Good Teachers, Good Friends

Having met lots of radically good and extremely timid students had driven me realize my teaching philosophy—to touch the lives of my students. I have to go down to their level but at least maintain one step higher to theirs at all times. I came to realization that once I let them feel they are not different from me, they would certainly have constant pursuit of learning and realize their potentials.

I’ve encountered a number of Filipino and Korean students which made me think that lack of confidence hinders them the most as regards their English study. They feel intimidated in short. But come to realize it, that no matter how good our styles are in teaching, we can hardly persuade them to learn—it’s because we only teach them to study and give less importance to the idea of enjoyment. Don’t just study English, enjoy it!

There are times when we give our critical distinctions to our students, mostly to the new ones, without even having concrete bases— misjudging them at times— or may be giving our first wise impressions. But no matter how well we keep things light to ourselves just to condition our mind that everything will be okay with our students is the underlying truth that every student has his/her own unique characteristics which will, in reality, challenge us more as regards what teaching styles we should use in touching their lives.

The approach could be the toughest thing that a teacher might worry about. Conventional or contemporary? But whatever it is, one important thing that we have to remember is relating every single part of the lesson to our students’ lives where their sense of belonging will grow and we also have to let them feel that they are not left behind. As far as student-teacher relationship is concerned, a student must always pay honor and respect to the teacher, but having that idea must not mean that we have to downplay or pay less attention to our personal commitment to our student not just as their teachers, rather as good friends.