yogibear

​Many are the days that come by,
But special day, moments in solo.
Tirelessly striving and bestowing,
Lectures at stretch of the wise Magi -
Lighting minds that prove to be dumb,
Enormous words stacked to embrace.
Divine and undivided is thine aura
Gratitude is half returned forever.

Mushy gets a voice!

I found this video rather too intense and touching. A teacher makes his effort to help his student overcome stammering.

A boy who was let down, his confidence almost shattered and who didn't have a voice came across a magic one day and he got his voice.

A teacher's life is a blessed one, for there are always tears of joy and the happiness is intangible.

Yet another blessed moment...

Reasons are many to be grateful and thankful for, one such is a gratitude in verse showered by a student. The life of a teacher, a blessed life indeed.

 

A TEACHER LIKE YOU

Your fluffy hair, your tiny eyes;
You chubby cheeks, and your rosy lips.
A song, not for a student,
But, for you, a teacher, this is.

You excel in every task.
The amount of knowledge and talent
You carry in bulk.

You shower your knowledge

Upon new, little minds.

You win a lot of hearts,

Within a circuit of time.

Growing love...

The world comes to a still,
All glory comes to minuscule,
While the love of the student,
Towards teacher is ardent.
And none can perverse this,
For divine and unaffected it is.

A blessed life!

There are many professions that can bring job satisfaction, but most professions are measured by its income. While a teacher's job is one such which brings not only a sense of job satisfaction but also a sense of soul satisfaction. My duty as a teacher is to mould the young minds into ameliorated beings, even if one life is changed for good, the goal is achieved. Keeping aside the aspect of idealistic job, the greatest satisfaction a teacher can get is when her students strive hard to achieve their goals, and somewhere they acknowledge their teachers for having played some role in the making of their lives.

I had a soul satisfying moment yesterday when one of my students wrote a love-cum-gratitude letter to me. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I read through each line, my heart felt a strange pull for these words were so touching. To top it all, there was a poem in the end, which I'll mention it later in the post.

As I read through the letter, I realized that there were some qualities that I possess which actually appeal to my students. And, it's quite obvious that I am going to work hard to pass on positiveness to my students. Such happiness is intangible indeed.

The Poem

Dear teacher, you

personify craziness.

The clock keeps ticking

when I think of you,

The sun moons at me

and I don't seem to realise.

You mean so much to me

that hasn't been named yet.

You are that place where

I wish to go to

when I want to run away

from this fake 'reality'.

One of the best things

learnt from you was

to be myself and to

believe in myself.

Today, I am that person

who chucked that mask

away for good,

which was worn

to 'please' others.

You have taught me to

be a fighter and you

have built me into one,

and for that,

I shall forever be thankful. 

a letter to my students...

Dear Students,

In a month's time, you will appear for your final exams. I want you to remember a few things, especially those who are in their final semester.

The scores that you get in your exams will tell you something, but not 'everything'. The examiners don't know who you are, they don't know about your natural ability to dance and entertain, about your penchant for writing and drawing, about your caring nature towards your siblings, about your athletic capabilities and about how trustworthy you are to your friends. I know it because I have seen you closely.

Don't allow these scores to affect your lives. I know that you have been working hard, and that you will do well in the exams. I just want you to have a healthy approach and give in your personal best shot. Life is more important, but these little phases must add to the 'making' of life and not breaking it.

I wish you all good luck.

Love always,
Just Another Caring Teacher

A teacher's life isn't normal!

"Oh, you are a teacher! That's an easy job, just go to college by nine and come home by five. You get many holidays and added bonus, a summer vacation!"

I am sure, all the teachers out there must have gone through this situation. So, here is my say on how a teacher's life actually works.

FREE TIME

We've no free time practically, because in our leisure we prepare for our classes the following day. We literally break our heads to bring in innovative ideas and teaching methods to simply teach on old concept in an appealing manner. Our summer vacations are basically an extra work-in than work-off, because it is in this time that we update our lesson plans and research on the upcoming curriculum, for the syllabus has to be looked at ingeniously. And mostly our free time at home will certainly be stacked up with answer scripts and assignments that have to be graded. Imagine, we correct tons of them. We spend our free time less with our families and friends to help mould your child.

EMOTIONAL DISTRESS

Being a teacher takes us on a roller coaster of emotions. We cannot take it to work with us nor leave it at home. We deal with many children, some come with their family issues, some with minor conflicts with peers, and some with financial constraints. We have to cater to all, and by the end of the day we carry with us a sense of guilt for we think we haven't helped them enough. We deal with children, and we care about each and every one of them.

NO PRIVACY

We cannot go into a shopping mall or to any frequently walked streets just in our shorts and tees, for the fear of some of our students spotting us. The fear is not because they saw us, it's more of an uncomfortable and inexpressible feeling that we become the topic of their discussion the following day at college. I wish they would show the same intense interest while I teach Macbeth! Social Media, I wonder whether it's blessing or a curse. Even with privacy settings, things get out. We need to make sure that everything that goes out on this platform has appropriate content and nothing is PG. Freedom of Speech, I bet now you get the latent meaning of this!

NO SICK LEAVES

We cannot get sick, because it's again a burden on us. Working without taking any leave is far better than taking a leave or two. The portions have to be completed in time, we spare our 'after-class' time to continue with the lessons and to clarify doubts. If a teacher is absent, she is not only concerned about the classes that she missed but also of the plight of her co-workers to engage the classes.

PASSION
How many people get to say or share everyday that they are living their dream. I am surrounded by incredible stories, poetry and literature. The history teachers teach about the multifarious cultures, while the science teachers teach students an empirical approach. We believe that the students are our only hope to carry forth into the future the same passion for the different fields of learning. We teach because we love the subject and believe strongly that it will have a firm place in the future for more and more to learn from it.

WE SAVE THE WORLD

No matter what, we end up falling head over heels in love with this profession. Keeping aside all our frustrations, we give memories to those children; and years later when they have a reunion at college, at least one of them might say, "Hey, you remember Ms. So and so? She was really good!" All our efforts become minuscule in front of the lovely gesture our students show. We don't have superpowers, but our students see them.

Being is a teacher is not a normal job, because teachers are exceptional!

RIP Kalam

The Missile Man of India takes leave and has transcended to a better place. This former President was truly inspiring, and he was the reason for the several ignited minds. He taught the young souls to 'dream', and to dream for a life of multifarious epiphanies. Many were the minds that were educated and sought success on great heights through this selfless man's eyes. Dear Sir, you were a miracle. If possible, please come back!

celebrating my 23rd birthday as a teacher...

July 7, 2014 was my first working day at St. Anne's Degree College, and the journey so far has been a nice one! From the first day till today, I have been learning a lot, probably more in scale than when I was a student. As days passed, my apprehensions and anxieties gradually reduced; and I must sincerely thank all my teachers who took an effort to pour in me some wealth called knowledge. I, now, realize all those onerous tasks that my teachers took every day, only to come prepared to the class and stand in a position where any question shot at them, they would gracefully answer it.

Besides perceiving 'teaching' as a challenging job, let me also tell you what fruits of benefit I have received from this. Being a teacher has, obviously, made me a good learner. It has disciplined me more, and the mind simply refuses to rest until it has found an answer. As a teacher, one cannot show up in front of the students as a 'lazy bum', he or she must be prepared to take any class and must show up anew even by the end of the day. 'Draining out' is a serious no-excuse for a teacher; trust me, if the students enjoy your class, then there is no other energizing food that can compete with the enlightened young minds.

As a teacher, one is due to receive greetings from the students, well, this aspect has inculcated in me to respect all and especially a greeting returned with a smile can make a student's day! Life has been good in all these recent times and with this truly blessed life, I would like to see my students succeed in all their future endeavours. I wish to celebrate many more of such blessed birthdays!

much ado about nothing...

Of late, I have been thinking about whether tattoos affect anyone's personality?

Just yesterday, when I told my decision, about taking up a teaching job at one of the Degree Colleges, to my dad, he immediately questioned me - "Do you think they'll allow a teacher with tattoos on her hand?" And I had nothing to say!

No matter what reasons I have for being inked, the world (majority) still considers this trend a taboo! The reason that the management (at schools, or colleges) give is that a teacher with a tattoo would set a bad impression on students and that the parents fear if children are influenced by this trend. But let me tell you something, if you have reared your children in the right way, then where is the room for you to fear about them being influenced? And please don't give them wrong notions that all tattooed and pierced people are 'bad', because they are not!

My brother, too, has 4 tattoos done and he is a teacher, who is doing good at the job. Now, just because he is tattooed, does he fail to carry out his duties? Folks, the world is changing, please change according to times and if you still don't want to mingle with the contemporary trends then please for heaven's sake don't teach your children that people following the contemporary trends are a bad lot!

If you consider a tattooed teacher would be a bad option to teach your child, well, let me tell you, your child also gets wrongly influenced by the electronic gadgets (cellphones, play stations, televisions, etc.) and many more. Please stop judging someone negatively just because he/she has tattoo(s) on his/her body.

To the educational institution where I went, they probably would have noticed the tiny tattoo on my right arm wrist (a Swasthik design) and didn't say anything (maybe they wouldn't have noticed!); and because I had worn a half-arm length overcoat, the other tattoo (a Johnnie Walker logo design) on the upper right arm was not visible. Well, I can't cover it all the time! It's not that I am much concerned about a tattooed arm, my aim is to teach students effectively. But, somewhere questions as such puts me off, and for a moment I tend to regret for having been inked.

Do let me know your thoughts on this!

Teacher

I know not of any lesson but the lesson of life,
The deeper I try to learn; vaster than the ocean is its teaching.
One can never escape with only a little learning,
And one can never reach the finish line.
All I say to myself is, with every new day,
It is the birth of the desire for new learning.
No matter how much wise I become,
I still am less wise to the wisest!
Shrewd is the word I use for life,
An efficacious teacher it is, teaching me the way of living.