Teachers affect eternity – No one can tell where their influence stops

12 Sep Teachers affect eternity – No one can tell where their influence stops

As Teachers’ Day approached, the students of Sharanya Narayani International School, expressed their love and respect for their teachers in a number of ways.  Expressing love, appreciation and gratitude is the best gift a teacher gets and the students wrote blogs and articles expressing just this, a few of which are below, written by four of SNIS’s students.

“A teacher affects eternity; you can never tell where their influence stops.”

-Henry Adams

Teacher is someone who helps us grow in life. They help us shape our minds and our perspectives in life. They make us change the way we see the world. They are the best and the most reliable resource one can have. A teacher is not someone who only teaches us what’s in the textbook but what’s required for life.

 The education of a child is the root of their future a good education increases the chances of future success. Teachers are there to inspire a future generation to be the best they can be. Teachers are supposed to have the perfect mixture of all things required that is love, passion, anger, patience, humility, a good sense of humour, perseverance, and determination. Not to forget the Learner Profile that every IB WORLD SCHOOL must follow which is a part of the PYP Program and the IB Diploma Program. The values that we learn from our teachers remain with us throughout our lives. 

The influence of teachers is unlimited. It is not just limited to the classroom. Teachers not only prepare us for exams, but they also prepare us for life. I believe that they are the greatest minds of our country and our world. They encourage us, make us responsible citizens, and influence everyone. Teachers weren’t just born to teach. They were born to inspire others to change people, and to never give up, even when faced with challenges that seem impossible.

“What a teacher is is more important than what he teaches.” – Karl Menninger

 

My favourite teacher in SNIS is Sabita Ma’am, my IBDP Biology teacher. She is a very friendly person. She is also very knowledgeable, and knows a lot about the modern methods and techniques that are used in Biology. She is a thorough person, who is clear about the areas that I need to improve in and teaches me accordingly. She gives me real life examples, to make me understand the concepts better. This way, even the most difficult diagrams look easy. She teaches me in various ways, mostly by using the images from the internet, and by videos as well. She makes me think and do my work independently.

The qualities that I admire the most in her are open-mindedness, friendly nature, thoughtfulness and kindness. She also believes that learning a subject should be used as a means of preparing us for life, and more application based learning should be encouraged. She is a very knowledgeable and intelligent person and I also enjoy the way she teaches me Biology. Rather than telling me the answer to a particular question or a diagram that I am not familiar with, she makes me discover the answer myself, with the help of what I have previously learnt. This has helped me in many ways and it has proved to be very beneficial, because it helps me enhance my abilities and thinking capacity.

Wherever I make mistakes, Ma’am also corrects me and gives me ways to improve my answer by adding keywords, and gives me certain corrections to make my diagrams and drawings better. I really admire the methods that Ma’am uses to teach me and make me understand, using my pre-existing knowledge. I also enjoy the fact that she is an active and enthusiastic person, and enjoys doing many activities to help me understand the concepts better. Ma’am not only prepares me for Biology exams, but for the exam called life as well.

What Ma’am writes on the blackboard of life can never be erased. Last but not the least, I would sincerely like to thank ma’am for all her guidance and support. Thank you, ma’am!

– By Aditya Sunder, SNIS Grade 11 student

“YOU ARE THE BOWS FROM WHICH YOUR CHILDREN AS LIVING ARROWS ARE SENT FORTH.” —KAHLIL GIBRAN

We all have that one teacher that has made a great impression on us. And I would like to tell you how a teacher has made a positive difference in my life.

‘There are ups and downs while you grow up, sometimes you need to fight head-on with those challenges’ was one thing she told me that I would never forget. She saw something in me that I never saw in me. Out of all the things she has said to me ‘Never stop smiling’ is something that I will always cherish.

Coming to SNIS changed a lot in me. The teachers are more friendly and understanding and they have changed me for the better.

In my previous school, I wasn’t really given opportunities to go on stage and that affected me negatively, I slowly began to feel introverted. But when I came to SNIS I was given a lot of chances. At first I used to be hesitant and when I was put on stage I would be in tears. But later with the help of all the teachers, I started to overcome my phobia, fear of public speaking. In SNIS all students are given equal attention.

The first year in SNIS, I was afraid that I was not going to be able to catch up with the rest of my classmates but with the help of the supporting teachers, I was able to get rid of my fears and insecurities.

-Blog by Sarah Abdul Ganee, SNIS Grade 9 student

Teachers affect eternity – No one can tell where their influence stops’

A teacher is the only person more influential than your parents. After all, a child spends almost 8 hours every day with them for more than 10 years of their lives. All this time that we get to spend with our teachers, at least one person will make a mark on our hearts. For me, it is my French teacher Mr. Shashibushan Bohini.

Mr. Bohini is my French teacher and while he is loved by all students at SNIS, my reasons may be slightly different. In him, I find a mentor, a counsellor, and of course a teacher. 

When one enters his French classroom, they know that any topic can be discussed there from politics to movies and my favourite topic: books. I’m an avid reader and I’m thankful that I have such a teacher as Mr. Bohini to share my passion for books with. I’ve ridiculed Margaret Thatcher for her overly-descriptive words in Gone with the Wind and discussed the art that is Khalid Hosseini’s books with Mr. Bohini. He’s introduced me to the world of Ashwin Sanghi and Hasan Minhaj. Mr. Bohini has opened my mind. 

Mr. Bohini is also very frank when it comes to students committing mistakes. While some people may not appreciate a teacher telling them that they have anger issues or such, I think it’s important because if those close to you will not correct you then who will? He tells me when I am too rude or when I lose my cool, which is good because I can tell myself how I can improve. 

What’s most important is, of course, his teaching. His classes are never boring which is surprising because people would expect studying a language would be boring. Not Shashi sir’s class! What I really appreciate in him is the fact that he understands that I can have days when I can’t concentrate in class and goes easy on me. Whatever he must have done, whether it was letting me take my own time or the way in which he conducted his classes, he is the reason why I was able to score an A* in IGCSE French despite having studied French for only 2 years. 

I always say that I don’t like to have favourites and while some people may call that being diplomatic, I would say it’s because each teacher is special to me in their own way. There were many more names that came to my mind when I was writing this but the name that kept popping up in my head was Shashi Sir’s. I’m sure I’ll never forget him. 

-By Aminath Malak, SNIS Grade 11 student

“Teachers are the backbone of any country, the pillar upon which all aspirations are converted into realities”

A teacher’s influence, ideas and expectations of his or her students and capabilities have an effect on student academic performance and achievements. If teachers believe in their students, their students begin to believe in themselves. Sharanya Narayani International School has changed my perspective towards learning and education. We as IB Learners strive to become inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced and reflective.

Here at SNIS, teachers don’t tell us what our goal should be, instead they help us set our own goal and help us achieve those goals. When asked who my favourite teacher is, I think about the math teacher that helped me conquer fractions, the English teacher that wrote great comments on my stories or the teacher that helped me discover a new sport, hobby or talent. And I have realized that all of them have inspired me in many ways.

We spend 7-8 hours in school and those hours are filled with learning and joy, our classes are interactive, where we get to share our ideas and learn from others. Teachers often encourage us to learn in different ways such as projects, charts, videos, role plays etc. Not only do we have fun while learning but we also develop many skills such as working as a team, learning how to research and improving your research skills, finding different ways to present our understanding etc. Teachers guide us through our projects and bring out the best in us.

My teachers inspire me because they make me try new things; they make me understand why learning is so important, they make learning fun and never fail to convey their passion for the subject they teach. Here at SNIS learning is beyond the textbooks, teaching us important life lessons that will help us succeed beyond term papers and standardized tests.

After all a good teacher helps us to become a good human being in society and a good citizen of the country. Teachers know that students are the future of any nation. So the future development of any nation is in the hands of teachers.

Every year on September 5^th we celebrate Teacher’s Day, thanking them for teaching us how to read and write, for guiding us to distinguish between what’s wrong and right, and for allowing us to dream big and soar as a kite, but we never really stop to notice how much our teachers have influenced us because a good teachers influence can never be erased.

By Iha Ramesh, SNIS Grade 7 student