TEDx use that swath because one because
youth is my is the inspiration of my
talk and two because the student
organizers of this event are helping me
prove my point today teaching is a great
profession and I feel like I’m in the in
the great business as it it’s it
teaching inspires minds and teaching
nurtures growth and teaching develops
the soul and but those noble aims with
the grand words can sometimes give the
impression that it’s always the teacher
that has to provide it’s always a
teacher that has to give I’m here today
to say that teachers can also take a
breather take a step back and just take
in as much from the students a few years
ago I was teaching in the UK and I was
teaching a GCSE cloth and GCSE is
General Certificate of secondary
education and it’s a set of exams that
are taken by 15 to 16 year olds after a
two year course and I had a student
there and who was so determined to help
her classmates and she because she
didn’t have to she didn’t have to study
for herself a lot anymore because she’d
mastered and covered everything that she
had to that year before we set up a
lunchtime Club in my classroom
so that her friends could come in and
basically have a tutoring session with
her then that’s for every day of the
week every school day at the end of the
year she got her a stars which were the
highest grades but more importantly many
students earned better grades because of
her help
so I admired everything that she did and
I remember I definitely wasn’t doing any
of those things when I was 15 I was
probably just stressing out over
homework deadlines and just probably
complaining about how I didn’t have
enough time to study so at that moment I
realized Ashley she was inspiring me
more than I was inspiring her so I’ve
taught in two countries now in different
schools and with different school
demographics different student
demographics but in all of them as I
teach maths to my students every day as
I observe them as I communicate with
them they’re my students unknowingly
also give me something back there
reciprocate they teach me things that
can make us go further in life so now
okay it’s not really visible on here but
when you see this what do you what comes
to your mind what do you think of it
anything sorry exam okay yeah and what
sorry formula okay anything that strikes
difficult okay yes
well we it’s loads of scribbles isn’t it
but as I was marking I just came across
this and I I thought this was
perseverance shown very nicely on a
sheets of paper from this I could see
clearly that this didn’t at first didn’t
know what to do right and then she tried
different methods and then she chose a
suitable one until she finally got the
correct answer and she got full marks
for it
and I thought to myself would I have
stopped or you know at what point or at
what stage would I give up so this
student taught me the importance of
perseverance in what you do so this is a
closer look you have the little circle
there at the entrance is to say that she
got full marks now in a previous school
I taught a class with very colorful
personalities one student brought a pair
of high heels into class and he was such
a showman right he was into drama and
everything so he asked me he was and so
he was so desperate to struts around and
in high heels in class and so he asked
me if I had anything to give out so that
he could help distribute them and when I
said no he just took a pile of
activity sheets which wasn’t even meant
for that class which was meant for
another cloth and he said this will do
miss and then so he just started some
circle around the class and just putting
one sheet at every table Oh need to
collect them later put them back in a
pile and put it back on put the power
back on my desk and went back to his
seat while another student was on
another day was looking at me
attentively you know looking very
engaged and he was just being focused
he was just focused on listening to my
explanation and so I thought oh I must
have done very well with my lesson you
must have been captivating for that on
that day because he wasn’t the most
focused student normally at the end he
put his hand up and he said miss I’ve
been looking at your eyebrows and I’m
sure they looked like they look like
those of the lead singer of some boy
band and so it wasn’t it wasn’t my
lesson actually that captivated this
student so I definitely experienced all
feelings teaching that class but
teaching that class taught me patience
and it taught me not to do things in
haste and also that things are not
students have also shown that they can
get that can have success whether we can
get success if we love what we do my
best math students are those that love
the subject and I see that when that
love is instilled they would apply all
the desired characteristics that they’ve
that they possess into learning
mathematics I guess after all
Mozart loved playing the piano Michael
Jordan share is cherished his basketball
moments right and Mark Zuckerberg must
have been very passionate about how his
idea so I think as it’s similar to when
kids are playing video game the same
video game over and over again for
example but it’s just because they’re
fascinated by it right and also when we
like to sing many times over because we
like the song and I think it’s a similar
kind of passion and so as Confucius said
if you find a job that you love you’ll
never have to work a day in your life my
students have also taught me that anyone
can make progress however small and that
we don’t always always cease progress
instantly and I think this is very
relevant for me as a teacher because we
always measure things against progress
and and and see whether we’re making
things better and all of that so I had
one students who came to me and said
miss I want to start improving in math
and I think I can do it if I put the
effort in and of course that’s music to
any teachers ears right it’s like what
well done okay
let’s let’s
let’s do this and so he’s started to
show you know a change in a positive
attitude to learning and I knew that he
was working really hard at filling the
gaps in his knowledge I could see his
marks improve sometimes very small not
not even noticeable but there was
definitely life I look at my grade book
there was definitely an upward trend in
his and his achievement until a few
months later in one test he got the
highest score in us in the class the
other students were shocked they were
baffled they couldn’t believe it how
could he have done it all of a sudden
but it wasn’t all of a sudden he was
taking it one step at a time he was he
kept going until he eventually made that
big leap finally students have shown
that they perform really well if they
can put the knowledge of the subject
into a broader context into a bigger
picture and when they realized that that
that knowledge can take them to where
they want to go and I think that’s
that’s very important for me to realize
as well that I have to put purpose in in
in what we do
so there it is the five things that my
students have definitely taught me
perseverance patience passion progress
and purpose I’m lucky to be a teacher
and I think when people say teaching is
a rewarding job teaching is rewarding I
think learning from students is
definitely one
those rewards I feel enriched every day
seeing the many things that students can
do at such a young age
one of them is is organizing this this
event this TED FedEx you set swath so I
feel grateful because students have
sometimes made me change my mind but
they’ve definitely made me bet better
prepared as a teacher and also they’ve
made me reflect constantly as a person
in my own press to be better thank you
[Applause] [Music]