Beyond lesson plans and grading sheets – why every school’s staffroom holds the secret to transformative education
Teaching is the most arduous task in the whole world. It involves interacting with innocent minds and engaging with their pure thoughts and ideas. It is a delicate task demanding extra care and caution, making it highly challenging for educators. Over the years, it gradually constructs the intellectual infrastructure of students and develops perspectives to observe and interpret the world around them in relation to what they have been taught and told by teachers throughout their academic careers.
It is the transferring of knowledge from a teacher to students, along with multiple other things like language, culture, civilization, beliefs, customs, traditions, faith, etc. It is a full package holding various elements that, intentionally or unintentionally, get transmitted to the students in the classroom.
A teacher requires a private space to think and rethink how to avoid letting unnecessary elements, like corrupting ideologies, influence the fragile minds of students who are yet to develop the maturity to comprehend good and bad, healthy and harmful, once he/she steps into the classroom. A teacher needs time to reflect on how, while delivering a lecture, he would restrain himself/herself from encouraging students to follow him as a person instead of his teachings.
A teacher needs space at least after every two classes to re-prepare himself/herself to move forward for the next two classes with the same enthusiasm. A teacher needs distance from students for a few minutes to remind himself/herself of the vows of justice and equality, honesty and responsibility, dedication and devotion to the profession that he/she took when entering this sacred calling.
This space is provided by the staffroom of a school. It is a space where he/she gets a conducive ambience to figure out the best approaches and tools of teaching to let effective education transpire and prevail not only inside the classroom but outside as well. It is a space where he/she interacts with colleagues and seeks help if any pedagogical issue arises. It is a community of teachers where thoughts and ideas about teaching are exchanged.
It is a space where students are discussed, their learning problems analyzed, and the best remedies discovered. It is a place where teachers build up a learning community, helping one another to overcome the various hindrances of the teaching profession. A good staffroom necessarily means good teaching because it is a space where teachers get re-energized to carry on this sacred profession of moulding and nurturing the young minds and hearts of students.
It offers a space for teachers to exchange knowledge from different domains, making each other interdisciplinary. It embellishes teachers professionally and makes them versatile. Staffrooms must be well-furnished. They must be places of high learning. They should be kept neat and clean on a daily basis. No stationery, sports material, or uniforms should be kept there that might disturb the private sitting of teachers. They must be reserved specifically for teachers.
Like Virginia Woolf, teachers should consider the staffroom as their own room—creative in intellectual terms. Teaching is a profession that needs everyday upgradation. Teachers need to learn new trends of knowledge on a daily basis to keep themselves abreast of the contemporary challenges of the profession. Teachers need to learn like students in order to teach better.
The staffroom helps them to learn various new things from their senior educators through meetings, seminars, discussions, and other programs. If the classroom is a learning place for students, the staffroom is the learning place for teachers. Staffroom learning prepares teachers for classroom teaching. The staffroom is a space for teachers to relax for a few minutes, to recharge and restart their sincere endeavours.
The staffroom is an emotional space for teachers where they feel comfortable expressing themselves personally and unloading their worries. It bolsters teachers at a personal level. They feel part of a community that respects their ideas and encourages their thoughts. It is a social and cultural space for teachers where differences are eliminated, and unity among them prevails. It is one community—the community of teachers.
The fundamental requirement for effective teaching is good rapport among teachers. A well-coordinated school staff makes learning long-lasting. Any academic challenge can be tackled if teachers are united and committed to raising the standard of learning inside and outside the classroom.
The staffroom should have a mini kitchen for teachers to have tea for necessary refreshment and energy. It should also have a mini library to help them learn and discuss new trends in knowledge to prepare students for every upcoming academic challenge. For collaborative learning among students, collaboration among teachers is a must.
Fida Hussain Bhat
az*********@***il.com