It’s 5 a.m. in Georgia. Laila Esmail wakes up to get to her school by the required 6:15 a.m. start. “I have to make sure every first period class has some activity with movement because my students are falling asleep.” She can’t afford to be groggy or call in sick while her students are shuffling into their seats,
Laila is a high school math teacher from Atlanta, who admits openly that teaching isn’t for everybody. But to her, those early mornings are a small price for the innumerable connections with her students. Teaching high school is “really is the best job I could ever do in my life. I wish I had discovered it sooner.”
Learning to teach in a new country
When she moved to America from Pakistan, Laila started with a career in Business Administration. She worked at a bank for a several years, when the birth of her second child made the work hours impossible to maintain.
Coincidentally, she had been teaching ginan class to 11th and 12 graders. In reflecting on a career change, she realized how deeply she appreciated the connection she had built with her students over a decade of teaching. With that knowledge, she embarked on a Master’s degree in secondary education.
She soon found the role of teacher and student were completely different from Pakistan. “In the beginning, I had a hard time understanding why kids are behaving a certain way. I had a lot of classroom management problems.” The classroom culture in the States surprised Laila.
“Eventually I learned my way through. I understood each child as an independent person.” She had good students who would suddenly act out. Laila discovered that more often than not, these students especially needed someone to talk to. “When I would talk to them after class, most of them would start crying. Maybe someone in their family was getting deported, or they needed some support. It was often a personal issue.”
Preparation for adulthood
Laila used her mathematics curriculum as in part a way to better understand individual student’s strength. Whether the student was in remedial Pre-Algebra class or AP Calculus, she used teaching as encouragement. “Some students say, ‘I’m just not good at math.” They put this label on themselves. But it’s just the way each student understands math is different, and you have to understand what is the best way to reach each student.”
In a way, by framing problems for students and giving them concrete steps to solutions, Laila prepares her high schoolers for the adulthood awaiting them around the corner.
Meet Shamim
Meanwhile in Naperville, IL, Shamim Jiwani is tucking in infants in her role as an early childhood educator. She had never considered a career in early childhood education when she moved from Pakistan to America. But in 2003, she was approached by Religious Education Center (REC) management to become an Educational Representative for the local Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC). The REC offered to train her.
“The ‘Aha!’ moment came when I saw for myself the process of a young child eventually understanding what you are trying to communicate.That is priceless,” says Shamim affectionately.
Developments in early childhood
With her initial experiences in ECDC, Shamim enrolled in a certification program in early childhood development and care at the local Community College. She learned about the importance of developmentally appropriate programs, which focus on skills appropriate to a child’s age rather than activities that merely captivate the attention the young child for the moment.
For example, a 10-month-old child is developmentally interested in understanding new substances. A traditional childcare provider may spend an afternoon getting paint footprints of a child to make a card to take home to mom and dad. Rather, an early childhood educator would consider what experiences are developmentally appropriate for a 10-month-old, and spend that time sitting a child on a chair, putting the child’s hands in water, and allowing the child to explore the properties of the liquid medium for an intentional sensory experience.
Early childhood education is all about facilitating, rather than unidirectional teaching. “Infants and toddlers have innate knowledge,” reiterates Shamim, “and you are just encouraging and providing scaffolding experiences for children to figure it out.”
As a child learns to communicate verbally, it may seem proper to congratulate a child with a “good job.” But as Shamim points out, the accolade alone is not enough. Early childhood education theory specifies that children need to hear what they actually did to earn that praise. One should make specific remarks such as, “You used the crayon to make a new circle.” Clarify what effort they did that merited credit. In this way, the child will know their potential.
In the infant room in the early childhood center where Shamim now works professionally, teachers are continuously striving towards having children reach milestones, such as persistent attempts to stand up. “The children are teaching us how to persevere.”
Investing at the start
“Our community desperately needs more early childhood educators,” reiterates Shamim. According to studies, “In the first few years of life, more than 1 million new neural connections are formed every second. Sensory pathways such as those for basic vision and hearing, are the first to develop, followed by early language skills and higher cognitive functions. Connections proliferate and prune in a prescribed order, with later, more complex brain circuits built upon earlier, simpler circuits.” The more connections are formed, the stronger the child’s brains network.
Ever the passionate educator, Shamim appeals to families to make the time for their youngest. “It is vital that we give our children the strongest foundation in those crucial early years.”