Later last week, I gave a talk to a group of teachers (Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Vietnam, and Thailand) who are alumni of Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA), co-hosted by Fulbright Thailand and the US Embassy. It was a good gathering for them to network, share, and learn.
Again, I talked about New Normal in the VUCA world. I began my talk by using a quote by William Arthur Ward sent to me by my student and I was relieved it worked fine and ignited fine sharing. It reads,
"The mediocre teacher tells.
The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires."
During the Q&A session, several had questions/comments by relating to the quote ka! On the whole, there were quite a few questions and experience sharing, making it a lively learning forum. What teachers found very challenging were how to nurture the understanding of their own cultures and be ready to be part of the ASEAN Community, how to read more for the sake of learning from reading, how to drive their students to learn wisely through their smartphones.
It was quite clear to me that in our New Normal, several basics have to be redefined, especially the terms, 'book' and 'reading' ka.
There's one specific comment I like to share here ka. A Thai TEA alumna said she learned a lot from her 6-year-old grandson who knew how to use the tablet well while getting bored with the traditional way of teaching at his school. She said teachers could have the mix of the four from mediocre to great. There was no need to be great all the time.
I really like her thought as it's so true in the VUCA world when things have become our 'New Normal' but it's so very 'Normal' to the younger gens, especially the Z and A. It could be the widening gap of the older gen teachers who need to keep pace of the changes, to learn from and share with the younger.
As a teacher, we should determine along with our kids what they need in their world of learning and select what best for us to do through telling, explaining, demonstrating, or inspiring approach. Yet, when teachers want to be great, it shows their deep intention to do their role at their very best, which is so touching and admirable ka.
It was an hour I also learned how enthusiastic our teachers have been to lead and help their students....reading is always an issue that can be taken up as a big challenge for teachers to define reading in their 'new normal' world ka.
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