Teachers are gardeners

? I have taught for about 19 years in all. Then I moved to teacher education and curriculum development. Though an ex-student of mine said recently, “You are still teaching. Only your audience is different”, I would agree that I am still continuing to build further clarity on the same.

For me the basis of classroom environment is what Sir Ken Robinson (2008) says, “Teachers are gardeners”. The understanding and implementation of the meaning of this sentence is the whole process of education for me. “What kind of an environment can we create that allows students to grow naturally to the best they can do in my subject?” This was, and is the burning question.

The heart of my classroom intention comes from ‘joy of learning’.?Everything else moves around it. Once the students have learnt the art of joyful learning, the rest flows in synchronicity with it.

What is joy??“According to my Random House dictionary,?joy?means, "The emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something good or satisfying."” (Wolk, 2008)

To bring it into action, I would definitely focus on the following elements for Maths classes in middle school:

Connect Maths with arts

Kochar (2013) gives a way to connect Maths with art using a project. I found that arts brought the element of fear associated with Maths to be diffused. The students who were not comfortable with the subject found arts to be a good ‘hook’ to be connected to the subject and enjoy it. Hence now I always talk about bringing in arts in Maths classes using projects such as these or using simply including coloured work in the notebooks. We don’t have to have black and white notebooks alone right?

Maths classes ought to also echo with singing, dancing and drama. A number of other strategies are also given by Kochar (2019) on bringing arts, music and language in the Maths classes.

Four Settings

Actually “you can't just stop teaching to observe your class, but take a step back whenever possible and record what you see”, (Young, 2004), and for this variation of settings comes in very handy. I would vary between (a) I teach, (b) Students work in groups, (c) Students work in pairs and (d) Students work alone. Except for the 1st, the rest allow me to step back and observe the students.

Group work goes a long way to bring in an atmosphere of harmony in the classes, if used effectively. The grouping needs to be done based on the psychology of the group itself. And it must not be imposed. I would motivate students to be open to different settings by connecting it to real life skills. I’d say, ‘You need both skills – working in a team and working alone – for an effective existence’. It always worked!

Finally, as I matured, I realised that we can have variation of seating within the group itself and my classes had students choosing on daily basis if they preferred to work alone or in a group. That is when I felt that we had ‘arrived’.

Connection

Brene Brown defines connection as:

"Connection is the energy that is created?between people when they feel seen, heard and valued, when they can give and receive without judgement. Belonging is the innate human desire to be part of something larger than us.” (IG, 2013)

?There are 3 words that help build the connect with the students in any situation and these are: (a) sorry, (b) thank you and (c) please. This is my experience. No one is perfect. We make mistakes. But the one thing that connected me with students again and again was my capacity to say ‘I am sorry’.

The other way to make connections deeper are ‘awareness and reflection’. To be aware of what is coming in the way of connecting with students and to systematically eliminate it using reflections. An evening quiet time helps for the same. Teachers need to learn to meditate. Choe (n.d.) “Ultimately, once I became a positive teacher, my classroom became a positive one, too”. Awareness and reflection teaches us that the problem is within us and the solution too.

Connection helps the students feel safe and that impacts the classroom management. “Classroom management is about setting an orderly and safe space so that the kids can learn what it is that you want them to learn”, (Ernst & Wegdham, 2011).?

?Organization

“Stay organized inside and out. Keep your student files, assignments, lesson plans and administrative paperwork in order”, (Cini, 2017, p.3.).

One of my students said to his mum, ‘I have never seen Monica Ma’am not ready. No matter what happens in the class, she is always prepared and knows how to manage it’. He was astounded at the level of organization he saw in me and it made a huge impact on him. With experience, while lesson planning one learns to be able to project all the difficulties that the lesson might throw up for a particular class. To be well organised does not just mean to be ready with material etc but also to be ready for the unpredictable.

Communication

In the beginning years of teaching, I was ‘popular among students and unpopular among staff’. It ran for quite some time. It was only later that I realised the power of having clear communication channels with parents, colleagues and finally management. Teaching can be hard, stressful and exhausting. Having people that you can communicate your difficulties to can provide a good cushion in times of distress. Cini (2017, p.4) says, “It is essential to have clear and consistent lines of communication with your administration, colleagues, students and parents”.

I often found that stress of dealing with adults poured out on students. Since students are vulnerable and cannot always fight back, it was easy to let loose, but it left me in very poor spirits. When I strengthened the channels with adults around me, it helped me to conduct classes much better.

In conclusion, over the years I learnt to focus on classroom environment than individual students or the subject. And that made teaching most rewarding as a profession or vocation!