AWARD WINNING ARTICLE CONTRIBUTED BY CAMBRIDGE STAFF.

WON THE THIRD

PRIZE IN ALL INDIA TEACHERS ESSAY WRITING COMPETITION 2015, ORGANIZED BY
VIVA ONLINE EDUCATION.
TEACHER ON TEACHING
A teacher is the one who will learn along with her students every day
along, and emerge successful only when she adds the ingredients of
innovation, creativity, imagination and expression in her teaching.
Yes, thats the definition of a true teacher who believes in the saying that teaching
and learning go hand in hand.
Gone are those days when a teacher would walk inside the classroom with heavy
books and just spend her time delivering a lecture and then just ask one question,
Children, have you all understood?, and the answer in chorus would be Yes,
Maam, so that the teacher would leave the classroom fast and the students could
engage themselves in mere classroom pranks in order to escape from the boredom.
Today, the face of teaching has changed. Lecture method of teaching has been
replaced by classroom interaction and the regular practice of delivering notes has
transformed into innovative methods of teaching and learning at the same time. In
other words a good teacher will add innovation, creativity and application in
her teaching curriculum rather than restricting herself to the prescribed
textbooks and meeting deadlines to complete the syllabus irrespective to the fact
that students have understood or not.
When I first took up teaching as my career, I had only one aim and that was to be
the best and the most innovative teacher among the rest. My soul vision was how to
make each day of my teaching a challenge and in order to meet this challenge I had
to create and plan out different innovative methods of teaching. My goal was not
only to create an interesting and innovative teaching atmosphere inside the
classroom, but also to help learners enjoy the lesson and at the same time have a
clear concept about the topic taught.
Being a teacher in English my first task was to create an appropriate ambiance
inside the classroom where students will be given the freedom to imagine,
express freely through debates, discussions, interactions, emote through
poetry, recreate through role play and drama, and most importantly be
confident enough to showcase their oratory skills through seminars and
paper presentations.
I never believed depending or restricting myself only to prescribed textbooks, but I
believed in the phrase Beyond Textbooks where I have connected the fiction
world of drama, short stories and poetry to that of real life situations in which each
student imagines himself as a character from the lessons and tries to draw a
parallel link with their real lives to that of the fictional characters.

In my classroom students are allowed to create their own methods of

learning and understanding the lesson. They are gifted the freedom to
interpret in their own independent ways and express in their own unique
style. The weak learners are never segregated, yet at the same time given an
opportunity to prove their worth inside the classroom among their peers.
My innovation in classroom teaching invites theatre and drama which plays an
important role in helping the learner to communicate and interact better. Involving
the learners in a lesson with the help of conversation and prompt and probe
techniques inside the classroom has created a healthy atmosphere inside the
classroom. Students pick up new words and phrases and they also improve on the
usage of punctuation marks with the help of this creative method in classroom
teaching. In other words they enrich their vocabulary with the help of theatre and
drama in teaching and learning.
Another innovative practice that I always believe to have brought wonders to the
classroom teaching is the Prompt and Probe technique where I encourage the
learners to voice out their views. Sometimes the learners might have difficulty in
presenting their ideas in a nut shell and hence at this point I prompt the learners
with a few hints that may guide them to express their opinion related to the topic
taught inside the classroom. This device has definitely boost up the confidence of
the slow learners and given them a scope to think freely.
I have always believed that teaching has to be made interesting and it cannot be
without the use of electronic gadgets inside the classroom. In order to enhance
quality learning among the learners it is essential to capture the attention of the
learners. Hence electronic gadgets like OHP (Over Head Projectors), Plasma
Television, Computers and various other gadgets related to education,
must be used inside the classroom especially when a difficult lesson is
being taught. Through these gadgets I as a teacher have been successfully able to
impart a clear understanding of the lesson while teaching in the class and have also
helped the learners to get a clear concept of the lesson. It is always said that
children remember better through pictures and graphics rather than memorizing the
points only from the black and white pages of their course books.
I definitely dont believe in the Chalk and Talk Method of teaching which surely
lacks innovation. Instead I have introduced the innovative method of Exhibitions
and Seminars in my teaching. Children love to participate in portraying their
skills through seminars, paper presentations and exhibitions. This can take place
inside the classroom itself. After teaching a particular topic I allow the children to
organize a seminar or an exhibition related to the topic taught inside the class. I
invite the students from other grades to have a look at the exhibition organized by
the students of her class. This strategy of learning helps the learners to give their
best in their presentation. And to give their best they do a lot of extra study and
research work. This has helped me to impart quality education among my students,
and the learners on the other hand get a good hold upon the subjects.
Finally, when it comes to Projects and Revision I dont preach the method of
myself asking questions to the students. Here, I initiate Group Work where the
students of each group have to prepare questions on the allotted topic and ask the

other group members. This innovative method not only helps the learners to skim
and scan through the lesson but also develops a sense of being responsible to the
other group members and boost up the learners confidence level.
In the same manner I encourage my learners to participate in more of research
and project oriented work. I ask the learners to prepare short and informative
projects about the topics taught in the class. This encourages the learners to do a
lot of research work and collect information from various sources. Hence by
skimming and scanning for valuable information the learner can register and
remember the lesson well.
Children are very fond of games no matter whatever the game might be. They love
to participate in activities related to games and get more involved in challenges that
are thrown in front of them. But games must not only be restricted to outdoor fields
under the fresh air, but can be also arranged inside classrooms by teachers during
the free periods. Arranging games inside the classrooms usually emphasize upon
catering to the learning abilities of a child in a more creative way. These games
which might be defined as Language Games is an effort from the teachers part to
help the learners improve upon their language skills and get more exposure to the
practical side of learning. Some of the games which I have tried out during my
teaching are Word Games, Building and Constructing a Word Tower,
Story Chain and Memory.
My humble effort to make teaching interesting does not cover only games and
interactive approaches, but also it includes print media. I believe that a lot of
innovation can be brought out through newspapers and by using newspapers in
classroom teaching. Learners can be taught lessons based on Grammar through
newspapers. After teaching a particular topic in Grammar, I ask the children to find
out words and phrases related to the Grammar topic, from the newspapers. The
children are given the freedom to choose any news article of their choice and skim
for the words. Different colors can be used in order to do this task. This has helped
the learners to pick out the necessary details and also gain information about the
happenings.
Along with these innovative practices I have also implied another most interesting
method which comes hand in hand with teaching and that is called Motivation and
Rewarding the learners. Motivation and encouragement from teachers makes a lot
of difference within a childs learning ability. Teachers always expect their students
to live up to their expectations by doing well in their academics. And hence to help
the child to succeed in his academics it is very essential to motivate and encourage
the child. These are some of the small rewards that I have used to motivate my
students just to make them feel how proud I am of them: Sometimes I call up the
parents to tell them the special qualities of the child and how proud I feel to have
the child in my class. This gesture not only rewards the child but also makes the
parents happy.
Twelve years have passed and with every new day I try to introduce new innovative
methods in my classroom teaching so that when I complete my lesson for the day, I
come back home satisfied and with a relaxed mind recalling how my students had a

smile on their faces as if to say,Thank You, Teacher for making the lesson so
interesting.
Teaching is my pride and being a successful teacher is my true identity.
AMRITA GHOSH
TEACHER IN ENGLISH (HIGH SCHOOL)