Transcriber: Einat Sprinzak Reviewer: Alexander Kertser
I have a confession to make.
But first, I want you to make a little confession to me.
How many of you are doing what you really love in life?
Just raise your hand please.
(Audience giggles)
OK, thank you.
My confession is this:
In my worst dream, I didn't imagine being a teacher.
Yet, I am doing what I love in life: I teach.
My name is Abir, Dr. Abir Abed.
I would like to tell you my story and how this dramatic change occurred.
25 years ago I graduated from the Chemical Engineering Faculty in the Technion,
Israel Institute of Technology.
I started searching for a job. No suitable job was found.
So, as a result of lack of choices,
I started teaching at Al Galil highschool in Nazareth,
because I wanted to make a living, and because I had no other choice.
Now I have to tell you about my special Al Galil highschool.
Al Galil highschool is the only non-selective school in Nazareth,
the biggest Arab city in North of Israel.
It's a mixed Arab highschool. Most of its students are girls.
The vast majority are medium academic achievers
and they arrive from families with low socio-economic status.
So, I would like you to come back with me 25 years ago to my first day in school.
Deep inside I was very nervous.
I had the feeling that I shouldn't be there.
And the first thought that crossed my mind while entering the school yard was,
"give up and go home."
My first lesson was one big trauma.
I walked into the classroom;
instead of introducing myself and get to know the students
I stood near the blackboard, behind the teacher's desk
as if it would protect me from student's staring eyes,
I hold the paper of notes in one hand and the white chalk in the other
and I began teaching in a low trembling voice.
It was a one-person show. I felt terrible and tried to fake it.
But it took the students just a few minutes
to figure out my inconvenience
and the whole class turned into one big mess.
I felt helpless. I simply didn't know what to do.
At the end of the day, I was very depressed, very exhausted,
and I knew that I had two choices, and that I have to make a decision.
The first and easiest one is just to quit.
I don't want to be a teacher, I never wanted, that's it. Period.
The second one was to accept the challenge and stay.
As you can figure out, the second one was made.
I decided to choose a different story for my life
and for my students' lives.
I decided to be a teacher.
I decided to be a chemistry teacher.
I decided to be the chemistry teacher.
One may wonder, "Why? Why did you stay?"
Well, I believe it relates to the way I was raised by my parents.
I was born to a poor family.
My dad was a baker, and my mom was a housekeeper.
And one salary was expected to support ten persons.
We were six brothers and two sisters.
But despite all financial difficulties,
my parents always encouraged us to learn and get higher education.
My father used to say:
"Higher education will assure you a respectful life with a good salary."
So, when I faced those students in the class, despite the whole mess,
I found myself identifying with them.
I am familiar with the place they come from.
So, I could understand why they act the way they do.
Why should they listen to a stranger speaking a strange language?
Chemistry language.
The result was clear to me.
Students will choose the easiest way,
they will give up learning, paving the way out of school.
I was a parent myself at that time.
And I thought to myself, "I don't want my own kids
to have such an experience that may lead them to think,
just to think, to give up learning."
And I felt a great responsibility. I perceived it as my own mission.
I believe that we are all driven according to our beliefs,
and I believe from the bottom of my heart that every student wants to succeed,
and every student can succeed,
and I knew I was ready to do my best so they can succeed.
But how?
How do you encourage students to participate and engage?
At that time, I really didn't know how to do that as I do today.
Therefore, I knew that I have to get my teaching certificate.
After that I continued and got my Master degree,
as well as my PhD in science teaching and technology.
And after 25 years of experience and learning,
I've come up with three guidelines which I know they give good results,
therefore, I practice every time I teach.
The first one is:
Students learn best when they are in control of their learning.
Real learning requires doing, not only listening or observing.
As Confucius said,
"Tell me, and I will forget, show me, and I may remember;
involve me, and I will understand."
We have all been students listening to lectures.
We have watched slides or videos and wondered
how could we recall it in some future exam?
So, I would suggest to involve your students in the learning process
so they won't have to recall knowledge but construct it.
This requires shifting the focus from the teacher to the student,
and the best way to do that is team work.
Two heads are better than one.
Students will be involved in generating questions,
in discussing, and in arriving at conclusions.
Involvement within team work makes learning meaningful
and prepares students to necessary skills needed in future work.
Such as, good interpersonal communication skills.
Yet, what do we find in almost every public school and university?
Teachers start talking, talking, and keep talking while students listen.
We call this lecture.
Are you familiar with saying such as: "If you don't listen you won't learn?
And I shall repeat it so those who didn't understand, please listen"?
I'm sure you are.
Well, these sayings educate students to be passive.
And I remind, to achieve real learning and real involvement
students mustn't be talked down to but mainly listened to,
so they could express themselves freely and without fear.
So, the second guideline is: teachers should listen to their students.
Teachers should listen, and students should speak.
"Listen" is one of the essential key words for good teaching.
Once students realize that their ideas and their questions are legitimate
and listened to, they tend to invest themselves in learning.
The third guideline is:
make your lesson authentic and relevant to students' lives.
Instead of telling them what are we going to learn today, tell them why.
Why it's important that we learn it?
For example, I can open a lesson saying:
"Today we are going to learn about the electrons configuration in the orbitals
and what happens when light interacts with material."
Will this make you feel that you really want to know
how electrons configure in the orbitals?
Do you even understand what it means?
Who cares?
An inspiring teacher will start the same lesson asking:
"Do you know what gives fireworks their characteristic colors?
And what gives fruit and vegetables their characteristic colors?
Why cucumber is green while tomato is red?"
Totally different, right?
"Now, do you want to know the answers?
So, you have to learn about the electrons configuration in the orbitals, etc."
Learning is at its best when it occurs in an authentic context.
Good teaching is about having chemistry with your students.
It's about being human, believing in students' capability to succeed
and being professional at all times.
How exciting it is when a former student tells you "that chemistry turned out to be
an interesting subject for me after I almost hated it.
My reluctance turned into curiosity and my fears of failing into challenge."
And another one says, that her dream, her dream is to become a chemistry teacher
and to teach the same way you do.
Results talk for themselves.
My students are among the top decile in terms of achievement
in matriculation examination set by the government
and taken at the end of the highschool.
I had so many classes that were too crowded and too problematic that I cried.
I wondered, how am I going to lead them in ten months to excel
the final exam set by the government?
And it was difficult.
If I hadn't the passion to teach and hadn't the faith, failure was guaranteed.
Passionate teachers have great influence on their students.
This influence will be greater if they truly believe
that every student wants to succeed, and every student can succeed.
As a chemistry teacher, I love formulas.
So, I wrote here the formula for guaranteed success.
S is equal to P times B squared.
S stands for success, P stands for passion for teaching,
and B stands for believe; you've got to believe in two things.
Students want to succeed, and students can succeed.
And if all of us believe in our kids' capability to succeed, they will.
You know why?
Because we tend to get what we expect.
Good teaching is as much about passion as it is about reason.
I believe that every student has the right to get the best teacher ever.
I want my own kids to be taught by such a teacher. Don't you?
So, we all need to listen more to our students, our kids,
provide them a warm, supportive environment and doing it with love.
Believe me, they will appreciate it
and reciprocate by participating and respecting.
Inspiring teachers teach,
not because they need to make a living and have no other choice
but because they choose to do it with great love everyday they arrive to class.
Thank you.
(Applause)