As an educator, there is this happiness I feel deep in my heart when students answer my questions correctly when evaluating them because it shows that effective learning has taken place.
But like other areas in life, we have people who understand things easily and those who take long to understand. It's our job as an educator to identify students who don't seem to assimilate faster and think of better ways and methods to help them become better.
There is this girl in my class that I noticed wasn't doing well in mathematics, she is good in other subjects but has a problem when it comes to maths as she finds it hard to solve simple equations.
The method I used in teaching generally doesn't seem to have any effect on her. I noticed she feels bad whenever she fails any sum given to her and sometimes I noticed she would be crying. I saw the willingness in her that I was determined to find the root of the problem.
I called her one day and sat her down to find out the problem. From talking to her I realized that she forgets things easily and she doesn't practice whenever she is free to understand well. I always tell every one of them that they can only be good at something when they keep practicing it.
Then I devised a method and I told her parents to spare me 30 minutes of her time after the close of the day as I plan on taking it upon myself to make sure she gets better in mathematics. Her parents were so overjoyed that they didn't hesitate to tell me to take as long as I wanted.
The method I chose was that she would have to teach me what I had taught her in class that day, so after school hours we would find a class and I would sit down as a student while she taught me what she had learned that day and unlike students that don't seem to ask enough questions, I ask her lots of questions.
" Excuse me, teacher, why are you dividing that by 2?", I would ask. She would laugh and say " You know the answer to that ma".
" No, I don't, please explain better, remember you are my teacher here", I will say that while keeping a straight face. Then she would go ahead and explain it to me, that way I would know if she understood what she was teaching me.
We did our extra classes for about a month and I noticed that her performance has changed for the better. There was a day in class when I gave a question on the board and asked someone to solve it, she raised her hand and came forward to solve it. I saw the smiles radiating from her face as her classmates gave her a round of applause for solving it correctly.
Her parents were very happy and her mum came to school to see me. She was very happy and gave me a very big hug, talking about how her daughter now loves solving maths anytime she is free. As I heard those words, I felt my heart leaped for joy. I was glad our extra sessions paid off and she has been doing well ever since.
Thank you all for reading.