Teaching is not only a profession but a way of life. Therefore, teachers need to understand changes happening across the world to prepare the new generation accordingly. Teaching is not just a profession, rather it is a divine responsibility to guide and enlighten the pupils. Teachers inspire students to think critically about issues concerning nation, and the determination and sincerity which a teacher always bears in mind shape the destiny of a nation as the foundation of building a society.
You will be surprised to know that most of the prominent figures, Nobel laureates, writers or researchers, scientists, were in the teaching profession at a certain stage of their life. From Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, Alexander Graham Bell to the modern popular Nobel Laureate, political leaders, like, Barack Obama, Sylvester Stallone, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Amartya Sen, Dr. Yunus and many of them were in the teaching profession. It is not at all the miracle but the beauty of the profession that helps to explore the world of education. Therefore the demand for the teaching profession was never seen decreasing even at the peak time of technological exploration. But why?
Firstly, when you are choosing a teaching profession, it means somehow you have the intention or mission to contribute to others through knowledge generation.
Secondly you have a very curious mind of knowing and learning. So you try to discover the world of knowledge hidden around you, you do subsequent research, you gain information, share with your students and find more to explore.
So we can say you get into learning process which never allows you to stay out of its focus.
There are few beauties in the teaching profession which other jobs or professions can’t provide to you. Such as
* The teacher always gets the opportunity to celebrate milestones
* Every day is a new day with a new fresh start, means life is there!
* You have scope to create your work environment. It can be rigid or flexible
* You got to know peoples around you and scope to inspire others
* Get Opportunity to feed your inner creativity
* To have an exciting day, every day
* You get scoop to create lasting memories to cherish forever
* You get chance to continuously get better
* You get the potential to transform lives
* There is always satisfaction somewhere
* Gives the opportunity to visit different destinations. It is the dream of every person to visit and explore new places.
So if we really want to be a teacher, we might not need good academic results, all we need is just a curious and innovative mind, mindset to contribute, interest to learn and to be tech savvy. This is not mandatory that we have to know everything in advance; rather you would develop yourself gradually. Teaching apprenticeship can help a lot in this regard. You will find many universities globally and nationally offering teaching apprenticeship program to train you for this profession.
Apprenticeship is a particular way of enabling students to learn by doing. It is often associated with vocational training where a more experienced tradesman or journeyman models behaviour, the apprentice attempts to follow the model, and the journeyman provides feedback. However, apprenticeship is the most common method used to train post-secondary education instructors in teaching (at least implicitly), so there is a wide range of applications for an apprenticeship approach to teaching.
Teaching Apprentice Fellowship (TAF) is a full time in job teaching and leadership capacity development program. The TAF is an intensive and cohesive, one-year program that supports early-career, university teachers in their efforts to develop teaching expertise and lead from the classroom. The main objectives of this program are to create a sustainable, valid and reliable source of loyal teachers, to maximize and ease the opportunity for the graduates to be a teacher and to train candidates to be a leader with 21st century leadership skills and qualities.
The role of a teacher is very important in any student’s life. Successful teachers are those who are intellectually curious and vital in their profession both inside and outside the classroom. Teachers who maintain a passion for teaching and learning and who try to avoid being idle at all costs are the most admired. Such teachers linger in students’ memories endlessly because of their sense of fun, compassion and creativity. A sense of commitment, humor, passion for student learning and flexibility is what it takes to create a learning environment. From a successful education, students take away a personal relation with a teacher who has inspired and induced passion for their subject.
(Mr. Anowar Habib is Senior Assistant Director, Public Relations,Daffodil
International University).
