An innovative Idea

An idea can change the world. An innovative idea can change the course of our work, speed of our work, and can create excitement in our work.

I am a Secondary School Teacher. I teach languages at Secondary level. I have a set of traditional pedagogies before hand. I have tried them all in my classroom. Some pedagogies do work well, while as others seem to be becoming progressively ineffective. My children do face more challenges than I have faced during the course of my grooming. My students need to be more competitive to secure a place for them in the world outside the classroom. For making students competitive , the maker  of dreams( the teacher) has to be competitive by himself. He must have learnt the skill of re-creating the teacher in him on the modern lines. He must be the updated version of his profession and invariably receptive to all positive corrections.. He must be believing in change for the good. He must be used to  drinking from the running stream.
We ,the teachers of my age are the product of whatever our teachers made us into. They impressed the change using three narratives of that time.

•Encouragement to every student excelling in the subject.
•Counseling the students lagging behind.
•Subjecting to corporal punishment the poor performers.

Most of us were subjected to the third option .Many of us left the studies midway. But, those who were carried to the next grades had to bear with the third degree torture.
I do also face three categories of students, but I don’t have the third option left to use incase my students perform poor. The third option has now been banned by the law. This has given the children a psychological superiority over teachers. I have to persist with teaching, and have to produce better results.

My Approach to Teaching:
For making my class interesting and productive  ,I have to revisit all the prevailing pedagogies. I have to listen to the educationists’ expert views as well. I have to complete the syllabus in time, besides I have to bring about positive changes in the attitudes ,learning levels, and socializing behaviors of my students. It is here where my innovative idea works wonders. My innovative idea springs out from shaping  my firm beliefs in myself as the inspiring teacher to the belief in my students being inspiring students, and their parents being inspiring parents.
Being an inspiring teacher is not a one act like that of a ramp walk by a model. It is a teacher on mission .His mission is to creating “the world’s best students” and carving out “ the world’s best society” in his classroom no matter what is the background of his students.
I believe my students has a good reason to see a role model in me, so I always keep on tailoring my personality to fit in this role.

My school is eleven kilometers from my residence. There is no regular traffic in my area. I set for the school one and a hour prior to the school timing .I adjust all time lapses waiting on various bus stops, and manage to reach the school just in time. I make sure that I shall be present in the morning assembly session. I put on formal clothes and polished shoes. I do also wear a lovely smile in addition.
I have procured a mi- 6 pro cell phone, and a Lenovo laptop,  for making my classroom teaching more effective and appealing .I teach English to class 10th .The syllabus includes  the text book having extracts from novels, short stories, poetry, and dramas. There are writing skills as well to be developed in the students. These include speeches, letters, notices, messages, dialogues, and editing of passages.
Most of my students are first generation learners. Their parents are necessarily illiterates. The parents do not pay any dues towards the school. They are least concerned about the career of their children. At home, where the children spend nearly 18 hours a day, there is no learning environment at all .At schools the teachers are also not made too much accountable for the progress of the students.
It is because the  teachers are paid by the government for their services and not by the parents. The infrastructure in the school is also below the desired standards. Thus the school has also very less to offer for the children of this socially disadvantageous group of children.
My actual Class Planning
I usually clad myself in white shirt and dark grey paints. At entering the class I greet my students. I do always keep a carry bag on me. One can find in it a diary, three markers, a laptop ,a cell phone, and some red and black ball pens.
The diary keeps the record of the student profiles in particular. There are the serial wise names of the students with their parentage and phone numbers of the parents . There are records of cumulative grades of marks in all class tests against each entry in the diary. There is a remarks column against each entry wherein I keep on records the various levels the student have mastered, and those of other levels in which they need more time and guidance. There is necessarily an added note about every student regarding his etiquettes and behavior patterns.
In the cell phone there is a WhatsApp group named “Class 10th English” in which all parents pertaining to this class are added. The WhatsApp group posts ,on regular basis, the commentary of various activities taking place in the class. These include Classroom presentations,   performing arts, awards rolls of the different class room tests etc. The parents are kept updated regarding their class room performances, and their feedback is sought at regular intervals. At times I call all the parents to the school and hold a parent-teacher meeting with them. I  discuss with them various steps to be taken towards enhancing their performance. The parents are very happy with this initiative and are receptive enough to my invitations.

Mode Of Presentation
I believe that the reading out the content from the text book breaks the eye contact of the speaker with his listeners. I do further believe that the language is a spoken entity. I have initiated to innovate a novel technique of deliverance. I read the content at home thoroughly, and swallow it every bit. When I come to the class ,I write the outline on the board and start reproducing the content out of it my own way. This way I keep the eye contact with every students and add the additional doze of body language to it. The students enjoy this method. It appears to them as if some motivational speaker is at work. They enjoy this story telling method. This helps me connect to the students in a better way. they keep curious during the session, and actively participate in the doubt clearing session that follows it .
Many a time I change a extract from novel, and make them into dialogues. I arrange students to dramatize the content. They enjoy the initiative very much ,and immerse deeply into the roles they are assigned. For The drama portion prescribed in the syllabus , I keep identifying the students for every new role. The students are always seen curious to be selected for role play.
I develop writing skills by organizing a different type f classroom situation. I teach these skills using projector. I prepare the power point presentation at home, and assemble the students in the computer lab. The attractive projector screen raises the curiosity of my students to the new heights.
In order to teach them read poetry in a desired manner ,I download the poems from you-tube, and present the specimen before the students using the projector screen. Many a time I play “Button Poetry Competitions” to fashion their poetry reading aptitude.
During my various classroom techniques, I do always spare time to noticing whether all the students are grasping everything, or there is anyone who needs personal attention. I make record of my observations on my diary. I approach the same set of students during their vacant class. I meet them one by one, motivate them to share their problems with me. This approach has proved handy for me .The students do easily share their problems with the teacher this way, and secondly their shyness is easily removed by this exercise. The teacher gets to know about the problems faced by the students at school, or at home due to their hostile economic or domestic conditions.

Conclusion
I feel every technique, even if it is as old as the mankind itself, can be made into an innovative one, if we readjust it seeing the modern day requirements, and present day possible modifications. The teacher can use technology to make his class more appealing and more effective.

Bottom line:
I have put most of the content that I have taught in my school online. I have created my own blog in 2010(taraiq.blogspot.in),in which there are more than one hundred write-ups .My power point presentations are there on Slide Share platform as well.I hope my steps towards innovating the teaching skills will help a long way making the classroom activity more intertesting ,and will keep the students engaged all the more. The learnt community can contact me at taraiq@gmail.com. They can read my write-up on taraiq.blogspot.com.

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