Thursday, October 24, 2019

World Teachers' Day

How would you describe your Chemistry teacher? Inspirational? Boring? Caring? A bully? Compassionate? Dedicated? Disinterested?
How would your Chemistry teacher describe you?
In common with all your other teachers, your Chemistry teacher's greatest desire is to inspire you and to help you achieve success in your studies. (Yes, I am serious!)
Your Chemistry teacher will be disappointed when you don't attempt your homework, hand in your lab reports and assessments on time, and when you are distracted in class or lack concentration. Your teacher will try to help you, sometimes this might feel like a teacher "picking on you", harassing you or bullying you, but your teacher just wants to get you focused and trying to do the work required to the best of your ability.
Teachers get frustrated when capable students don't submit work that reflects their abilities, and when students try to "look up" or "find" the answer rather than think through a problem and arrive at a solution through their own efforts. Teachers get excited when students "get it", when they achieve results better than expected, when they display interest, and when they try to solve problems through their own efforts (especially when the student finds the work difficult).
Teachers will make allowances for student "mis"-behaviour when they know you are not feeling well or are feeling stressed, when assessments are due, during exams, etc. But do you make similar allowances for your teacher's "mis"-behaviour ... yes... teachers get sick and stressed too (they are only human after all)! Assessments and exams to mark, reports to write, lessons to plan, whole teaching programs to revise and/or write, not to mention thinking about new ways to present concepts to students who have failed to understand them.
You are probably at school because you "need to be", you view it as a stepping-stone to your career goal or future aspirations. Have you ever wondered why your teacher is at school?
Your Chemistry teacher is at school because they want to share their love of Chemistry with you and to help you understand Chemistry so that you will also enjoy it and achieve the best results you can.

On International Teachers' Day, take a moment to think about how your Chemistry teacher might see you as a student, and, think about how you might help your teacher to help you.

International "World Teachers' Day" is held annually on the 5th October .... unless you are in Australia where this date usually falls in the school holidays, so the Australian version of "Teachers' Day" is held on the last Friday in October (25th October 2019).

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