My philosophy is to be an intellect and moral model to my students. I believe, a role model plays an important part in a success story of an individual. Being a teacher is not limited to teaching, but also in a sense of developing the soft skills and hard skills of a student. In Islam, there are three things that remain ever after even after we are dead; i) ‘soleh/ solehah’ children, ii) alms, money etc. given to the poor or rich whom are in need and iii) good knowledge. This is one of my biggest motivation on being a teacher, specifically “a good-great teacher”. Aligned with the motto of UTM, “Because of God, for humankind”, I can easily achieve those three things. Indirectly, we know that a teacher is also a mother/father of their students especially when the students are apart from their family. A good-great teacher needs to monitor their students, not only in the academic part, but also their well-being behaviour and attitude. Being a teacher is also a field to gain a lot of reward for your thereafter life by doing sadaqah especially to the unfortunate students. Additionally, the most important one is by being a teacher, I am able to share my knowledge to the students and the knowledge will keep on flowing from one generation to another generation.
Good-great teacher need to be an inspiration to the students. As a role model to the students, I need to improve myself, always strive to be better and never stop learning. The young generation nowadays prefer a teacher is not just good at work but also in their interpersonal skills. I always intend to give the best, helping the students to master the fundamental skill and to prepare for their lifelong learning. Despite of being kind and substantial, I also need to be firm on any decision. This is to make sure that the students won’t take advantage of me. Attending teaching and learning courses is always important in order to keep me on to be updated with the current teaching and learning methods.
Life is always changing. Not like those days, the students nowadays are very proactive in order to enhance their education. Conventionally, the students prefer to have one-way lecture which differ from the modern learners whom appreciate two ways lecture more where they can ask and discuss any issues with the teacher. To suits with the demand of the current learning trend, I believe that it is essential to meet the requirements. Having good intellect value is a must so that the delivery process of knowledge can be transferred prominently. This will reflect to a good perception that the teacher is ‘well equipped’ with the knowledge and an intellect in his/her area of expertise. Implementing the active, cooperative, creative and innovative learning in classes will encourage the students to develop their soft skills. Besides engaging the students to the environment, active learning method will help to give equal assessment to the students. Students will not only be assessed on the cognitive area, but also on the behaviourism, connectivism and constructivism. Students whom are non-achiever in cognitivism, will feel appreciated, happy and satisfied with this kind of assessment.
Understanding the students ability with various background and characteristics will help in an excellent teaching. My another intention is to create a friendly environment in the classroom so that I can emotionally attached to the students. Getting to know them as a friend will lessen the gap between teacher and students. However, the respect environment to the teacher is still needed.
As a good-great teacher, I need to continue to study and alter my teaching skills from time to time. My belief is that people have tremendous potential which enables me to be optimistic about their possibilities of becoming good-great individual in future. I am very respectful of the role I play in the students development.
