Food For Their Minds

So learning to teach is a lot different from actually teaching. This PGCE is definitely enlightening and beneficial for a future teacher but does it actually prepare you to be the best teacher you can possibly be?


The challenge I have had in these last two weeks is the constant questioning of my own abilities. I am knowledgeable and educated but am I going to be influential enough for my future learners? Do I know enough? Have I the ability to mould minds, to encourage and influence others?


But I've realised that I have been asking the wrong questions. It isn't about me and my ability as a teacher. I want to be a great teacher yes but the learning process is about the learner. It is about the individual. I need to set aside my own doubts or insecurities and focus on the lives of others. These adolescents are human beings with innumerable capabilities and I will be privileged enough to be a part of their development: whether it be intellectually, emotionally or physiologically, I will be witness to the change of perspective, minds and the growing hunger for knowledge and success.


People have the inherent need to learn, and we need to keep that in mind as educators... We can either feed their appetites so that the learners are able to thrive in all aspects of their lives now and in the future or we can starve them of what we know, through our own knowledge and experience. But to starve them of exciting and passionate learning is extremely sad to comprehend, and that is why so many schools are failing. I want to feed learners, and through constantly learning the ways of teaching and what it means to be a great teacher, I will accomplish this. Life is about the making of moments, and I want to make their schooling lives about receiving these moments whereby the lessons which are taken away are those which are to be treasured inside the learner throughout the rest of his or her life. It isn't about me obtaining a legacy, but about them learning to enjoy and treasure their moments as a learner.