Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Inspiration for teachers

I would also like to share a conversation I had yesterday.

The picture I took at Legoland was while I was waiting for an old friend- she is American muslim, became Muslim when she was a teenager through interaction with muslim friends in school alhamdulillah. 

-would it be nice to have iLuvQuranLand? A land of fun in remembering Allah and His words? :)) 

Anyway the conversation is about teaching- she and her husband are both teachers, she has a masters in special education and has taught in American schools and overseas in Hong Kong and now in Abu Dhabi.

So we were talking about the school her children go to- and she mentioned about her children's teachers...

"Some of the teachers are really good.. Some of them are whack!" (Whack = teruk/ not good) 

So I asked her, why do you define certain teachers as whack- what do they do specifically that makes them not very good teachers? (Apa yang mereka buat hingga menjadi guru yg tak bagus?) 

"Well, they don't prepare for class.. They don't have differentiated instructions for their students... Maybe she'll just print handouts for the class " 

(Dush! 👊)

Yes, a professional teacher defines a good performing teacher as someone who will do research and prepare well for class- among others even when a module exists, a good teacher still will prepare side activities and instructions for her students. 

Remember muallimah Shikeen (one of iLuvQuran's teacher's coaches) taught us about having differentiated instructions and identifying who in our class is quick learner, middle learner and who needs more help? And that we need to treat them in a different way. All these needs preparation inshaAllah. 

When my friend said that yesterday, I was reminded of nights at the masjid in Troy New York, when this particular friend, and another more senior sister, who were both teachers, would leave masjid early or not stay for other events because they would say, "I need to prepare for my class tomorrow." Or "I haven't finished preparing for my class". And I remember once looking at a folder one of them had, it seemed like they had everything done- mcm byk dia dah prepare! But she said, no, that's not ready yet because I need to do a few more things. 

Later in the conversation, she mentioned about her son's good teachers- the good teacher teaches English, but prepares well and goes out of her way to integrate her English lessons with what Allah and Rasul taught about values like honesty and adab.. MashaAllah..  

MashaAllah. Let's become those good teachers who prepare well and inspire our students like sheikh Tawus did for Umar Abdul Aziz!

- Zahirah

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