I am a Teacher and a Personality

       

         A school, a  teacher, students, lessons ... The rustle of chalk on the classroom blackboard and sunlight through windows , pages rustling and whispering students’ notebooks pages are in these words. . They reflect  children’s fate,  their whole lives  which can be neither broken nor destroyed as  children are  teacher’s perpetual motion. New classes and  new students are our   new life that we,  teachers,  live with them. It’s  our educational philosophy. My  memory turns over  the endless pages of my students diary again and again.

       So, I am a teacher. My students , funny and serious, curious and very active as well as passive are with me from Monday to Friday . In a word,  they are different. I’ll live a part of my  life with them. It means that  my heart will show me the way out of any challenge.  So, the first rule of my pedagogy has appeared: school laws are my heart’s laws

        I love my students. I listen to them, restless and curious, and understand that I cannot imagine my  life without them. I smile to them and get their smiles in return. The second rule of my pedagogy was born: I open the door to everyone who is open-minded.

        It’s a cold December day outdoors. I’m conducting the lesson. Suddenly I hear a child's exclamation: "Look: the first snow !"  The children rush to  the windows. They are so happy  to see the first fluffy  snowflakes, so  I also want  to lean my  face against the glass and enjoy the first snow a lot. In such a way the third rule of my pedagogy has appeared: to see myself in my students.

     Today I’ve  had a lesson of  happiness: reading and writing, doing exercise and homework . It  feels  of weightless: 45 minutes has passed  in one breath. I’ve left  the classroom smiling. I’ve got a lesson from my students-the  lesson of happiness. The forth rule of my pedagogy is: to be able to teach and  learn to be happy.

      She  was a modest, shy  and ,perhaps, not the best of my students. She wasn’t very bright English learner. When Marynka was not at  school for a few days because of her illness, I went to visit her. Her grandmother lead me to a small, but sunny room. The room was full of various toys: bright, colorful, large and small, funny and sad.  "All of them were sawn  by  our Maryna”, grandmother  responded to my inquiring glance.  The fifth rule of  my pedagogy : all  flowers should grow.

     When after school one of my  students asks to explain  a new theme or meanings of new words I feel all my  significance for him. It inspires me  - and I consider neither my time nor my plans as ,at this moment ,he  really needs me. Therefore,  the sixth and the  most important rule of my pedagogy is to look in the direction you’re shining.

  I often recall Eastern wise man’s words addressed to all  teachers that   help me in my daily work “ Planting good seeds in your students’ souls, do not wait till  they grow. Perhaps,  you will not see the sprouts during your life.  But they germinate  and give good fruit. In its own time! What do you need for it? It seems to me,  to be a professional, to know and love what you are doing. And then  the understanding of what is the most important to you will come. This is my teaching philosophy.