Teachers' Day is always special. Its an opportunity to show gratitude towards all of those Teachers who have played a phenomenal role in shaping our lives.
I wrote a blog post on the same title "One the Eve of Teachers' Day" on 2013.
https://kskuppu.blogspot.com/2013/09/on-eve-of-teachers-day-2013.html
It was an attempt to recall the memories associated with all my teachers right from the First standard to Ph.D.
To each batch of students, at least once, I ask this question,
How many of you want to become a teacher? If yes, Why?.
Particularly in subjects such as computer science which is very volatile, a teacher need to posses certain specific qualities. In my opinion, the following are the must have qualities to be a meaningful teacher:
- Cutting-Edge : The shelf-life of ideas in computer science is very very less. One of the most important requirements is to be updated with whats happening in the Industry. This is essential to make the students get a taste of freshness.
- People: I have asked in my classrooms number of times, to enlist names of 10 computer scientists. Many a times, they include names which can't be qualified as scientists. In other disciplines such as Physics, Chemistry there seems to be a greater awareness about the scientists who have contributed to their discipline. But in computer science, we lack that. As a teacher, one should know the people - the scientists - who have made great contribution. Informing the students about interesting information about these scientists will make them learn better. If you want to follow a cricket match you should know who the players are. If not it looks very silly. Same is the case here. Know the people. Know the field better.
- Skills: Particularly in skill oriented subjects such as computer science, more than the transfer of knowledge, skilling the students is more important. To do so, a teacher has to upskill him/her constantly.
- Story Telling: One of the interesting ways of teaching a concept is to apply story telling technique. But during my interactions with teachers teaching technical subjects, they ask, "How will we tell stories to teach a tech subject?". Valid question. But here the idea is not to tell a moral story. But to build a broader perspective about the concept that we are going to teach, If we tell them what was the pressing necessity that lead to the development of such technologies, it would be interesting. The time-line of Computer Science is unbelievably thrilling. There is this interesting book titled, "The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution" by Walter Issacson. In my opinion, it is a must read for all those aspiring computer science teachers. Or for anyone who wants to get glance of the computer science timeline, this book is of great help.
- Enthusiasm: Last but not the least, enthusiasm is the most important ingredient of teaching and learning process. Its all about making the students feel curious and enthusiastic to learn the topic further.
The current generation of teachers have unprecedented challenges. In the earlier generations, Teachers and Books were the only source information for the students. But now with the advent of Social Media and Online learning platforms, students are provided with lots of opportunities. In this context, for a teacher to be relevant, it becomes essential to adapt with the changing dynamics. We are surely at interesting times where the entire landscape of teaching and learning is going through metamorphosis. By adapting and converting the technological resources as a toolkit, we can surely make the teaching and learning process a joyful one.
I want to conclude this post, with a Teachers' Day greeting that my cute little daughter made:
Happy Teachers' Day!!!
Comments