What makes you the best teacher in the world?
I think that, I have problem with knowing that I am the best teacher in the world….I think is the teaching profession that we are celebrating, but what I thinks makes a good teacher, is a teacher who really enjoys working and has relationships with their children and also is really passionate about their subject and wants to show that to their children. /
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
How did they chose you?
I still…in those 2,000 academy members who voted, out of the ten of us, the top ten,, I was shortlisted and you know, is an honor and I was not expecting but I think what I stand for is creativity, the arts in education and how important they are and also the fact that teachers, what I think is important and what works on my school, is that we don’t finish the day when the lesson is done, we work hard (phone), we make sure that our students are cared for and we know about them and until is time for them to go home.
So what are you doing after school?
So, after school it depends on what the issues happens, I mean depends on what our children tell us, so there are activities, we put many clubs for them but it’s finding out what they want and who they are. So they say to you that they have a problem, your job is to listen and then try to help them solve it or to help them, by being able to bring them in touch with the right people, it could be socialworkers, it could be police, it could be counselors, psychologists, in order to help that young person become happy and solve their problem.
How do you treat your naughty students?
I don’t have naughty students ……. You just create an environment which is fun, inspiring that they want to learn in. If a child wants to learn then they will and they feel comfortable and they like you, they like what you are trying to educate them, I think they are able to enjoy the experience. I don’t really have naughty children.
Do you want to tell us how you spend the money you earned?
I have been awarded one million dollars for this price and I can’t connect with it because is from a teaching award so what I am doing is I am trying to solve the problem that I think there is in the UK and in London and that is the fact that arts are being squeezed out of schools, so many students haven’t got the opportunity to experience art, so I have set up a charity with money and the charity is inviting artists to go and work in schools to do some small projects in schools enterprise areas of uk, so that children will be inspired, the children and also the teachers, so they will actually learn what is like to be a ether a musician or a dancer or a theater, stage performer or a graphic designer, illustrator and learn that actually you can get a job by doing something that you love. That’s the aim of my charity, to inspire young people to think about creativity industries.
How does arts impact on a child’s life?
Is the most important thing I think. I think that there is creativity and an artist in every child and is our job to unlock that. It seems to me that in many countries we have, we are very good at encouraging our children to be really creative and artistic and experimental when they are young and kindergarten, but by the time they go through the school system, we reduce that and is more like learn this book, learn this occasion which is quite difficult for them and it’s not healthy for them. So in term of what is the value of the arts, the arts are so important, not for you to just come out as an artist but the skills that you learn on the way. You will learn how to be creative, you will learn how to be problem solver, you will learn how to be resilient, how to appreciate when you make a mistake and to feel comfortable when you make a mistake. But for me, what I see from my children is the confidence that they gain from the arts. And from background and from my school, the arts are from the subjects which are inclusive, everyone can do it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t speak English or you can’t communicate, you can communicate through a piece of art.
You are the best teacher in the world, does that means that every child in you class wants to go to the school?
I have no changed. The way I teach now is the way I taught before. I love my classroom and my students enjoy the lessons they have with me and yes, this is gonna be for further more.
If I was your student what is the first thing that I would see, getting into the class?
You would see, hopefully, a teacher that is happy that’s inviting them into the class, that wants them to be there, that wants them to take them on an adventure, on a journey, on an experience but also has got very high expectations. If something is not good enough, they will do it again and again, until it is, until they know that they can and they can succeed.
What does means to you to be a teacher?
I don’t know what else I am, so I don’t know how to answer that question. If this is who I am and I am a teacher.
What is the role of a teacher in a child’s life?
More now than ever, I think teachers are the more powerful human being a child could have. We are their role models, you are sometimes their doctors, their nurses, their counselors, their mentors. For some of the children, especially in the communities I come from, we are more valuable than their parents. So sometimes, worries me the fact that teachers don’t feel that they have got this amazing present and they got this amazing superpower but they do and you do, teachers do. And sometimes if wasn’t for a teacher, I don’t know how a children can hope.
What is you message to the teachers all around the world?
Just thank you for doing what you are doing. I know sometimes you don’t realize it but you are having an amazing affect on a young person’s life and if you can remember back, at the fact that if once asked you who inspired you, you will definitely say that a teacher changed my life. So just know that you are changing lives.
Your message to parents?
Thank you very much for supporting your school, working with the schools and supporting the teachers, it’s really important, because together we can make sure that our children are having the best opportunities and the world would be their wisdom.
Kate Midleton came to visit you, would you like to make a comment?
Aw, that was a such a wonderful gift, it was a gift to have her there. She is a very inspirational young lady. She is worrying and concerned about mental health in children and she recognizes that is growing, growing and growing young people with mental health issues and she is a great advocate. She is very kind, she is able to communicate to everyone. So with the young students, they felt very comfortable around her and also with the teachers, they felt very comfortable too. Having her there was a really lovely gift for us all and we are very proud she came and chose our school.
What is the best thing that you heard from your students?
“Miss, I want to be a teacher.”
That’s the best thing?
That’s the loveliest thing, I mean isn’t that the best thing? Isn’t that the best thing knowing that the fact they are inspirited enough to want to be a teacher and want to give back and want to help others. That’s something that is lovely and they do, they are teachers, some of them, I feel very old, but some of the children I have taught, are now teachers on my school, they are my colleagues and if that is not amazing, I don’t know what else is.
