{"id":4941,"date":"2016-12-17T08:07:13","date_gmt":"2016-12-17T08:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/teachers-ask-yourselves-how-many-students-have-you-impacted-in-the-past-2-years\/"},"modified":"2016-12-17T08:07:13","modified_gmt":"2016-12-17T08:07:13","slug":"teachers-ask-yourselves-how-many-students-have-you-impacted-in-the-past-2-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/teachers-ask-yourselves-how-many-students-have-you-impacted-in-the-past-2-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Teachers, ask yourselves: How many students have you impacted in the past 2 years?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Speech by Amanda, 17 at #AlumNext<\/p>\n<p><em>I\u2019m here today because I want to ask all of you one question.\u00a0How many students have you made a positive impact on?<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6OlLUM0bDZI?version=3&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;start=10&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>For some of you here, you might consider your students\u2019 academic performance as one way of gauging your impact. English teachers might think that they\u2019ve made a positive impact after seeing that their class can speak more fluent English, for example. It\u2019s different for each subject, so let me ask you again, how many students have\u00a0you changed for the better?<\/p>\n<p>Whenever I ask a Teach For Malaysia teacher this question, I always find their answers fascinating because it speaks volumes about how they\u00a0determine whether their two years were worth it or not.<\/p>\n<p>Some might say, \u201cOh, my class of 30 scored so much better in Science this year! They\u2019ve really improved academically!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But I know there are others, maybe even\u00a0more than I initially assumed, who feel like they have done nothing to help their students, or maybe they haven\u2019t done\u00a0enough. They say to themselves, \u201cI couldn\u2019t even raise the passing rate of my students. I could\u2019ve tried harder. I should\u2019ve done something else. I could\u2019ve. I should\u2019ve.\u201d\u00a0And all these similar phrases.<\/p>\n<p>Humans are weird. We are obsessed with\u00a0quantifying every aspect of ourselves that we can, especially the things that can\u2019t be assigned a number or a grade\u00a0objectively.\u00a0We use IQ tests to measure our intelligence. Sometimes when I\u00a0see a cute boy in\u00a0the park, I tell my friends, on a scale of 1 to 10, how cute he was.<\/p>\n<p>We use scales and we use grades to gauge our academic performance. In your case, maybe you use it to gauge your impact on your class.<\/p>\n<p>As a student, I\u2019m all too familiar with people using academic performance, a simple letter of the alphabet, to represent my self-worth. What saddens me the most is that this exact type of thinking is what I believe has caused Malaysian students to be in the state we are\u00a0\u2013 lacking critical thinking skills, we are underexposed and just simply not prepared for adult life.<\/p>\n<p>To see teachers subject themselves to the same type of thinking \u2013 the type of thinking that they\u2019re trying to change \u2013 is disheartening, to say the least.<\/p>\n<p>I say this because I\u2019ve had firsthand experience of being deeply and positively affected by Teach For Malaysia teachers. There are so many things in my own life that I would\u2019ve never gotten to experience if it wasn\u2019t for the teachers in this programme. For example, I wouldn\u2019t be standing here before you. I wouldn\u2019t have seen any other state outside of Kuala Lumpur. Its exposure\u00a0is a huge factor of what I feel is really worthwhile about this programme.<\/p>\n<p>I wouldn\u2019t have ever gotten to know how difficult it is to be teacher if it wasn\u2019t for the Teach For Malaysia teachers who were\u00a0honest and truthful about their experience. My school wouldn\u2019t have been able to have the successful debate and drama team we did this year without the Teach For Malaysia teachers. If it weren\u2019t for Teach For Malaysia, I wouldn\u2019t have met the young, idealistic minds that are in this room today, and that\u2019s an experience that simply cannot be translated into a number on a scale of 1 to 10.<\/p>\n<p>As a teenager, I will be straight up and tell you that we\u2019re not always honest with our feelings. When we meet a teacher who really touches our lives, chances are you\u2019ll never know. We don\u2019t tell it to your face, but we know when you\u2019re exhausted and would rather be napping than teaching. We remember the teachers who never gave up on us or who would give us life advice.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve seen a\u00a0<em>Sejarah<\/em>\u00a0teacher go to class in an Arab tunic and fake beard when his class reached the chapter on the Middle East, to help keep his students interested. I\u2019ve seen another\u00a0<em>Sejarah<\/em>\u00a0teacher spend his free time in the afternoon with his nose in these thick and dense history textbooks that were beyond\u00a0the syllabus, simply because he wanted to teach some extra material to his class. I\u2019ve seen my debate coach work herself to mental exhaustion, juggling my debate team and her classes.<\/p>\n<p>These are some firsthand experiences I\u2019ve had and I know there are dozens more great examples to mention. It\u2019s a classic example of the creative spirit and their bravery to push themselves in every way possible, whether it be creatively, mentally or physically. There are a lot of factors that go into a student\u2019s academic performance such as administration, infrastructure and other factors over which you have no control. It\u2019s unrealistic to punish yourselves if students are failing. There are always factors that you can\u2019t control, but as long as you\u2019ve done your best, we will remember that.<\/p>\n<p>So, remember your answer to my question earlier about how many students\u2019 lives you\u2019ve made a positive impact on? Still have that number in your head?<\/p>\n<p>Forget it.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll answer that question for you the most truthful way I can on behalf of all students. How many lives have you changed for the better in these past two years?<\/p>\n<p>More than you will ever know.<\/p>\n<p><em>Amanda is a student of Hamsaveni Vigneswararao, 2015 Alumna \u2013 Hamsa coached her school debate team to become this year\u2019s Sarawak state champions.\u00a0Amanda was speaking at #AlumNext, where we celebrated the induction of our 2015 Fellows to Alumni-hood, upon completing their two-year Fellowship\u00a0.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/blog\/2016\/09\/from-wallflowers-to-powerhouses\/\">Related story: From Wallflowers to Powerhouses<\/a><\/p>\n<p><i><a href=\"http:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/blog\/2016\/09\/from-wallflowers-to-powerhouses\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2440 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teachformalaysia.org\/blog\/home\/teachfor\/public_html\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/IMG-300x300.jpg?resize=300%2C300\" alt=\"IMG\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<p>\u2013<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speech by Amanda, 17 at #AlumNext I\u2019m here today because I want to ask all of you one question.\u00a0How many students have you made a positive impact on? For some&#8230;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127,129,128,103,113,130,116,115,124],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-alumni","7":"category-community-movement-2","8":"category-fellow","9":"category-impact","10":"category-movement","11":"category-opinion","12":"category-student","13":"category-themes","14":"category-thought-leadership"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}