Teacher Appreciation Week

Posted by: Dr Ashley Tan on: May 7, 2014

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If not for RSS and Twitter, I would not have realized this was Teacher Appreciation Week in the USA. Here in Singapore, we discount the week to a day and celebrate it in September.

So I tweeted this yesterday to share the news and the hashtag #TeachingIs:

#TeachingIs: Part Art, Science, Struggle, and Joy http://t.co/RTcL6Ba2G9 #edsg

— Dr Ashley Tan (@ashley) May 6, 2014

Real teaching is mostly a thankless task done by educators who do not expect thanks. These educators tend to have two important attributes.

I think that the second most important trait to have as an educator is the ability to think like a learner. It is only when you understand what and why they do not understand that can you accompany them on the journey to bridge that gap.

The most important trait is being reflective. If you are reflective, you will constantly analyze yourself and seek improvement. If you realize that you do not connect with learners, you will find ways to do so.

So I share a YouTube video I found a while ago.

Video source

It helps to remember what it was like to be a beginning teacher. That is probably when a teacher learns the most because s/he is most like a student and more ready to reflect.

Tags: appreciation, teacher, week