The Teacher's Take

By Sadia Chunawala

Being invited to write for the students’ Newsletter can make one quite puzzled. What is it that a student would find interesting to read? If media frenzy was to be followed, then it would have to be an article on Lady GaGa. However, my knowledge in that direction, as well as inclination to do so, ends before it has started.

So what does one write about? I can’t speak about football at any length, nor am I in the loop at all where fashion or recent music is concerned. So that excludes around 98.7% of the readership. That brings me back to the above question!

What I can write about, though, is the common experience of both the student and the teacher world, and that is ‘School’.

(Well, that would be the original intention of an article in a‘school’ newsletter, you say? You would be right. However, digressing is a teacher’s prerogative.)

The combined school experience that I’m talking about would have to be instances from the times that student and teachers interact. Of these, I can shed some light on the teacher side of the story. So if you thought teachers were nasty people, believe me, you don’t even know half of it until you’ve heard what goes on in their mind.

Remember the time you walked past a teacher on the stairwell, or in the corridor and walked right past without a greeting? Well, do not rest assured that she hasn’t noticed it. You can be sure that she has, and has also made a mental note of the disrespect accorded and the student responsible for such an atrocity. On the other hand, students who do greet are not forgotten, after being replied to, despite the teacher’s bored expression. A stronger mental note has been made of the students’ value system. A casual but intended ‘Hi!” holds more value with a teacher than a drawled out “Good Morning”

Then there are those times when a teacher is speaking in class, but just because she happens to be looking in one particular direction you assume that her powerful capacity for viewing from the sides of her vision have been hampered and therefore indulge in whispered conversation. Tsk, tsk. There can really be nothing as annoying as a student’s underestimation of a teacher’s superpowers. For instance, were you aware of a teacher’s extreme capacity for voice recognition, replete with direction orientation, even with her back turned? (For purposes of convenience, I will refer to the teacher in the female gender. And lets face it; the number of male teachers in the school can be counted on the fingers of one hand).

Every teacher likes an intelligent student, but a hard working student is even more endearing.

A teacher can spot false praise, false flattery and false attention from a mile off and would want it to stay at that distance. So make sure you’re genuine (with your ideas and expressions and emotions). It’s an impressive quality.

Teachers always enjoy being conversed with personally. It allows them the space of getting to know students individually. So the next time you stop a teacher to talk to her as you meet her around school, you can be sure she’s liked the chat and is not cursing you for having delayed her for her next class (provided of course, that you hadn’t stopped her to clear your ponderous and weighty doubts).

When you walk into the teacher’s room full of teacher chatter and your entrance elicits immediate silence, you can be certain beyond a sliver of doubt that they’ve been talking about yourclass.

Also, when you find a teacher poring with such concentration into her book that she’s bent over and into it, rest assured that she’s fast asleep.

Teachers are as delighted (or even more so) when holidays are announced.

Teachers yearn for appreciation just as much as students do.

But perhaps, the biggest truth is, that students are a rather important part of a teacher’s life, since she is quite concerned with their achievements (successes and downfalls) and their wellbeing (both physical and emotional) which is what they get up and come to school for, day in and day out.