The Importance of Being Happy in the Classroom

Dil Bahadur Budhathoki M.Phil (Education) HOD, English

Tri-Padma Vidhyashram Sec.School.

Teacher: Well; Children I wanna give you "Chhurpi"(Himalayan Beetle Nut)

Children: Wou; That's so nice of you.

Teacher: But I can't provide to all of you, I've got only three. So you need to take part in a small game. The three best players will get this amazing thing; I brought it all the way from Illam.

Children: Ok sir we are ready. What's the game?

Teacher: The game is just common as you have done it. It's "Hands Up and Down" okay?

Children: Okay sir.

Teacher: I think you know the rule, don't you?

Children: Yes of course, we know.

Perhaps this kind of communicative and evocative class might begin when a teacher enters into the classroom happily. I mean to say that unless a teacher is in happy mood, s/he can't perform such activities. Have you ever started the class providing something to the students? Do some classes and sometimes, you can see the happiness and eagerness of the children! But we don't do most often because it seems we are never happy. We arrange parties or we provide gifts to mark the happy moments. So happiness inside the classroom and being happy among the children is equally important. What is happiness? It has been defined variously and can be taken in own way. Some would say that happiness means being wealthy. Others would say that happiness means to be healthy. You will find people saying that happiness means having love in their life, having many friends, a good job, or achieving a certain goal. Wikipedia defines happiness as, “Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being which can be defined by, among others, positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.” It also says, “Philosophers and religious thinkers often define happiness in terms of living a good life, or flourishing, rather than simply as an emotion.” Merriam Webster defines happiness as, “A state of well-being and contentment.” Well I'm not going to bore you with description of what is happiness, but simply I want to share my experience that we can't make our classroom effective when we are not happy. I've felt most of the time; when I enter with happy mood, the class runs smoothly but in seriousness or else learning obstructs. www.vocabulary.com says, “Happiness is that feeling that comes over you when you know life is good and you can’t help but smile. It’s the opposite of sadness.” So enter the classroom with a "Smile". In my training classes I always say" You have no right to show your sad face to the innocent children" They are there to learn the good things and not to listen your family problems which have made you sad. Of course the problems are always there, when can you get rid of them? We are most often concerned with petty things and let us affected by into our classroom too. This is totally unfair to the children. Perhaps we don't take our job as much seriously as we need to or we have never felt necessary to show our happiness to the children. Just try once and see the change of environment of the classroom. If a classroom sees your smiling face they are just ready to interact you as students can easily read your face. Either we don't want to show our happy feelings or we think it not necessary to expose to the children. But our happiness or happy mood is everything to teach our children. Only the happy mood can provide opportunities of learning. Once you understand the importance of being happy in the classroom, you can see the difference. As it is said" A teacher can make a difference" when a teacher is in happy mood, the learning takes place in itself. So happiness is the primary part of our teaching learning process. You are happy that refers that you are mentally ready for your action. So happiness defines your behavior and attitude. The attitude defines you and that guides your classroom activities. "Students don't need a perfect teacher." They need a teacher who gets them excited about learning. A teacher who smiles and makes them enjoy coming to school. Each and everyday. A lot of theories, methods and techniques have been introduced in teaching learning but no methods can be applied unless you are in mood to use it. It can also be said that" all the methodologies are dead" No techniques can be universal but happiness in the moment of imparting knowledge among your beautiful kids. Imagine a teacher coming with a lot of teaching materials and shouts upon the children saying 'You fools, don't make noise- I've come with so many useful materials to teach you and you are just barking!!! Don't make me angry ok! The learning stops. No use of your materials. You'd better not brought that stuff. Instead if you had said 'Dear students, I'm just happy today you know; so ask me anything you want. Perhaps there starts the interaction. Just say why don't you learn this in pair and discuss and we will talk together. The learning starts. That's your attitude as a teacher. So developing an attitude as teacher is making yourself happy in teaching. The happiness gives you a teacher's attitude. Instead we are filled with old dogmatic ideas, "Make your children obey you, don't let them overrule you "This only creates difficulties and thinking our children as not able to understand your teaching, and you just become sad the opposite of happy. The happiness doesn't come out so easily. It is also a matter of self practice. One needs to develop positive thoughts and develop professionalism too. Love for job is another element to bring this nature. Love for job doesn't come out if you are not happy. StevenAitchison gives some advises to be happy. 1. Give up assuming the worst- why shouldn't we assume the best instead of worst? Something good will happen all the time. 2. Give up wanting- stop wanting that wonderful relationship, to be wealthier, craving for new home or new car…that always makes you sad. 3. Give up arguing- why should you cry and try to make understand other about your point when they don't agree you. 4. Give up people pleasing- stop the habit of trying to have everyone like you."If you try to please everyone, you will please none" 5. Give up need for control- we have no control over what others think or do. Besides, I believe that the most important thing that makes us unhappy is the habit of comparing ourselves to others; and specially comparing ourselves to those who are wealthier. Moreover, the human pettiness of love for property and being affected by little problems and too much worry about the family are some obstacle in the path towards our classroom teaching learning procedure. But let's realize the beauty of our job and the expectations from us by those beautiful flowers of a beautiful garden that we are appointed for this great task. Let's show the power of our Happiness. Just stay away from petty problems of the family because your happiness will give way out to all your problems too. Until and unless you make your children feel that you love your profession, the classroom and students, they can't pay you attention. The feeling of Happiness enables you to do this. I've noticed if you love your students at least few; you can energize yourself, smile and always ready to be inside the classroom in Happiness. Instead of various things that sometimes seems uneasy, I've tried to be happy in Tri-Padma. Despite the various good practices in Tri-Padma, there seems somewhere, somehow, someone seems to be dissatisfied in something .There seems a gap between the administration and staff. It needs to be correted, systemaized the things. But I've tried to be in mood and follow the principal of happiness. Anton Chekhov says" Unhappy men are selfish and less able to understand each other than fools". This phenomenon exactly applies in our classroom. In an unhappy mood how can we teach the children or understand their problems? As a teacher if we are concerned with our own problems, think as more important than teaching in classroom and remain unhappy; we won't be able to deal with our students. So be happy, try to be in mood to deal with your children. There lies the importance of Being Happy inside classroom. Now I can define Happiness as driving force of teaching learning. So " Happiness is state of being mentally and physically prepared to impart knowledge and skills and; share the things which you can." References: Wikipedia www.vocabulary.com Merriam Webster's Dictionary StevenAitchison- "Change your thought; Change your Life" Anton Chekhov- "Enemies"