"Education should be considered not as a moulding of perfectly plastic substances, nor as a filling of empty minds, nor as a creation of powers, but rather as the provision of opportunity for healthy bodily and mental life."
“I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do every thing, but still I can do something, and because I cannot do every thing, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”

Reflecting upon my teaching always provides us many dimensions of learning. It helps a teacher to improve and overcome my weaknesses. When I entered the field of teaching, I was an amateur. I had many questions in mind: will the students accept me? Am I really creative enough to bring about changes in teaching profession? For a couple of months, I was in denial- I did not accept criticism, and thought myself as a best teacher! But I wasn’t. I learnt gradually that without reflecting on teaching practices, it wouldn’t have been possible to improve. As time passed, I started reflecting upon my teaching. This was actually a transformation process and taught me how to be a reflective teacher.

During eight years of secular and religious teaching, I came across many challenges. I accepted these and they’ve served as a real evaluation tool for analyzing my teaching growth.

Here I’m sharing two students’ examples, whose life was changed because of my little effort.

On the first day of my teaching at Religious Centre to class 1, I came across a slow learner child. While I was teaching, he distracted the attention of the others. He started patting book on others. When I asked questions, he was blank. For few days, I avoided him. The more I avoided, the more he mis-behaved. I talked to incharge to call his parents. When his parents told me that he was a slow learner, I felt shamed how I ignored him on the basis of his behavior. That event changed my life. At that time, I decided to carry on learning about his problem. I read books and developed different activities and designed easy lessons. I also gave him extra time. I used activity based methods of teaching. At the end of a year, he was able to learn few things. The head decided to fail him. Being a responsible teacher, I decided that rather than de-motivating, we should appreciate him for learning something. He was shifted to class two. After few years of repetition, he was promoted to class three, where fortunately, I was given a chance to be his teacher again. His mother was guided by the Head to send him to Special School. Being a responsible teacher, I denied and took his “Adaptive Behavior Skill” testing, which I learnt during my Master Trainer in special education, and identified him as a slow learner not a disabled child.

During class 3, I involved him more in class activities. He was allowed to sit where ever he wanted to sit in class. I also taught him basic skills. His parents were happy with my efforts. At the end of year, he learnt few things. But again, his gradual learning and improvement in behavior was an achievement.

While teaching him, I observed his interest in graphics, so I told his parents about it. I’ve wherever possible raised my voice to keep him in the centre and continue to learn. I feel it’s important to cater such children. For there will be many more like him who’ll need the attention of the teacher and the Centre. We as a team can make a difference in their lives. This is something which hopefully will be understood in years to come with more awareness of children with special needs.

The tool of appreciation and extra attention brought change in his life. Today, I’m happy that although he’s studying gradually, but working as a graphic helper with his dad too.

I believe that every child can learn, regardless of their abilities/disabilities. Accepting challenges and demonstrating confidence to bring change is the sign of a reflective practitioner.