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| Silver: believe in your students |
Engaging the students in different ways, adopting affective teaching techniques, and believing in the students, were some of the tips offered yesterday by seasoned educator Debbie Silver who spoke at the Qatar Academy’s inaugural Middle Level Years Leam Tech Conference, with the theme “Creating Connections for Educators of Middle Level Students”.
“Being an educator is one of the most challenging jobs as it requires so many tools, skills and strategies, which are very important to anyone who aspires to be a professional in the field,” she said while making a closing remark during the event that was attended by around 100 mid-level educators.
“Apart from being reflective practitioners, we also have to spend time with our students, get ideas across to them by shutting the doors to our personal problems that could be distracting. We just have to teach them,” she advised.
Silver, who has about 41 years of experience in the field, also asked educators to be respectful and kind to their students while also ensuring that they connect with them in order to achieve good results.
“It is important for educators to connect and know their clientele, that is, they should know their students by devising different means of getting and securing their attention.
“For instance, if you are naturally entertaining, go with it ... be entertaining. Believe in your students as this will encourage them to do more positive things,” she noted.
Speaking to the Gulf Times, Silver said that the main objective of the three-day conference was to present the educators with new ideas and possibilities and to remind them of the reason they joined the teaching profession, which was to teach and make a difference.
Another guest speaker, Ross Burkhardt explained that the role of the teachers goes beyond just delivering instructions to the students; teachers need to engage them too.
“I believe that in some years to come, some of these educators will remember today and still do things based on what they have heard here,” he noted.
“The aim of the conference was to tackle the specific needs of the middle level learners aged between 10-15, who are believed to require special kind of pedagogy to study because they are transiting from the junior level to high school.
“So, there is the need to engage their teachers on ways and how they can connect with the students and keep them on track,” Qatar Academy Mid Grades former assistant principal Christine Blackbury said.
In all, there were some 11 speakers – five from the US and six teachers from Qatar Academy and Singapore – at the conference sponsored by ExxonMobil.
