Teacher Preparation (a preliminary draft)
"The first essential is that the teacher should go through an inner, spiritual preparation - cultivate certain aptitudes in the moral order. This is the most difficult part of her training, without which all the rest is of no avail. . . Ability to do this can only be attained through a genuine effort at self-perfection." -- Dr. Maria Montessori
Educators are defined as the people who have an influence, direct or indirect, on a person’s learning. Included as principal educators are parents, teachers, siblings, extended families, peers and other significant persons in child’s life. The media also can have strong influence as educators on a child’s learning.
The role of the educator is of paramount importance. The quality of relationships between a student and his/her educator highly influences the outcomes of a learning situation, whether it be at home, school, play-field or excursion.
The educator allows for learning activities to take place by arranging the environment and guiding the student’s interactions within that environment.
An Ideal SNS Teacher personifies eternal moral precepts and values and is a living embodiment of the finest human virtues. Always warm and pleasant, an ideal SNS Teacher is a master of the fine art of teaching without preaching, guiding without leading.
An ideal SNS teacher is a torchbearer of truth, laboring to light the lamp of wisdom in the minds of children enabling them to illumine their souls.
An ideal SNS Teacher is a wellspring of love and compassion, a source of succor and joy to all, and an active agent of social transformation fully aware of their responsibility as a catalyst for social growth and progress.
An Ideal SNS Teacher is a teacher round-the-clock, always acutely aware of the profound and far-reaching impact that her smallest action can create.
The Ideal SNS Teacher is a teacher with a student’s heart, always eager to explore, learn, probe and absorb more and more.
A teacher in the SNS Program of Education is a resource person and a facilitator. As his or her classroom will consist of mixed abilities and possibly also ages, a teacher should be able to work with several groups of students within the same classroom. This will not be possible with a talk and chalk method alone and will require a teacher to move between groups of students who will automatically pair up according to ability levels within a subject/stream. As the program is designed for self-study, students should also be able to approach the teacher outside of the classroom hours (if the teacher lives in the neighborhood or same village). This will assist the learning process and benefits will likely reach a wider group of people. For example, many more housewives and young girls who cannot break away from household chores to attend classes on a regular basis will be able to self- study outside of the classroom hours – with some assistance from the classroom based learning and some from help given outside of the classroom hours.
Importance of Example in Defining Classroom Environment
Teachers need to view excellence in their performance as the builders and promoters of an advancing civilization. To do so effectively, however, our teachers are constantly encouraged to upgrade their professional knowledge and to remain learners for the rest of their lives.
It has now been established by educators that the feelings of a teacher toward her students influences her behavior in the classroom. The children respond to this behavior and the environment created by the attitude of the teacher. They determine student motivation and outcome. Therefore, a teacher who sets a positive tone, who expects her pupils to do well and to cooperate will likely find this happening in her classroom. On the other hand, the teacher who labels children as trouble-makers or poor students will often unintentionally produce these traits in her pupils.
This does not mean that the teacher should pretend that all her students are heavenly angels, for there are always some students in each class with behavior problems. The teacher should, however, attempt to work with these children in such a way that they feel themselves to be a vital part of the entire class, rather than merely some minority the teacher must tolerate far a year. When pupils feel discrimination, real or imagined, they react in a manner they feel will gain attention. Thus, they become discipline problems and do their schoolwork in such a way that the teacher must take action and thereby give attention to them. The teacher’s attention will likely reinforce these actions, resulting in further problems.
Role of the teacher
- Arranging & using good teaching skills
- Creating conducive & objective learning environment
- Counseling, career guidance & organization
- Arranging remedial classes for students with difficulties in learning
- Friendly & approachable relationship between teacher & students
- Group activities to develop cooperative skills such as sharing and helpfulness
- Selection of media input that takes into account the child’s emotional and spiritual development
- Opportunities for experimentation to promote curiosity and understanding of causal relationships
- Visiting holy places to begin the child’s awareness of God and reverence
- Outdoor walks and excursions that instill respect for the natural world
- Interaction with animals.
- Time for reflection
- Providing a loving, secure home environment
- Cooperation between home and pre-school for easy transitions and transference of trust of adults
- Creative experiences with art as a means of self expression