On many occasions, I have seen students trying to finish their assignments as a last minute resort, some of them even using unethical practices in order to get the job done. Through nine years of teaching experience, I have learnt that the discussion with the particular student needs to happen on one to one basis. One has to be discreet about the discussion with the student and be empathetic. It is important to have a constructive discussion trying to show the student the larger picture and demerits of unethical practices in education and life as well. Scolding a student publicly in front his peers should be a strict no-no, it also becomes humiliating for the student and affects his relationship with the other peers. Self-awareness for a student is very important at this stage. One needs to realize that the submission issue may seem to be resolved for the moment but in the long term, this will have deteriorating impact on a student’s learning. Such practices may harm an individual on a personal and professional level. Unethical practices may seem to provide relief temporarily, but in the end, they can destroy you.

It is not a great idea for the teacher to be rigid in his teaching practices, justifying that this was the way it was taught to them and they would teach in a similar manner. With Generation Y and Z, long-term concentration on a particular task has become a major issue. In addition, the way they engage with books and literature is in a different way.  If we notice carefully, they construct their knowledge in a very different way than that, what we used to, so we need to be empathetic and design new ways of engaging and learning.

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The same goes with an educator also. Unethical practices may look tempting as they can make the job easier or quicker to finish, or even temporarily provide an uplift in someone’s career; however, as a human being one has the self-realization that what had been done was wrong. The success or the victory then seems hollow. Learning for an individual should never stop; this is true even for a teacher. Some people mistake their educational qualification or a degree for learning for life. A teacher or any professional needs to continuously work upon himself in order to become better, that what he is. For teacher, it also means engaging in upgradation of skills, learning new technologies, doing research work or growing professionally.

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I remember my trip to Pondicherry and Auroville with the 2014-18 batch pursuing the Interior Architecture program. I had arranged for a workshop on Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks at the Auroville Earth Institute. I had never done that workshop before so even I enrolled for the course along with my students. It was a great learning experience for me the students. Had I been to egotistical to the idea that I know everything, I would have missed the three day insightful workshop. I also got my hand dirty in the mud along with students and we made mud bricks, mud-brick arches and adobe walls with straw as reinforcement. We understood different types of soil and the ideal proportion for making of mud bricks. Some of the groups came out with excellent work and in the end it was worth seeing the students faces beaming with pride.

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As a teacher, one should set milestones for himself and should work on reaching these milestones. Even the students observes how a teacher is growing and feels motivated. Even he understand that there is no substitute for hard work and growth; it should be an ongoing process and should not finish at one milestone but target for the next. This was one of the primary reasons of doing PGCAP (Post Graduate Diploma in Academic Practice) course at Pearl Academy. In addition, this helped me in getting back to writing and reading work, which is extremely essential for academic growth.

 “When the teacher learns a student learns better and when a student learns better, the teacher learns”, it is a cycle. Continuous learning ensures growth for both the student and the teacher.