Teacher III, Balanga National High School

Teachers should be good in motivating the class from the moment they start until the moment they end. However, due to the advent of technology, media, and other matters, it became so do such.

That is a very frustrating scenario nowadays. It is certainly difficult to teach a lesson without anyone interested. Yet, when we start to chat with our students and share personal stories, just like push buttons, we once again capture their attention. During those time, we felt like we won the lottery since students’ cooperation and responsiveness cost million dollars these days.

With that, I think we need to be like Scheherazade for some time. In Arabian Nights, she is the wife of the Sultan who successfully saved herself from being killed because of her prowess in narrating suspenseful tales that maintained the interest of her husband to listen for more.

Thus, I can’t help but think if we could just simply chat with our students just like Scheherazade so we could win the latter. By doing so, aside from gaining our students’ favor, we may also sustain our own drive and energy to teach. Unfortunately, it is very obvious that we have to make them learn what is stated to be implemented in the curriculum instead of just telling stories and chatting with them. Hence, going back to Scheherazade, she is not just a typical storyteller; she shares scholastic and worthwhile events from history, books, literatures and others. Therefore, she does not only unfolds stories, she exposes realities in life which are definitely significant to learn.

Thus, as we teach, we must learn to connect so that we can relate by citing real life contexts and scenarios. By doing so, we may understand better what our students are going through. They may also be encouraged to participate and make decisions since they personally experienced some samples you included.

To sum, we must be like Scheherazade who is a wide reader but not bookish. She put life and meanings which books cannot provide. Always remember that we are dealing with human beings. Our students are individuals with feelings.