Hello everyone!!!
I'm really glad to be here in this amazing Hive community, where I get to share my thoughts, opinions, experiences and much more with all of you.
First of all, I want to take a moment to appreciate @steemiteducation and @edu-venezuela for such a wonderful platform that gives us the space to learn, connect, and grow together.
Today, I’d love to share an experience I had with one of my students, a moment that truly reminded me of the beauty and impact of teaching.
I was in class last week and was teaching the students mensuration in mathematics. After solving the exercises, I asked the students if they understood. Everyone said yes, but one student didn’t answer. I called his name and asked him directly if he understood, and he replied yes casually. I decided to give the class a classwork to solve in other to test their understanding. But since my time was up, I couldn’t collect the classwork immediately, so I told them to submit it during break.
When everyone submitted, I began marking their work and as I went through the scripts, I came across the classwork of the student who had answered me casually. Unfortunately, he failed the classwork. I became curious and decided to find out what the problem was. I called for him and asked him a few questions to understand why he was struggling, whether it was from my angle, probably the nature of my teaching or something else. His response surprised me.
He said, Mr. Joash sir, it’s not your fault or the way you teach. I naturally hate mathematics. No matter how you try to teach me, I still don’t understand. Right from primary school, I used to fail mathematics a lot. My former mathematics teacher was very mean to me and always made fun of me whenever I failed his classwork or exams. Since then, I have developed hatred for mathematics and no matter who tries to explain it to me, I just don’t want to learn or understand it.
Of a truth, I was speechless for a moment. I paused for a moment and realized that his problem was not his ability to learn, but the emotional wound from his past experience which he has had. I spoke to him calmly and told him that I understood how such that experience could make anyone hate a subject because I was once in his shoes. I told him my own experience I of how I used to score least grades in class not until my teacher drew me closer and began to teach and motivate me.
I assured him that my class would be different and I wasn’t there to mock or embarrass him but to help him learn and regain his confidence. I explained to him that mathematics wasn’t as hard as he thought, it only needed patience, practice and the right mindset.
I encouraged him to start seeing mathematics as a part of everyday life, not just numbers on the board and to forget about what had happened in the pass. From that moment, I began to praised his efforts whenever he tried, even when his answers weren’t perfect, because I wanted him to feel that trying was the first step to understanding.
And to my surprise, I began to notice a small change in him. He became more attentive in class and started asking questions where he don't understand. I also noticed that he was beginning to drop his fear and open his mind a little more. I wanted to test his progress, so I gave him a small task to solve and to my surprise, he solved it correctly and got the answer right. I felt joy in me seeing that he got the answer correctly and I praised him for his achievements.
Sometimes, all a student needs is someone who believes they can learn, someone who believes they can do it, someone who will motivate them. And with this experience I had with this student, I promised myself to keep being that kind of teacher.
Thank you very much for reading and for your vote.