How can Teachers maintain and maximize Gross Classroom Happiness for effective teaching and learning process?”

How can Teachers maintain and maximize Gross Classroom Happiness for effective teaching and learning process?” 

Introduction

A teacher who is constructionist in nature is a happy person with well informed about the learner and contented, and happy teacher’s teaching is effective and the learning process is much more effective too, “The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life, I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy; I mean that if you are happy you will be good” (Russel, 2011).  Being happy is to be good teacher, facilitator and good guide to the learners. To maintain and maximize Gross Classroom Happiness for effective teaching and learning process, teachers need to understand the meditations techniques. Happy teacher presents the quality for effective teaching, happy learners depict the effective learning in the whole classroom situation and being mindfulness is source of living meaningfully as said in the article why mindful teaching benefits in students’ Learning?;

“Mindfulness has the potential to be a very useful component in prevention and treatment efforts because of its effectiveness in reducing emotional distress and promoting emotional balance, improving attention, and contributing to motivated learning”.

(Patricia C. Broderick, PhD, 2013)

Meditation  

The policy of the Royal Government of Bhutan is to produce GNH graduates in future, but how could it be achieved without taming the unstable mind? ‘Practice makes man perfect’ so, practice of meditations enhances the concentration of the learner and the teacher to follow the direction. To bring out GNH graduates teachers should maximize the Gross Classroom Happiness in the teaching and learning environment of both the teacher and learner, the concept of meditation has to be understood by learners as well as the teachers to overcome the objectives. Before starting the lesson, both learner and teachers has to have a clear mindset of meditation for focusing on the particular subject or topic that has to be discussed.  Amongst the meditations technique, the teacher leads with one of the selected meditation techniques to bring and make them focus on the topics happily before starting the lesson.

“Deep in the soul, below pain, below all the distraction of life, is a silence vast and grand – an infinite ocean of calm, which nothing can disturb; Nature’s own exceeding peace, which “passes understanding”. That which we seek with passionate longing here and there, upward and outward; we find at last within ourselves.” (Bucke, 2013). Conducting meditation in the beginning of the lesson creates self awareness, knowing self, silence, stress relieving, peace, being natural and learning to be happy. Further it provides opportunities to think positively, be mindful, calm with high self-esteem and civic sense, loyal and faithful, self contended and finally producing GNH graduates. These qualities arouses since there are the practices ongoing about effective teaching as well as learning.

“Happiness can be achieved not only through materials well-being resulting in physical comfort, but also through inner pace and contentment”

                                                   Sogyal Rinpoche

Role Model or Presentable of Teacher (behaviors)

‘Happiness is a perfume you can’t pour on others without getting a few drops for yourself’ (Emerson, 2010). From the Gross National Happiness infused view a happy teachers characteristics determines the Gross Classroom Happiness and teacher should be happy to have effective teaching. Since, students mirror the teacher both consciously and sub-consciously. They learn with less effort by what they see than what they are told to do. In a Gross Classroom Happiness infused School, students look up to teacher as role models. The dispositions of beliefs, speeches and behaviors by teacher find lasting impressions in students. Such impressions go into forming their beliefs and value system. Teachers are therefore required to live by the values that they want to see developed in their students. Teachers should be characterized by their consistent psychological and physical conduct with student and, maintain a conducive emotional stability, fair and just in their dealings with students inside class and outside the school, punctual in all activities like monitoring and assignment and assessment.

Teachers should not only be neat, well dressed and presentable at all time but also needs to help students do same. Teachers are morally, culturally and politically correct in language and speech, participate physically and mentally with the student while carrying out manual work in the class and maintain confidence, trust and respect for the students through good examples. Teachers are at all times, professionally approachable and

welcoming to students, so that student feel comfortable to clear doubts and share problems and are mindful in all respects. Teacher should have a high sense of motivation, take initiative and have a keen interest in teaching and teach the subjects effectively. Teacher should be organize, systemic, prepared and resourceful in their work and demonstrate interest and care in students’ development and learning needs. Teacher should work independently to enhance student performance without having to be reminded by going out to help and support students at all times.

Tone of teaching in the classroom and planning

To teach in the Gross Classroom Happiness situation and to make the teaching effective, a teacher need well planned and detail lesson including the features of gross national happiness. Teacher enters the class with clear objectives for students learning, equipped with various strategies to help students learn better in happiest way. Therefore, teachers should be mindful of how they enter the classrooms, starting from greetings and their conduct throughout the lesson period. Introduction of the lesson should be mindfully involving students through questioning and providing opportunities for students to ask questions and prepare them to focus their attentions on the lesson with enthusiastically. Use of effective communication skills and language were learners love to listen and make a vase different increasing in learning in the school. Creating jokes and fun related to topics, proper illustrations and interaction will foster the learning environment in school and classroom.

Develops a lesson logically and systematically through interacting and collaborative approach that ensures the learner centered activities. The learners are challenged with questions that make them analyze, synthesize, evaluate and reflect to enable it to comprehend the concepts, develop skills, values and attitudes. This approach will help the students find connections between what they learn in their real life experiences outside the classroom, in their community, at the national level and the world at large. Critical issues relevant to the topic and the values are raised and opportunities are provided to the students to reflect, critically analyze what each individual can do to change the way of thinking and behavior so that they can live by the values upholding the domains to attain the gross classroom happiness . The teacher consciously practices the

values in the class as she or he interacts with the students and not only conducts as a role model but also corrects and reprimands the students.

Any task assigned to the students about the lesson should be designed to enhance greater conceptual understanding of the topics, further development of skills, values and attitudes. Thus, the class work, home work and project work set an individual work groups have tasks about gaining in-depth knowledge and develop greater skills pertaining to the topic. Understanding of values, seek values clarifications, gaining in-sight in values and changing attitudes and behaviors towards the culmination of gross classroom happiness. Planning for actions at the individual level and in groups should start with self improvement in class, school and the community and at national level.

Certain perfect blend of qualities needs to be considered to generate a truly effective teacher in the classroom that can have everlasting impact on virtually every student. An effective teacher loves to teach. The most important quality that every teacher should possess is a love and passion for teaching students. Unfortunately, there are teachers who do not love what they do. This single factor can destroy a teacher’s effectiveness quicker than anything else. Teachers who do not enjoy their job cannot possibly be effective day in and day out. There are too many discouraging factors associated with teaching that is difficult enough on a teacher who absolutely loves what they do, much less on one who doesn’t have the drive, passion, or enthusiasm for it. On top of that, children are smarter than what teacher give them credit for. They will spot a fake sooner than anyone and thus destroy any credibility that the teacher may have.

Teachers’ commitment and attitude toward teaching

An effective teacher demonstrates a caring attitude. Even teachers who love their job can struggle in this area, not because they don’t care, but because they get caught up so much in the day to day routine of teaching that they can forget that their students have lives outside of school. Taking the time to get to know a student on a personal level takes a lot of time and dedication. There is also a line that no teacher wants to cross where their relationship becomes too personal. Elite teachers know how to balance this without crossing that line and once a student believes the teacher truly cares for them, then there is no limit to what that student can achieve. An effective teacher can relate to his or her students. The best teachers work hard to figure out how to relate to each of their students. Common interest can be hard to find, but exceptional teachers will find a way to connect with their students even if they have to fake it. For instance, you may have a student who is a linking cube fanatic. You can relate to that student if you do something as simple as ordering a linking cube catalog and then going through it and discussing it with that student. Even if you have no actual interest in linking cube, the student will think you do and thus naturally create a connection.

An effective teacher is willing to think outside the box. There is no one set cookie cutter way to teach. A cookie cutter approach would likely be boring for both teachers and students. What makes teaching so exciting is that children learn differently, and we have to find and utilize different strategies and differentiated learning to reach every student. What works for one student, will not work for every student. Teachers have to be willing to be creative and adaptive in their lessons, thinking outside the box on a continual basis. If you try to teach every concept in the same manner, there will be students who miss out on key factors because they aren’t wired to learn that way. An effective teacher is an excellent communicator. To be the best possible teacher you must be an effective communicator. However, in this area you are not just limited to being a skilled communicator to your students although that is a must. You must also be a strong communicator with parents of your students as well as your faculty or staff team within in your building. If you have a difficulty communicating with any of these three groups, then you limit your overall effectiveness as a teacher.

Classroom Organization/Management

The teaching classroom should be such a wonderful were our children loved to be and arouses interest in taking part in learning, appreciating and belief in teachers and to school atmosphere.

An effective teacher is proactive rather than reactive. This can be one of most difficult aspects for a teacher to conquer. Intense planning and organization can ultimately make your job all the more less difficult. Teachers who plan ahead, looking for aspects that they might have issues with, and proactively looking for solutions to solve those problems will have less stress on them, than those teachers who wait until a problem arises and then tries to address it. Being proactive does not replace being adaptive. No matter how well you plan, there will be surprises. However, being proactive can cut down on these surprises tremendously, thus making you more effective overall. An effective teacher uses a variety of media in their lessons. We are in the 21st century, and this generation of students was born in the digital age. These students have been bombarded by technological advances unlike any other generation. They have embraced it, and if we as teachers do not, then we are falling behind. This is not to say that we should eliminate textbooks and worksheets completely, but effective teachers are not afraid to implement other forms of media within their lessons.

An effective teacher strives to be better. A teacher who has grown complacent in what they do is the most ineffective kind of teacher. Any teacher who is not looking for new and better teaching strategies isn’t being an effective teacher. No matter how long you have taught, you should always want to grow as a teacher. Every year there is new research, new technology, and new educational tools that could make you a better teacher. Seek out professional development opportunities and try to apply something new to your class every year. An effective teacher challenges their students. The most effective teachers, are often the ones that many students think are the most difficult. This is because they challenge their students and push them harder than the average teacher does. These are the teachers who are often students’ least favorite teachers at the time, but then later on in life they are the ones that we all remember and want to thank, because of how well they prepared us for life after our time with them. Being an effective teacher does not mean you are easy. It means that you challenge every one of your students and maximize your time with them so that they learn more than they ever thought they could learn. An effective teacher understands the content that they teach and knows how to explain that content in a manner that their students understand. There are teachers who do not know the content well enough to effectively teach it. There are teachers who are truly experts on the content, but struggle to effectively explain it to their students. The highly effective teacher both understands the content and explains it on level. This can be a difficult skill to accomplish, but the teachers who can, maximize their effectiveness as a teacher.

Effective teaching of a teacher only cannot overcome expectations of gross classroom happiness but it also requires the happiness of the learner to be virtually effective.

 Responding to the questions doesn’t make the learner effective neither writing correct answers. Challenging with the peers and teachers with positive attitude towards learning and getting satisfaction at the end of the lesson with a smile on face proves that it is real effective learning.

Value Based Teaching

In day to teaching, teachers need to reflect/highlight on value at the end of teaching and every talk should be value based teaching and sharing. Gross Classroom Happiness class should possess qualities that would make learning effective for the learner through making the books accessible, evidence-based, practical and eminently readable. Readers will find in learning a treasury of learners' guiding towards the goal of more effective learning in classrooms. So, the teacher builds a community of learners, make learning relevant, and let students know that teacher cares of them, incorporate active learning with high expectations, and make learning fun. As said by Harold B. Lee, ‘Happiness does not depend on what happens outside of you but on what happens inside of you; it is measured by the sprit with which you meet the problems of life.’ Teachers can’t afford the happiness for the student but can ignite to be happy for the learning purpose and this impression should be imprinted forever in every learner to learn effectively.

Conclusion

Maximizing the happiness within the whole classroom invaluably increases the effectiveness of the teaching and learning. It begins with meditation focusing to bring change inwardly and changing towards positive attitudes of the learner and the teacher. Targeting the qualities of effective teacher and effective learner if they are happy, then it would be a good lesson.  Being good is not happy but being happy means it is good, individuality of the learner and the teacher’s happiness defines the effective teaching and learning process in the Gross Classroom Happiness. Other source to infuse GNH value in school as reflected in Gross National Happiness and Development book;

“One of the pillars upon which GNH must rest is education. The entire educational curriculum of Bhutanese schools needs to be infused with the GNH ethos. GNH values need to be taught at all levels of school system. Textbook and other training materials that specifically reflect Bhutanese and GNH values need be written and used. In this way, GNH will become a reality for future generations”. Karma Ura & Karma Galay.

 The GNH classroom/school will be created if values are reflected in Bhutanese curriculum and to other teaching materials. Moreover, it should focused more on child friendly teaching as well as interaction with learners. It can maximize the gross classroom happiness for effective teaching and learning process is achieved through the produce of GNH graduates for the country. Lastly I conclude by quoting;

“They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel”. (Anonymous)

References

          Broderick, Patricia C. PhD. (2013). Google. Retrieved 5 12, 2015, from why teaching Mindfulness Benefits Students’ Learning?

http://ww2.keqed.org/mindshift/2013/09/12/why-teaching-mindfulness-benefits-students-learning/

         DCRD. (2011). A Guide to Advancing Gross National Happiness. Paro: DCRD.

         DCRD. (2013). Educating for Gross National Happiness. Paro: DCRD.

          DCRD. (2011). Nurturing Green Schools for Green Bhutan- A guide to school Management. Thimphu; EMSSD.

         Kuensel. (2010). Gross National Happiness. Thimphu: Kuensel Cooperation Limited.

         Spencer, K. (n.d.). Google. Retrieved 4 20, 2015, from Effective Teaching.                ://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/five-tips-for-fostering-     learning-     in-the-classroom/#sthash.bhNhe91T.dpuf

       Ura, K & Galay, K. (2004). Gross National Happiness and Development, The Centre for Bhutan Studies; Thimphu