My Appearance As A Teacher

My Appearance As A Teacher

Teaching is not about delivering lessons only, It encompasses a larger part. Professionalism is one of the most important things, a teacher has to maintain. Professionalism is conveyed through appearance.

I started teaching my units 2 weeks before. As usual, I was stressed out, I was nervous. There were thousands of things going over my head. I was going to teach honors students where I myself, a graduate student. I was so conscious. As much as I was concerned about my lessons, as was concerned about my class presentation too. I was worried about my acceptability. Like whether they are going to accept me or they would leave my class? -all these things were daunting me. Because the person on behalf, I was going to take that class, is a super teacher. She is a very good teacher, very much popular with her students and she has 30 years' experience in teaching here at Ball State. So, you can easily guess how much pressure was upon me. When I talked with my mentor about this, she also said the same that I was feared of, 'babyfaces of TA'. This is a kind of common concern of every TA. Because we, the TAs and the students are very close in age.

I thought and thought more about it. I tried to figure out -what I can do to make me a little bit different from them, at least they considered me as a teacher.

The first thing popped into my head is my appearance. I thought about dressing something different than I usually wear. So, I thought that why not be a little bit professional! To be honest, I felt much confident in that outfit.

I wore a cream color shirt and a blue suit/coat over it. I had a watch in my hand and I had my hair clipped back, I wore a shoe on that day. I tried to be a little bit professional. I know I don't need to wear such an outfit every day. But I wanted them to consider me differently. And it was kind of a way to draw their attention. Because from my other peers' experiences, I heard that the students generally don't pay attention to TA because they are almost the same in ages and they have their own mentors. So, I just wanted to shake that thinking of them.

I was standing in front of the dais.

But I wasn't standing stiff in one place. Rather I was moving. As I had a powerpoint presentation, so sometimes I was going near to the projector to show them clearly, pointing on particular things, sometimes standing near the Dais and sometimes near the table. Because I wanted not to make them feel bored for a second. As I'm a new teacher, so its obvious, my lessons were not that much well designed to get them engaged. Thus I tried to manage their attention through moving and making them feel a little bit more comfortable. I used my gestures like hand movements, facial expressions to make them connected and tried to be approachable and clear to them.

During the class activity time, I went to them. They were divided into groups. So I went to the groups, tried to help them out with their problems, gave suggestions, asked their queries, overall supervised their work. So it was sort of more efficient. Because they were able to reach me easily.

Besides, I believe in one thing with everything. That's the power of smile. I always tried to put a smile on my face. All my nervousness was covered by my smile. However smile gives spreads positivity in the audience, so I tried to maintain that too. To me, smile is a very important tool to gain confidence.

From the first day of my class, I tried to maintain a healthy friendship with them. But obviously keeping that shadow line between us. I tried to assure them about my responsibilities to them. Like with what they can come to me and they can rely on me. Because all at a once they are not going to be open to me. But I have to make them trust me. Because until they have faith in me(considering as a teacher), they are not going to learn. I mean my teaching would not be that effective as we consider our values from learner-centered teaching perspective.

I tried to be comfortable with them through making funs in relevant terms, sharing some experiences related to that particular topic that we were discussing.

I tried to get them engaged by asking questions and their opinions. Sometimes, I named someone and asked anything, that made me more approachable to them. They were thinking positive about me, that's a good point. They were participating and co-operating. I focused on my body language too. I tried to avoid everything in my class that might offend them.

I'm so happy that my students accepted me positively. They were so active in my class. It made me very happy.

Nevertheless, I have a lot to work on. Because that's just a beginning. A long way to go...still. I think through experiences, I would be more confident and more skilled. What I'm doing now with 100% consciousness, would come out someday naturally. This is a matter of time and my practicing that would help me to turn in a good teacher one day. In one fine morning, I would find myself more confident, more skilled and get the best out of me as a teacher.

I want to instill a love of learning in my students too.