Daily Prompts: Move to Tears

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Describe the last time you were moved to tears by something beautiful.

I  was moved  to tears,by the  the children I taught. They unconditionally supported me, prejudice was a word never found in their dictionary. They knew they never saw someone like me.

I wore a sari, I had black hair and I spoke another language besides English. My  long black hair,  fascinated them. They’d come to my desk not for help but to know if my hair was real. On several occasions they touched my hair and let their classmates know it felt  real.

It was my first year teaching in that school, there were only two weeks left for Christmas, the kids got busy buying gifts for me. I wasn’t aware that the kids give Christmas presents to their teacher.

Recess time I went to the staff room to spend a few minutes away from my classroom. When the bell rang announcing recess was over, I went back to my classroom, there on my desk were neatly packaged gifts. I went to the staff room to ask one of the teachers,if I was allowed to accept the gifts. “You must” she said, “or else you’d break their heart.”

I went back to my classroom found the kids very quiet, I instantly said, “Thank you children, it is so nice of you to bring gifts for me.”

One of them stood up and asked, “Do you like our gifts, I went with my mom to pick yours?”

The sweetness of his tender voice made me emotional, I was moved to tears. I looked at him and could only say, “so nice of you Jamie, I love all your gifts!”

……………………………………..:)

 

 

365 Writing Prompts:We can be taught

What makes a teacher great?

Before I try to write what makes a great teacher, I’m eager to find out, who deserves to be a teacher?

With the above question in my mind I went about reading different people’s notion of evil and good, it breaks my heart to think these so called educated people, have given their verdict on who is evil, according to them some children are born evil.

When a child is born, he/she comes with a clean slate, they are at the mercy of their parents, guardians or others who take care of him/her. Can you honestly say that this child is evil, if you do, it means God has poured all the evil genes in him before sending him to earth, who else would you think, because the people on earth didn’t get a chance  to make him evil,it was taken care of by the creator.

For starters my feeling is people who have a twisted mind like this should not be allowed in the teaching profession.

It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to become a teacher, one must have proper education on how to deal with a pupil or student.

I also know what one learns in education seldom helps in teaching, one learns as he or she begins a career in teaching. I am thinking how I learned the art of teaching, it wasn’t educational Psychology,history of education, none of these things I learned, prepared me for teaching. It was by stepping into a classroom, my how to teach began.

I remember it was the second year of my teaching, I had taken a job in a local “Residential model school, in Bangladesh,” I asked a few questions to my colleague, I noticed she always changed the subject, it became evident she did not want to transfer her knowledge to me.

I wasn’t scared I knew I can learn on my own by watching the kids.It was my first day in that school, there were forty-two boys in my class, they were six year old rambunctious kids, One of them came up to me and said,”You are our sixth teacher in two months.”

Like Julie Andrews in ‘Sound of Music, I quietly thought what’s wrong with these kids?

I found that out soon enough, when the recess bell rang, I heard a loud roar within seconds the boys were out of the class in the playground noisily jumping and running. They were I assume thinking, ‘how long will she stay with us?’

After recess they all came in like a bunch of ruffians eager to see what I may have to offer. I did nothing that day.The following day after assigning their work for the first two periods, I looked at my time to find out when will the bell  ring for recess, when I saw there were only five minutes left,I got the attention of the boys and made a very firm announcement, I said, “the recess bell will ring after five minutes, if any one stands up before I say so, you will not have recess.”

There was pin drop silence each looked at the other, the bell rang they stayed glued in their seats, I looked at them and told them to stand up, they were to remain silent and leave the room one row at a time. The boys were quiet and did as I asked.

From that day onward I had no trouble with them, they did not dislike me on the contrary they liked me a lot.

I still cannot answer the question what makes a teacher great, I think loving one’s job, loving the kids one teaches, and be firm when needed. Children like discipline, it doesn’t mean take a stick in your hand and demand good behavior, trust me it does not work.

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/09/21/365-writing-pr…-can-be-taught