Truly Amazing Teacher.
Attached is the video clip which truly inspired me. As a teacher and as a parent.
This man here truly inspires me to be the best teacher I should be. No, personally, I feel I am still far from the teacher he is. He truly goes all out to make his lessons fun, interesting & enriching for his pupils. And, even after a day of awesomely adventurous day at work, he is still full of energy to attend to his special need son at home.
Watching him & his special need son, I suddenly felt ashamed of myself. Serious. Ashamed.
I was feeling all weak & helpless almost everytime when I think of Aqil. About his development, about his education, about his needs and about how society will accept him. And this man here, in this video, just proved to me that I was wrong. I shouldn't be feeling or thinking that way at all.
One of his sentence which he said to his pupils ~ "the mere fact that you could sit up and sit down is a miracle". That kinda woke me up. What was I thinking all this while?
Yes, Aqil is diagnosed with autism. But Aqil is able to walk, Aqil is able to run, Aqil is able to talk, Aqil is able to eat, Aqil is able to run into my arms, Aqil is able to give me a big hug...but the child in this vid can't do all that.
No. I take back my word. The child in the vid is able to give his dad a big hug! Aaawww.....
And this man here again stuck me hard with his words ~ "the reason why things work is LOVE".
True. Totally amazingly true. His son was able to respond to him because of the love that he has for his son. He spends time with him, he changes his diapers, he feeds him....and many more which wasn't shown of course. They were able to tell that the boy was actually able to see because of the time that the sister spent with him. The sister was playing with him and that created the chance for the family to realise that their son is actually able to see...not as what he was diagnosed as.
And I totally agree with this man when he said how amazing and incredible it is to be able to see and experience something which was seen as almost impossible. For him, its his son telling him "Daddy, I love you" using sign language.
That went deep through me. Everytime Aqil says "Aqil loves Mama".....I was beaming with pride and joy. Everytime he says "I'm sorry Mama" and gives me a big hug after doing something that made me angry...I just couldn't help it but to return the hug.
Yes. Getting all emo here ain't I? Hehehe...
So, inspired I was after the course today. I took out the high frequency words which I used with Arisya. The box which is used to store the cards was dusty! Haha! That just shows when was the last time I opened up the box huh?
I was all geared up to teach Aqil the words. No. I have not really sit down and get to do proper teaching & learning with Aqil. With Ariq & Arisya, my hands are already full....a day at work, followed with house chores and then with the kids' school work....I just wanna spend quality time with Aqil. I want him to know me as his mother....not as his teacher. This is a child with autism that we're talking about here....not any normal child that is able to tell that "oh...my mummy is helping me with my learning". A child with autism may think "a teacher teaches...is this my mother or my teacher?"
Hence, as mentioned earlier...watching this vid has kinda woken me up. What have I done to help my special needs child? With the flash cards, I sat Aqil down and I was totally blown away! He was spontaneously reading all the words shown to him independently. I was so awed that I got him to read another round so that I can record him.
Where was I? What was I doing all this while? How come I didn't know that my son is able to read?
Yes, he talks. And he'd used bombastic words at times. But that was totally verbal of course. I didn't do anything to check if he was able to read the high frequency words!
He is 7. He is a child with autism. He has been diagnosed with low IQ that he was said to be unsuitable for the mainstream. He has to remain another year with EIPIC Centre because he still has not gotten a place in the SPED schs that we registered with.
And today....he reads!
I am a teacher. I have seen pupils struggling in school. Pupils at Aqil's age still struggling to read, struggling to identify letters and words. And they are in school. In mainstream school.
Many things just gushed through my head. Many emotions just gushed through my mind.
Suddenly, there's so many that I need to do....so many more that I need to find out....for Aqil.
But the one thing....that one important thing that I learnt today is how powerful LOVE is.
LOVE for my children, for Aqil especially....to believe in them that they can do it. They don't need another teacher at home...they need their MUM.
LOVE for my pupils. To believe in them that they can do it. To keep believing in them even when they fall. To make them feel loved...and love cannot be measured with grades.
I don't intend to be the next Truly Amazing Teacher. I just wanna to be the best teacher I can be....and the best parent I can be....insyaAllah.
Ya Rabb...I seek your guidance.
