What Becoming A Teacher Has Taught Me (A Non-Fiction Essay)

For the past three semesters, I have gone through the three phases of School Based Experience (SBE) programme. This programme is essential for teacher trainees like us to get an early experience before becoming a real teacher. Based on all three experiences, I learned a lot both in teaching as well as becoming a teacher someday. Here are some of the things on what becoming a teacher has taught me.

First and foremost, I learned that every student is unique and special in their own way. Although I may have learned this theoretically during lectures, SBE has really given me real insight on that. Their uniqueness differs from ability to personality. For example, I had the opportunity to face problematic students, students with traumatic issues and a few special needs students. When approached in the right way, teachers can open up millions of chambers in their hearts. Thus, I learned that teachers should never judge students too soon and should always give them a chance in learning.

Furthermore, becoming a teacher has also taught me to become a better person. An ideal teacher in the students and parents’ minds would be a teacher with a kind heart, full of patience and always lovable to students. From one phase to another, I could see that I became better in terms of having patience in handling students, including the mischievous ones. Becoming a teacher, we must always be kind to our students. Strictness is acceptable, but violence is never the key to help them succeed.
Hence, I learned to become a better individual inside and out as a teacher.

Last but not least, I learned that being a teacher is an interesting and wonderful job. With reference to the Malay proverb; students are like white cloths, innocent and vulnerable. Teachers are in charge of creating a beautiful art, by painting students with skills and knowledge which they will use and apply it until they grow old. Based on my SBE experiences, my heart flutters with happiness when the students understood the topics I was teaching. Knowing that these students may become successful people in the future because they learned English is just as wonderful as being a teacher.

To conclude, teachers are highly important people that should be appreciated worldwide. Being a teacher may not be the easiest job in the world, nor is it exciting. Just like any other occupation, a teacher’s duty is special cannot be compared to anything else.