Gor's World - A Student Becomes a Teacher

In the past, I always thought that being a teacher was an easy job. But I changed my mind when I became a part-time teacher for the first time at Sriwittayapaknam School. It wasn’t as easy as I had first thought. There is more to it than just standing in front of the classroom and teaching from a book. You won’t understand how difficult it is to be a teacher if you haven’t done it yourself. After that first time teaching, I have never again said that it is easy to be a teacher.

About four years ago, Richard asked me if I could help teach his students how to make a web site about themselves, in English. The lesson would be once a week after school. I agreed to do it because computer is what I do well and I didn’t think that teaching computer to Prathom 6 students would be that hard. He said I didn’t have to do anything much, just walk around and help the students that had problems.

During the first few lessons, I tried my best to be friends with the students by being kind and teasing them sometimes but in the end I knew that it didn’t really work. That’s all because they didn’t know about time. They tried to play with me all the time even when they were supposed to be learning. I didn’t mind if they played or fooled around with me after the lesson because I wasn’t teaching. But when they did it during the lesson, I wouldn’t be able to teach them. They wouldn’t listen to what I taught them. So I changed. I stopped playing with them and became more strict and it worked better than before.

I know that every student loves kind teachers but now I also know that teachers love students that know when it is time to learn and time to play. If the teacher is too kind or too friendly with the students, they won’t listen to the teacher when it is time to work. So, most teachers choose to be strict and let students be scared of them even though that will make some students not like them. But it’s easier for the teachers to teach when it is like this.

My experience of being a part-time teacher has helped me understand teachers more. Also it has made me be a better student because I now understand how teachers feel. Sometimes, when I am teaching Richard’s class, some of the students chat with their friends while I am explaining how to do something. It annoys me as these students are the ones that later can’t do the task that I gave them. This means I have to teach them again.

At first I just got angry with them but Richard taught me to stop and think why they were doing this. He said that if he is teaching a lesson and the students are not listening then he is angry with himself for not making the lesson clear or interesting for them. I told him that I understood that but still I didn’t like it when the students chatted while I was trying to teach. He then asked me if I had ever done that. That made me stop. Of course I had!

If any of my past teachers are reading this I want to say sorry if I sometimes played around in the class while you were teaching. I didn’t think how that would make you feel. I won’t be acting like that again. I promise I will do my best to be a good student in the future. I also ask you to please try and remember what it was like when you were a student. Please help us when we don’t understand and most importantly don’t be quick to be angry when we fail. None of us are perfect but with your help we can be successful.

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"A Student Becomes a Teacher" was originally published in the Learning Post, a supplement of the Bangkok Post. It is used here with their kind permission.