Wednesday
love to teach and have taught for the past 10yrs as a private tutor specialising in Subject , Hindi , eco, English, MUET and Business English. I now also teach for one of the largest language center in Malaysia. My students range from kids to adults. I rarely find it difficult to get along with any age group. Among the feedback received about my classes are that it was funny, interesting and informative and that I teach well. In my free time, whenever that is... I love to go out with my family or hangout with friends. I am an avid colllector and my collection ranges from playing cards (trump cards) to chatting with my students and friends online. Please feel free to contact me about private lessons at home, MUET . Cheers.
Sunil Kumar
Sunil Kumar
truly believe that blogging Site has made me a better teacher.
By sharing ideas with others, I have been able to have a conversation that improved the original idea. I was able to fine tune the specifics so that I can be more effective in the classroom.
Through blogging, I am able to explain why I am acting in a certain way. I can base it on research or I can base it on instinct, but either way, I am able to share my reasons for my actions. Without knowing my reasons, I am blindly moving forward with little or no thought and this can not be in the best interest of my students.
Allowing comments means opening myself up to criticism. This was the hardest thing for me but it also helped me clarify my actions better. Maybe I didn’t explain myself clearly or maybe I needed to rethink my philosophy. Either way, these comments could only improve on the effectiveness of my teaching.
In order to be a better blogger, I find myself reading many other blogs. I look at their style and the way they impart information and try to determine what I liked about the style. This is how I want my blog to feel when others read mine. I also learn what topics are being shared and what others are talking about. By reading other blogs, I am able to form my own opinion about what I feel is important. I also may learn about things that work in other classrooms and how I can adapt that into my own classroom. In turn, I may also learn from others’ mistakes so that I do not make the same ones in my classroom.
Encouraging others to interact through my blog is important. It is this two way conversation that makes my blog more than just a thing to read. Others may gain information from reading it but I also gain information from the questions and comments that are given.
I feel that blogging is so important that I require those who take my university courses to blog as part of the curriculum. I hope that I can begin them on a journey that will be useful to them in their own ventures into teaching. At the time, my students may be overwhelmed with all the work that is required of them and may even stop once the class is over. Yet, I am hoping that once they have been given a taste of this, they will have the foundation to come back to it. I am hoping that they will see how this can be one of the most important things they do for professional development.
How do you feel about blogging? Do you think that it helps to make better teachers? Why or why not?
Sunil Kumar
By sharing ideas with others, I have been able to have a conversation that improved the original idea. I was able to fine tune the specifics so that I can be more effective in the classroom.
Through blogging, I am able to explain why I am acting in a certain way. I can base it on research or I can base it on instinct, but either way, I am able to share my reasons for my actions. Without knowing my reasons, I am blindly moving forward with little or no thought and this can not be in the best interest of my students.
Allowing comments means opening myself up to criticism. This was the hardest thing for me but it also helped me clarify my actions better. Maybe I didn’t explain myself clearly or maybe I needed to rethink my philosophy. Either way, these comments could only improve on the effectiveness of my teaching.
In order to be a better blogger, I find myself reading many other blogs. I look at their style and the way they impart information and try to determine what I liked about the style. This is how I want my blog to feel when others read mine. I also learn what topics are being shared and what others are talking about. By reading other blogs, I am able to form my own opinion about what I feel is important. I also may learn about things that work in other classrooms and how I can adapt that into my own classroom. In turn, I may also learn from others’ mistakes so that I do not make the same ones in my classroom.
Encouraging others to interact through my blog is important. It is this two way conversation that makes my blog more than just a thing to read. Others may gain information from reading it but I also gain information from the questions and comments that are given.
I feel that blogging is so important that I require those who take my university courses to blog as part of the curriculum. I hope that I can begin them on a journey that will be useful to them in their own ventures into teaching. At the time, my students may be overwhelmed with all the work that is required of them and may even stop once the class is over. Yet, I am hoping that once they have been given a taste of this, they will have the foundation to come back to it. I am hoping that they will see how this can be one of the most important things they do for professional development.
How do you feel about blogging? Do you think that it helps to make better teachers? Why or why not?
Sunil Kumar
Monday
A Teacher with Passion
A Teacher with Passion
I recently had the pleasure of visiting my high school drama teacher at his 75th birthday party. My two best high school friends and I traveled over 600 miles along just to give him a hug and tell him “thank you.” Three other high school friends met us at the party having traveled similar distances. We all agreed that this was the one and only teacher that we would make this type of effort to visit. What motivated us to make the journey? This teacher shared his soul with us – his former students- and he changed our lives.
When I got news of the party, I immediately felt compelled to go. Not because I wanted a weekend away, or an awesome road trip with my pals, but because I felt a need deep-down inside of me to tell this man how important he was to me, and how he changed my life. My friends may not have been as motivated, but once they heard that I was going with or without them, they decided to join me. Six of us reunited for a short time to honor our friend, reminisce about yesterday, and share our todays.
Of the six of us, I am the only one who became a high school teacher. However, we all continue to be involved in theatre in one way or another. It’s not only love of theatre that we got from our teacher; he instilled confidence in us by giving us real-world opportunities to succeed or fail at a very young age. He believed in us as individuals and pushed us beyond our comfort limits. There is no question that none of us would be the successful adults we are today without the influence and guidance of this one teacher.
In addition to being my high school drama teacher, he was also my master teacher while I was earning my teaching credential. I had the privilege of working with him as a colleague although I will never consider myself in the same league. He taught public high school theatre for 30 years to thousands of students and earned a remarkable number of awards and accolades. One of his shows earned the honor of traveling and performing in Washington D.C.
I was somewhat compelled to make the trip for his 75th birthday with the idea that someday my own students might want to come back and visit me when I’m 75. I know it was a treat for him to sit around the table and remember something special about each one of us. In fact, after we exhausted our welcome at the party’s location, he invited us back to his home to continue the visit. About a dozen of us sat around his front porch until late in the evening as if we had just completed a production and were listening to his notes.
Why do I share this very personal experience here? Every teacher has been inspired by others; many by their former teachers. All teachers inspire their students in some way. Our inspiration can be positive, like my birthday friend, or negative. Either way, a teacher’s influence on students is unavoidable and undeniable. It doesn’t matter if we “try” to shape and mold our students; we do it anyway. I believe that this is an important point for every teacher to consider: how are you affecting your students?
Teachers can choose to share their souls with their students. By “soul,” I’m talking about our passions for life and learning and our confidence in the success of our students. I liked theatre before high school, but I loved theatre after high school. I loved it because of the experience I had under the tutelage of this teacher. I can’t imagine ever becoming that inspired by algebra; however, I have met passionate math teachers who could easily inspire their students in similar ways. I’m not sure where I will be on my 75th birthday. I hope that I am well and able to enjoy the day. Of the many ways I can imagine spending such a landmark event in my life; jumping out of an airplane, driving a racecar, sailing the Caribbean; none of them are nearly as exciting as the idea that I might be able to visit and catch up with a handful of my former students. That would be a gift!
I recently had the pleasure of visiting my high school drama teacher at his 75th birthday party. My two best high school friends and I traveled over 600 miles along just to give him a hug and tell him “thank you.” Three other high school friends met us at the party having traveled similar distances. We all agreed that this was the one and only teacher that we would make this type of effort to visit. What motivated us to make the journey? This teacher shared his soul with us – his former students- and he changed our lives.
When I got news of the party, I immediately felt compelled to go. Not because I wanted a weekend away, or an awesome road trip with my pals, but because I felt a need deep-down inside of me to tell this man how important he was to me, and how he changed my life. My friends may not have been as motivated, but once they heard that I was going with or without them, they decided to join me. Six of us reunited for a short time to honor our friend, reminisce about yesterday, and share our todays.
Of the six of us, I am the only one who became a high school teacher. However, we all continue to be involved in theatre in one way or another. It’s not only love of theatre that we got from our teacher; he instilled confidence in us by giving us real-world opportunities to succeed or fail at a very young age. He believed in us as individuals and pushed us beyond our comfort limits. There is no question that none of us would be the successful adults we are today without the influence and guidance of this one teacher.
In addition to being my high school drama teacher, he was also my master teacher while I was earning my teaching credential. I had the privilege of working with him as a colleague although I will never consider myself in the same league. He taught public high school theatre for 30 years to thousands of students and earned a remarkable number of awards and accolades. One of his shows earned the honor of traveling and performing in Washington D.C.
I was somewhat compelled to make the trip for his 75th birthday with the idea that someday my own students might want to come back and visit me when I’m 75. I know it was a treat for him to sit around the table and remember something special about each one of us. In fact, after we exhausted our welcome at the party’s location, he invited us back to his home to continue the visit. About a dozen of us sat around his front porch until late in the evening as if we had just completed a production and were listening to his notes.
Why do I share this very personal experience here? Every teacher has been inspired by others; many by their former teachers. All teachers inspire their students in some way. Our inspiration can be positive, like my birthday friend, or negative. Either way, a teacher’s influence on students is unavoidable and undeniable. It doesn’t matter if we “try” to shape and mold our students; we do it anyway. I believe that this is an important point for every teacher to consider: how are you affecting your students?
Teachers can choose to share their souls with their students. By “soul,” I’m talking about our passions for life and learning and our confidence in the success of our students. I liked theatre before high school, but I loved theatre after high school. I loved it because of the experience I had under the tutelage of this teacher. I can’t imagine ever becoming that inspired by algebra; however, I have met passionate math teachers who could easily inspire their students in similar ways. I’m not sure where I will be on my 75th birthday. I hope that I am well and able to enjoy the day. Of the many ways I can imagine spending such a landmark event in my life; jumping out of an airplane, driving a racecar, sailing the Caribbean; none of them are nearly as exciting as the idea that I might be able to visit and catch up with a handful of my former students. That would be a gift!
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