This booklet for teachers is the second of the three books in the “Towards Excellence…” series. These books were first authored and published by me with generous financial help from the Director, St. Joseph Engineering College, Vamanjoor, Mangalore, India, and distributed for free to schools, Pre-University, Degree and Professional colleges in Mangalore Dioces area. The books were received very enthusiastically by students (and parents and teachers too) and there was great demand/suggestion to put them on the Internet so that a larger number of readers can take benefit of these books. The first book for students, viz. “Towards Excellence…How to study” was put on the Internet a few days ago, by courtesy of Bookboon. Now, the second book, viz. “Towards Excellence…How to Teach” is being put on the Internet. The third book, “Towards Excellence…Seminars, GD’s and Personal Interviews” will follow soon.
This book-let for teachers is the outcome of lecture notes prepared by the author while delivering lectures to the teaching faculty of St. Joseph Engineering College, Vamanjoor, Mangalore, and, earlier at the Fr. Conceicao Rodrigues Institute of Technology, Vashi, Navi Mumbai. Author would like to make it clear that he does not pose to give any ‘advice’ to teachers, since he feels that he has yet to learn quite a lot; however, the motivation to write this book-let is only to share the ideals, information and resources that the author has collected over the years.
These lectures are directed towards both the new lecturers and the experienced ones.
The ‘teaching-learning’ process is treated as one package. In Sections 1 to 7, greatness of the teaching profession, qualities of a good teacher and expectations of students are explained. In Section 8, the entire teaching process involving planning, preparation of lectures, delivering it in the class effectively, assessment of students, evaluation and grading, record keeping, giving the feed back to students and parents are explained in detail. Section 9 enumerates different teaching styles, and in Section 10, some points to be remembered for exemplary teaching are summarized. Next, in Sections 11 and 12, important tips are given for both the new and experienced teachers. Section 13 suggests the methods of getting feedback on the teaching. Next, Reasons for ‘stress’ in teachers and the ways to handle the same are enumerated in Section 14. Then, the important topic of ‘Teachers and Human Values’ and ‘Education and Educare’, and the importance of inculcation of ‘Human Values’ in the students to make them honest, upright citizens of this country are emphasized in Section 15. Section 16 contains ‘Seven C’s for Success’, stated succinctly. Conclusion is given in Section 17, and the section on References includes addresses of some websites which will be very useful to teachers. Appendix-I contains a typical, Students’ feedback form and a typical questionnaire. In Appendix-II, words of advice given by Sri Sathya Sai Baba to the teachers, gleaned from some of His discourses, are given. In Appendix-III, some inspiring quotations from famous personalities are included.
I hope that this book will be interesting and useful to all teachers.
Acknowledgements: Firstly, I would like to thank all my present and former colleagues who motivated me to give these lectures, encouraged me by their kind words and positive feedback.
I would like to thank Fr. Valerian D’souza, former Director, St. Joseph Engineering College, Mangalore, for taking personal interest in this subject, and encouraging me to write this booklet.
Thanks are due to Ms. Karin Jakobsen, Ms. Sophie Tergeist and their editorial team at Bookboon for their diligent efforts.
I express my appreciation to Kala, my wife, for her suggestions, support and sacrifice.
