'Engaging' and 'Inspiring' Teachers. | Amjad Ali | TEDxNorwichED

[Music] [Applause] in order to be an effective teacher in order to understand what is a teacher like we have to understand what is a good speaker I think they're almost synonymous to be a good teacher you almost have to be a good speaker now there's many elements that one can determine on what exactly makes a good speaker on what exactly makes a good teacher for me I picked out three facets that I think are really really important I'd like to share some of these with you and a little bit about my journey so in order to be a good speaker and teacher I think you have to be intelligent I think you have to know what you're talking about now we've all tried teaching things that we're not so secure in and it's not always gone too well we've all tried teaching things that were not really experts in and it's not really being the best however once we develop our subject knowledge I feel we can move on and teach in other areas in order to be a good speaker we have to be certain about what we're talking to and from lots of students tell me teachers that are passionate teachers that really love this subject we'll really hook us in I'm not quite sure that's enough brain or drain spotting is a thing people actually write that down as a hobby I go and spot trains no matter how often and how passionate people talk to me about drain spotting I'm not quite sure I'll be sold on it next thing that's really important for a good speaker and a good teacher is to be reflective you have to reflect on any task that you must do more than once what did I do well could I do it better a good speaker when providing multiple speeches needs to think did I engage with the audience was i effective in promoting what i was speaking about a good teacher must reflect they must ask a multiple variety of people is it about me that needs to improve we can't just rely on the deathly learning walk of the senior leadership team we have to watch others we have to reflect and we have to find out what is it that I can do better but that's just not just it what else makes a good teacher we know intelligence we know reflection for me it's also confidence a good teacher must be confident a good teacher must be sure and certain a good teacher must be absolutely fine with standing up in front of a variety of pupils in front of our variety of settings and being confident in what they are talking about I meet many teachers that are almost afraid of speaking in front of others and that might be because teachers as learners are actually quite bad teachers as members of audience are actually really critical therefore as a teacher and speaker we must be confident let me tell you an example of somebody that is both intelligent reflective and also extremely confident my mother my mother taught us when we were younger when the ice cream van sound rang there was no ice cream left so there was us thinking why is he always driving past whenever he's finished and the only time we got that ice-cream with mum is parked up no sound we're getting ice cream now she did that with surety she did that with confidence and she made us believe it and let's not lie even if you're not an educator you've all taught people or told somebody something that isn't quite true and you've said it with ultimate confidence I'm doing a little bit of it now what we've got to remember as well is and this is where it gets a little bit complicated because for me I'm going to lay my cards out on the table I think every good teacher and speaker must be engaging said it I'm sorry I know it's one of those terms that people think it's almost like n'd with this phrase that you might read or hear well engagement is a poor proxy to learning without engagement you cannot see learning with engagement you cannot see learning however you want to look at whatever you want to look at we're not here to have fun that's not my job you might think that's not for you to do but for me but for me I'm thinking you're sat here and you're all engaged right you're all doing what you should be doing and sometimes we get it wrong sometimes we try to be engaging and we don't quite get it right and sometimes we confuse what engaging is hey guys I'm going to snapchat as well and hey guys let's play pokemon go with you as well I'm not quite saying you must do all of those things because we're we confuse engagement is we think it's entertainment and we're not here to be entertaining hazel mentioned lessons should be fun I agree but we shouldn't plan for fun the lesson should be so engaging they in turn become fun we make learning relevant we hook our students in we bring them together we contextualize it and we make it fun lessons can be fun with just you standing at the front sharing knowledge that is fun unless you're talking about drains then it might not be we need to be clear about the idea that engagement doesn't mean riding around on a unicycle popping balloons full of glitter engagement is us sharing our knowledge but for me there's something missing because school must be more than just coming in learning something that is written in a textbook and then going home for me school needs to be more than that school needs to teach me things that I wouldn't have learned at home I mean my mother for example with the ice cream van hopefully school corrected that for me what we need to understand about engagement is that sometimes if we try an idea people think that's gimmicky that's a fad that's a gimmick why are you doing that why are you trying these things that we know research suggests doesn't work but I'm yet to find a single piece of research that has applied to all students across every single school in the country I'm yet to find research that applies to my students that will apply to your students that will apply to your students something works somewhere but not everything works everywhere and what we must do as teachers is know our students not just students so you might think that idea sounds a little bit ridiculous for that lesson for that school for that teacher unless you're in that school with that lesson with that teacher don't make a comment my motto is simple try refine ditch try an idea refine an idea if it doesn't work ditch the idea I'm very very fortunate I could provide training to many many school teachers and I talked to many many young people and I offer them this advice try an idea refine an idea if you don't like the idea ditch the idea and I have to always say if you don't like the idea don't hate me just don't use it it's really that simple and sometimes the danger with being engaging is we almost have to kill our creativity we almost have to kill our ideas because we're worried that people will think why are you trying that why don't you just stand at the front and teach got nothing against that stand at the front and teach but sometimes we need to teach in a different method in a different manner and we have up to 30 well probably 35 students in the classroom soon what we need to be able to do is access every single one of them I'm not saying soften it down I'm not saying dumb down the expectations I'm saying we must be able to do things that are slightly different now I share these ideas online I ask teachers to use them I never ask them to just pick up an idea and just chuck it into their classroom you must always contextualize that idea for your students now that's probably not quite enough intelligence reflection confidence engaging so as I reflect always on my teaching on my practice I think back to my best teacher mr. Wiccans the most inspiring teacher I ever had he passed away recently I've been in a really privileged position he was my teacher I went back to teach at the school I learned him he became my colleague and then he became my friend now through this journey he taught me so many things he taught us boys that grew up in reading cemetery Junction and we had cemetery in the name that we grew up in he taught us boys any to cuss boys to places and see things that we never thought we would see he took us to something called the Nutcracker and all of us was sat in a minibus ken why is he taking us to something go crack nuts what's this guy doing and then we were sat there going what's the ballot boy what's this guy doing and then we get there and we see a guy in tutus and tights and one of the boys a nutcracker makes sense that's what we're doing he got as cricket trials he made us feel inspired his classroom full of the most amazing tea-stained scrolls that we would sit in front of the fire for hours burning paper starting again burning papers dying again so he could hang them across his cross room ceiling he inspired us but what he did was so amazing he did something that I really tried to replicate always throughout my teaching he made every single student feel like they were the most important student in the classroom and I didn't realize that until his funeral I was lucky enough to say a few words write a few things about him and I was surrounded in his funeral by lots of me lots of people saying mr. wickers did this for me and I was that hold up mr. Wiggins my favorite teacher were you talking about that he took me to ballot not you what you do what you talking about and and and then I sat back and I thought wow mr. Wiggins affected every single one of us and he did it in a way that never took away that amount of time that he was putting in for us and I'm out of effort he was putting in for us an amount of engagement he placed on us so for me to be in engaging and inspiring teacher we have to hold to heart every single one of our students and the ones that shun our love need it the most and what I really want to end with for you is to remember now you might be trained or if even if you haven't trained at the teacher even I started around 11 or 12 years ago I have students now that have come up to me and said sir I became a teacher because of you my first reaction is we're talking about you're still 10 what would you mean you become I'm not that don't stop just come and see me in ten years or something don't don't tell me that yet but the point is we need to remember remind ourselves that we can be you be you in the classroom share elements of your personality I'm not suggesting you become friends but I'm definitely saying be friendly I'm not suggesting you become Facebook friends with them but I'm suggesting that you share elements of your personality elements of who you are so I've never seen you in a snapback I thought you only wear a suit I said yeah I even sleep in a suit I never I never wear anything but a suit students need to know a little bit about yourself they need to hear a little bit about you they need to be comfortable with you I are students so what would make an engaging teacher what would make an inspiring teacher I delivered this presentation to my students I thought I'm talking about you so surely you should hear it and only one of them I'm glad only one of them said so when you talk about engaging teacher just mention not you that's okay the only person that's getting reference in this talk is going to be you miss Berg now we need to remember show yourself be yourself we control the climate in our classroom it might be a snowy windstorm outside but we can make our classroom a sub Saharan desert full of ideas we could break down the most complex of ideas into the most simplistic of terms for every single student and we do that through love we do that through compassion we are more than just teachers in order to be inspiring in order to be engaging you must be intelligent you must be reflective you must be confident and you must be you don't be a hidden figure in your classroom I'm the first in my family to go to university my father is both illiterate in his home language and English he came over as an economic migrant he worked his socks off so that we can work our socks off and he wanted me to be the first of he created the first of how many the first of our units create thank you [Applause] [Music]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 76,442

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United Kingdom, Education, Education reform, Schools, Teaching

Id: mC6LNBWpMCE

Length: 13min 30sec (810 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 03 2017