Our Teachers Our Heroes
While parents play an important part in the child’s daily growth, teachers also play a role that creates how the child would grow in terms of attitude and socialising abilities. Being around them when they are constantly with their peers, we have seen many children grow from being shy to being confident, and with our current situation, today’s teachers do more than just teaching.
Due to Covid-19 being still active and harmful to our lives, teachers in Ilham Child Care Centre have grown into playing the role of a healthcare worker, where we are the first line to teach the young ones of the different ways to prevent the spread of this. We adhere to social distancing, teaching the kids about masking up, and the importance of both social distancing and cleanliness.
As the teachers have close proximity to the children during the hours they are with us, we understand that they tend to follow what adults do in their environment. Learning from us means we will have to set a good example. At the time when the teachers started to wear a mask to prevent any spread, many children were curious enough to ask the question of why such a thing was necessary. Eventually, as the children get used to seeing the teachers wear masks, they will automatically feel the need to wear one!
This, together with the kids adapting to the need for social distancing, is always a challenge as children naturally enjoy interaction with their peers, which is the whole essence of the school. At first, it hinders communication between the children, but each centre at Ilham has a Special Needs Education Champion, someone who can aid other teachers in this field to ensure they can be a therapist of sorts to the kids, listening to their emotions and rants that would be dangerous for their future if they bottled it up.
Being an inclusive child care, our teachers at Ilham have to adapt and learn new techniques to care for and teach special needs students as well! Some children are different from others, and we do our utmost to teach other children how to act and interact with those students, inculcating different learning techniques along the way.
As special needs children are often outcasted due to their differences, it is up to our teachers to ensure such an outlook is not cultivated. When a teacher models that they are just like anyone else and does not outcast them as different, such behaviour would also seep into the children’s attention, which would result in them being inclusive and not feeling like their peers are different from them after all.
To accommodate such a diverse type of learners, we have in place differentiated learning to suit different styles of learners as well as learners of different abilities. Some styles we have placed to ensure our efforts are successful is learning corners with visual aids for those who are keener towards visualisation, music and movements for the kinesthetic learners, and rhymes or songs or sounds for those who lean towards auditory learning. As a diverse educarer, our teachers are best suited to help parents find the best way to teach their child, to give them the best possible chance for their future. Some go even further and conduct cookery lessons for them as well!
Being part of such a great team of teachers, I personally understand the need to recognize my teachers’ efforts for putting so much time into the children here! It is to that extent, we share not only their good work on social media but also award them for what they have done! A teacher is awarded for each category they succeed: Special Needs Education Champion, Infocomm Tech Champion, Montessori Champion and Jolly Phonics Champion! This ensures not only us here at Ilham, but the parents know their children are in good hands! Every teacher strives further as a result of this, trying to gain the recognition of being a Champion of our centre!
So, what else can we do to show our appreciation to those who mould the future of our children? Providing words of encouragement and motivation for them would no doubt provide them with the strength to push to strive for the kids. Even the Management Team has provided quality time with the teachers where we spend time having team lunch and bond with one another. We cater food and drinks to staff during long meetings or events as well to prove they can count on us to keep them nourished!
But, what matters most to the teachers is one important thing. The culture fostered here in Ilham Child Care is that both the teacher and parent are in a partnership for the betterment of the children. Neither one can work if the other is not willing to cooperate. Being in such close proximity to the child’s growth, both the teacher and the parents have the capability to mould their future!
How do you feel our current curriculum helps the children? Do we appreciate our teachers enough?
