Avoid being a Helicopter teacher!
I cam across this article on how to avoid being a Helicopter Teacher. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I have heard of helicopter parenting so this was novel and exciting.
From my 25 years of experience I endorse the stand completely. Initially I used to take pride in offering solutions to students when they sought clarifications. I had all answers to their queries and even went a step further to hand hold in every project.
Till I realised ( during my Teaching Excellence Achievement Program to Nebraska, USA ). I witnessed teachers asking, 'What do you think?' leaving open ended questions to the students. It was marvellous to see the outcome. A simple but powerful question leaving the power of thinking/ problem solving/ decision making to the students.
Guidance is necessary but not to the extent of pouring our thoughts and perspective onto the students'!
The International Baccalaureate curriculum is a great one as it enables students to be research minded, open minded, seeking and express their own opinion. Their opinions matter. Their thoughts matter. Wow. This is a big and major difference when compared to Matric/CBSE.
A few months ago I instructed my 7th graders to choose a topic from a given range. I defined the learning outcome to them. They wanted to present in a short film format. They had the freedom to choose their topic and also their team. And the output was amazing!! Their projects were so so good.
Make students accountable and encourage them to seek their own path. You will be the most effective teacher.
From my 25 years of experience I endorse the stand completely. Initially I used to take pride in offering solutions to students when they sought clarifications. I had all answers to their queries and even went a step further to hand hold in every project.
Till I realised ( during my Teaching Excellence Achievement Program to Nebraska, USA ). I witnessed teachers asking, 'What do you think?' leaving open ended questions to the students. It was marvellous to see the outcome. A simple but powerful question leaving the power of thinking/ problem solving/ decision making to the students.
Guidance is necessary but not to the extent of pouring our thoughts and perspective onto the students'!
The International Baccalaureate curriculum is a great one as it enables students to be research minded, open minded, seeking and express their own opinion. Their opinions matter. Their thoughts matter. Wow. This is a big and major difference when compared to Matric/CBSE.
A few months ago I instructed my 7th graders to choose a topic from a given range. I defined the learning outcome to them. They wanted to present in a short film format. They had the freedom to choose their topic and also their team. And the output was amazing!! Their projects were so so good.
Make students accountable and encourage them to seek their own path. You will be the most effective teacher.
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