KNOW YOUR TEACHER-A magic moment

This is about a special event every teacher attend with some hesitance to begin with and only to end with a sense of healing, fulfillment and hope like never before. This is what happened…

I suppressed my tears as my teacher wept, I smiled when my store Incharge declared her dream with pride, I shed a tear when my laboratory assistant became tearful to a feeling of hopelessness, I commended the moral strength of my teacher who fought to become an inspiring person and he praised my kindness and care I gave to everyone, I laughed with my teacher to a life of tragedy when she made fun of her tribulations, and I saw dreams in my librarians’ hopes for better future.

We believe that, it is important for teachers to know the backstory of every student, and that knowing their story inspires learning and change in behavior. If it vital for teachers to know his students, it is even more indispensable for principal to listen to teachers and support staff’s deepest stories. Then, we can call ourselves a family, can reach out in times of pain and joy with impartiality and genuineness.

 

This is a time when teachers, even support staff sit for a deeper conversation with their principal. It is a time where principal and his colleague find strength and hope together, like a father and a son on an adventure that will define the future of their children. We sit facing each other, as equals, as a friend, as someone who want to listen and who want to speak without hesitance, telling their forgotten stories and reliving their memories.

Sometimes there were tears and an awakening moments, sometimes realization of a forgotten strengths, often a relief from stories hidden until the day, always a healing and a hope to perform better, and to live and work together more productively.

 

Would it not make school life a happier space if principal knew his teacher more than as his work colleague? Would a happier teacher and an acquainted principal not make classroom livelier learning space and school a meaningful home?

That is where Know Your Teacher programme (KYTp) comes as an answer for Dechentsemo Central School. This was envisioned by principal, intended to deepen connection with colleagues and understanding to nurture students in novel ways. This is one of the platforms for Principal to talk to teachers beyond the professional mandate, to enhance   professional intimacy, humane connection and rapport as a working colleague. The program is aimed at understanding the teachers’ history and his life, his highest virtues and deepest hopes, his dreams and difficulties, to enable deeper understanding of teachers. The sitting creates avenues to explore emotional panaroma in strengthening relationship and reverence between the leader and the led..

 The core objectives of KYTp are to-

1.        Build good rapport between teachers and Principal

2.      Know the needs and interests of the Teacher

3.      Know the strength and weaknesses of the Teacher

4.      Build sense of family and fraternity

I will always cherish this hour of sitting as a venture that connects visions and aspirations of the principal with his colleagues. This knowing, this profound connection, lifts the respect and value in our uniqueness of experiences and personalities, brining understanding about life everyone waged through, and enables compassionate leadership and filial harmony in the work place.   

 

For Dechentsemo CS, this is a magic moment when teacher and support staff can sit with principal to re-live the past and find strength, to live the moment and connect, and live the future by chartering visions and dreams for school together. This magic moment helped me identify special skills, talents and aptitudes, to touch the emotional chord of their life’s experiences and know the weakness and strengths of the teachers. This is Know Your Teacher programme.