. In this manner you will be able to adjust to their needs. But although you are adjusting to their level of learning it is also relevant that, you must also make sure that they are still learning the right amount of knowledge that they need to learn.
7. Ability to connect with students
Connecting with students is one of the challenges a new teacher usually come across with. When you are new to the world of academia dealing with students might be a burden to you. Although this problem will wane as you become a more experienced teacher, it is best to start adjusting as early as your first teaching job. As a newbie you may have fear and hesitations that you might not get the attention of your students, in order to surpass this fear and hesitations start with motivating yourself. Try to be as composed as possible. A little practice can help too. Ask your family members or your friends to act as your students, this way you can be familiar with talking in front of many audiences. Do not worry; eventually things will get better in time.
8. The type of assessment tool to use
Each student is unique; they have different approaches and strategies in terms of learning. Some are visual, some are auditory and some are kinesthetic type. This means that some students may do well in writing examinations and some will be better in laboratory exercises. Choosing the right assessment tool must be thought carefully in order to give fare grading of the students. One way to balance things out is by creating and implementing a variety of assessment tools. In this manner you will be able to identify the weakness and strength of your students. This will provide a fairer opportunity to your students.
9. Imbedding technology and accepting innovation
Some individuals have a fear in embracing innovation and new technology. Most of the universities now adopt the technological advancements available today, such as the virtual learning environment (VLE). A vle runs through the internet, it is a way of conducting classes through the internet. There are individuals who are hesitant in accepting these types of innovation. They have feared that they might not learn well. Some have just fear in the existence of information technology. To overcome this, show your students how information technology will help them in making their studies easier and more fun. Show them the tools that might help them in their learning experience. Although this is somewhat peculiar in this generation, there are still individuals has to be well explained first before they fully embrace technology and this type of innovation.
10. Implementing the best teaching strategy
This may be far the most challenging part of being a teacher. Since students are diverse and are unique, choosing the best teaching strategy is a big challenge. A teacher must be able to reach out to all of his students, no exemption. He has to be able to depart the knowledge to his students in the best way that he can in order for the students to get and absorb as much information as they could. In order to overcome this challenge, you must carefully choose and implement the best teaching strategy as possible. You may be able to identify that by observing your students and being extra sensitive to their learning needs. All of the above items will boil down to this section. Combining the information above will lead you to select the teaching strategy that best suits the need of your students.
This article is provided by : Raine Corpuz
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