Teach with intention and intensity

TEACHING a subject is never all about the subject. The positive relations that teachers endeavor to establish with their pupils provide children engagement and meaning. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. Teaching therefore, is not only having control over what you teach but more importantly how you teach it. As Aristotle puts it, "Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all."

We can help cultivate children's spirit to learn, nurture their sense of wonder and curiosity about the world, inspire them to ask questions and enthrall them to seek further, fuel their willingness to care for the human condition, give them a zest for learning and most importantly, help them find the joy in it by focusing not only on what to teach but how to teach. In teaching it is the method and not the content that is the message. Classroom management and interaction with the students will affect students’ engagement in your lessons. This is teaching with intention (purpose) and intensity (passion).

I don’t argue that the curriculum is essential for it is the heartbeat of teaching. It is so much necessary raw material. But warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child. This is fostered in classroom management which is the central nervous system of the classroom. Without the heart, there is no life, but without the nervous system, there is no function. It is a mutually serving arrangement.

It may not be what you signed up for, but it’s a reality that today’s students implicitly expect to have positive interaction with their teachers. Teachers play an important role in nurturing a student’s sense of engagement and meaning. Teaching therefore, to be effective at all needs to be accompanied by a sense of nurturing on the part of the teacher. We need to rethink not only what to teach but how to teach it. (Jacqueline Fianza)