As a teacher and someone who loves children deeply,I'm always so passionate about seeing them smile. I have learnt as an educator that one of the things that facilitates learning in pupils or student is the teacher's relationship with them. So, in order for them to easily understand whatever I teach them, I always make them smile by either telling them funny creative stories or singing for them. This method has been quite effective for me over these years, and this has constantly made me always happy. Aside from that, I can tell you that I enjoy my profession as a teacher and I wouldn't want to trade it for anything.
You have seen a cain in my hand, right?. I believe you are surprised and you may wonder what the relationship between it and happiness is. Well,the cain you have seen in my hand was given to me by the headteacher when she mandated me to supervise the compound cleaning. I was asked to use it on any pupil who would misbehave. But I can tell you, this is what I can never do. In all my years as a teacher,I can't really recall a day I use a cain on my students. I have never and will never because seeing a child cry makes me sad. And, to foster teacher and student relationship, I have been deliberately avoiding the use of cain on them. It's one of the things that discourages a child from learning. A teacher who resorts to the use of cain on his or her students will definitely become a threat to those students. There are many other punitive measures a teacher can adopt when a student displays some acts of delinquency. I was really sad when I saw a colleague flog a child mercilessly. It left me in tears.
My relationship with my pupils has really helped me in many ways. I am one of the teachers they find approachable. Another way that you will know that you have a positive impression on them is when they can communicate with you and tell you their challenges without any fear. I communicate and confer with my pupils a lot. I normally ask them questions about their families, and most of them have been very honest with the information they give. I do not struggle so my pupils can grab what I teach them, my relationship with them makes it all easy.
As a Nigerian teacher, I do all I can to create an environment that is conducive for learning for my pupils because our education system has already made it difficult for them to learn. Most of our educational institutions are destitute of good learning facilities and infrastructure, our government has failed to build good structures and equip our schools with good and functional learning facilities and many things like cutting of grasses and taking care of the compound which are not supposed to be handled by these students are done by them.
Most times, these children leave home to school with sadness, some with hunger and worst still, many of them are from broken homes. My heart always bleeds each time I see them wear torn school uniforms. These are factors that impede learning in children. That's why I always ensure that I put a smile on their faces as their teacher.
It was even more exciting when I announced to them that I will be taking some photos with them. To my surprise,it turned out that all of them are photo freaks and photogenic. It was quite emotional when they started writing me letters to express their admiration for me. I sat down on my desk smiling as I went through their letters one after the other. Although many of their writings lacked grammatical correctness, that did not in any way matter to me. My happiness was that at least, I have been able to make them happy
This is where my happiness comes from and it has endeared me to so many children. I prefer to spend more time with them,it gives me a sense of purpose.
Are you a teacher who uses cain on a child? I'll advise you to stop and find other better ways to relate with them.