Not long ago I made a decision to become a teacher. A career the majority may not consider unless of cos they really have the passion. Myself I've signed an MOE contract bearing a 3-year bond. Hence my options are closed and my career path is set. So what's next?
Effective communication skills! It's crucial to be equipped with such skills to build good teacher-student relationships. The gist of conducting lessons is to be able to deliver concepts clearly across so students would understand. In addition, I could cater better to the different needs of students. For instance, it would be beneficial to constantly paraphrase and break down big words while with a class of PRC scholars. During a teaching stint, I met a student with obsessive-compulsive behaviour writing same sentences over and over again. In addressing similar situations, it is important to be a tactful speaker when handling out instructions to students.
Likewise, these skills are essential for fostering strong people-people relationships. My parents complained I'm seldom home and that when I'm home I do not make observable effort to communicate with family members, leading to a lack of understanding between us. Which is true. I'm impatient with my younger brother and am guilty of yelling at or ignoring his questions. Only 12 and hence understandably immature, curious, overly inquisitive (in my perspective) and irritating at times. Therefore hopefully all these would change after ES2007S.
Similarly, to build an effective social network we need good communication skills. These play a role in the delivery of a good first impression. When we come across as confident speakers to others around us, we leave a more lasting image. Being able to pick up non-verbal cues would allow us to be more sensitive towards the feelings of others, thereby avoiding conflicts and misunderstandings.
Overall, effective communication skills are beneficial to my building of relationships with others, both in personal and social settings.
Effective communication skills! It's crucial to be equipped with such skills to build good teacher-student relationships. The gist of conducting lessons is to be able to deliver concepts clearly across so students would understand. In addition, I could cater better to the different needs of students. For instance, it would be beneficial to constantly paraphrase and break down big words while with a class of PRC scholars. During a teaching stint, I met a student with obsessive-compulsive behaviour writing same sentences over and over again. In addressing similar situations, it is important to be a tactful speaker when handling out instructions to students.
Likewise, these skills are essential for fostering strong people-people relationships. My parents complained I'm seldom home and that when I'm home I do not make observable effort to communicate with family members, leading to a lack of understanding between us. Which is true. I'm impatient with my younger brother and am guilty of yelling at or ignoring his questions. Only 12 and hence understandably immature, curious, overly inquisitive (in my perspective) and irritating at times. Therefore hopefully all these would change after ES2007S.
Similarly, to build an effective social network we need good communication skills. These play a role in the delivery of a good first impression. When we come across as confident speakers to others around us, we leave a more lasting image. Being able to pick up non-verbal cues would allow us to be more sensitive towards the feelings of others, thereby avoiding conflicts and misunderstandings.
Overall, effective communication skills are beneficial to my building of relationships with others, both in personal and social settings.
5 comments:
Hey Stephany,
I definitely agree that having effective communication skills in the classrooms can motivate students and facilitate learning. Effective communication often means using a variety of ways including verbal, non verbal and in writing, to reach students who learn in different ways. As a teacher, it is especially important to pay attention to the non-verbal cues as to prevent sending unintentional messages if we are unaware of things such as our body language. Hope that you would be able to achieve your aims of effective communication through the course.
Hey Steph,
I agree that effective communications skill will definitely come in handy during your teaching career later on in life. This is especially so as the role of teacher has morphed from one that merely has to deliver academic knowledge to one that has to inculcate students with applaudable values and virtues as well. As mentioned by Xinyu, the ability to pick up non-verbal cues through body languages displayed by your students will definitely give u a good idea of whether students are being attentive when you are conducting a lesson. You can then make appropriate adjustments to your lesson plans to cater to the students even better.
Like you, I strongly believe that effective communication skills provide succor in establishing good interpersonal relationships too. So let’s keep that belief in our head and make the best out of this course together.
Thank goodness someone wants to be a teacher and it is not the last resort! When you become a teacher, the difficulty will be to show firmness and yet remain approachable.
Hi Stephany,
I agree with you that in order to build an effective social network, we need good communication skills. Thus, leaving a good first impression is extremely important. Like what you mentioned, a good speaker not only leave a more lasting impression, but it will definitely catch a lot of the audiences' attention. And, the audiences will definitely enjoy and want to hear more. Don't we enjoy interesting speakers or lecturers?
I also strongly agree with you about being able to pick up non-verbal cues. It would definitely allow us to be more sensitive towards the feelings of others, thus conflicts and misunderstandings will be avoided. I feel that non-verbal cues are quite difficult to get hold of it. But, our path is still long way to go. So, we shall pick up the skills bits by bits along the way! (",)
Cheers!
Hi Stephany
I am glad you took up the career path of becoming a teacher; and as Happy mentioned 'not as a last resort'.
Personally, I feel that it might take much more than effective communication skills to foster a good teacher and student relationship.
Bearing in mind, you would be faced with an average enrollment of approximately 30 students per class, and these students could be from very diverse family backgrounds and have varied learning styles and capabilities.
You could start by establishing a persona in which the students can relate to. This way, students would be more willing to raise their doubts with you during their academic course.
At the same time, you have to display a sense of unwavering firmness (as highlighted by Happy) so that the line between your teacher-student relationship is not crossed.
In my opinion, effective management of your students would be then achieved and harnessing the appropriate communication skills would furthur enhance your affinity with your students.
Hope you will become an excellent educator in the future!
Guang Yi
Post a Comment