Why I Always Focus On My Purpose
Introduction — Finding my purpose as a teacher
“We must have a theme, a goal, a purpose in our lives. If you don’t know where you’re aiming, you don’t have a goal.”
— Mary Kay Ash.
What is the aim of teaching? In simple terms, it is to help students improve in the areas we teach.
How can students improve in each area? Set a target and practice a lot. If possible, get help from others.
Simple? In writing, yes, but in real life, not so simple. At least for me.
Maybe because of my dyslexia or perhaps because I had low self-confidence, I tended to avoid doing something whenever I felt I was not good enough.
In primary four, I decided to write a “storybook”. I was so excited that I kept thinking about it. Motivated, I spent the whole week editing drafts, designing the cover and putting everything together in a booklet.
After creating the “storybook”, I excitedly shared it with one of my friends, and she said, “It was quite good! But there are some grammatical errors.” Considering how much effort I had put into it and still could not do well, I felt embarrassed.
I thought I had wasted a few days doing something worthless. Although it was only my first time creating a storybook, it felt like I would never be able to write good stories. It was funny that I never thought mistakes were just part of learning.
In primary five, I had to read a passage out loud. My teacher told me I needed a mirror to look at myself. Why? “Because your mouth is not moving!” And everyone laughed. I avoided reading in front of the class ever since.
Again, it never occurred to me that I would read better if I had done it a hundred more times.
In Art, Music, Physical Education (PE), and every other subject, I often felt I was not good enough, especially when people told me about my mistakes. I thought every task I did was embarrassing. And so I avoided doing it.
But the more I avoided it, the worse it got. Right?
However, some teachers in my life made me believe in myself. They were the ones who did not judge me for my mistakes. They were the ones who constantly reminded me that I would do well had I practised more.
Despite struggling in some subjects, I still managed to get a bachelor’s degree. Thanks to teachers who believed in me, I believed in myself. Thanks to them, I told myself I would do well if I practised more.
These teachers’ message was simple: Just practise more, and you will see results. If you find it challenging, lower the challenge and take one step at a time.
For many years, I gave up on things I was interested in. I thought I was not talented. It was much later that I realised I would have done much better if I had practised more. Why did I judge my abilities based on just a few attempts?
Corrective feedback made me feel I could not draw, but I only drew once a week! Likewise, for volleyball and running. I thought many children needed teachers to teach them to believe in themselves. That was why I became a teacher.
I wanted to be someone who could show students that they could do it if they continued practising. I wanted them to know that every successful person is successful because they believe in themselves and put more effort into practice. Not because they have inborn talents.
I forgot my purpose!
However, after I graduated from teacher’s training, I was overwhelmed by the number of things I needed to do and learn — How to manage the class, what is the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) when a student is injured, and so many events that I had to support.
After one and a half years of teaching, my head of department (HOD) asked me how I could impact more students. That made me think that whatever I did was just going through the motions.
It was my first major setback as a teacher. I was angry with myself because I was not true to myself. I wanted the students to believe in themselves, but I did not believe in them. I wanted the students to see the mistakes as part of learning, but I judged their learning attitude.
I thought: “So what if I have completed the syllabus? So what if I have diligently given the correct feedback I should provide? Would they learn? And would they have the confidence to try again?
I followed every step in the “Game Concept Approach,” called every parent whenever their children were absent, and contributed as much as I could to every school event. However, my students were still not motivated.
I realised many of my students did not make the extra effort because they did not believe in themselves. They were like me when I was a child — worried about being judged and giving up too quickly before they saw success.
I often follow a teaching approach without reflecting on how I could have done it better. For example, I memorised the steps of Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL), but I did not think much about how it can be used to achieve the goal of education.
Having a purpose increased my motivation
I decided to focus on my purpose, trust myself, stop following what I thought people wanted me to do, and go with my heart. I told myself I would use all my time to inspire students to believe in themselves.
“Having a purpose is the difference between making a living and making a life.”
— Tom Thiss
When I started focusing on my purpose, I felt super motivated. Suddenly, everything I did had a purpose. I remember writing my aspiration as my phone background to be reminded of it. I went on a mission to change how I work, modifying everything I do to align with the purpose.
Previously, I was task-oriented, following the lesson plan like a step-by-step guide, thinking I would conduct a good lesson if I followed them well. Then, I aligned every decision with my purpose.
Before every learning task, I told the students to embrace mistakes. I would constantly remind them that they were better than they thought. I wanted them to believe they would see improvement if they tried it a hundred times.
The more I talked about it, the more purposeful and motivated I felt in my job.
To do more, I often shared with my students that we might unconsciously give up our interests if we judge ourselves through our mistakes. I shared with them how I gave up drawing and could have done well if I had continued to try.
Every learning task was designed and enacted with the purpose in mind. First, I gave them a learning goal. Second, I gave them a pep talk to help them believe in themselves and support one another.
Third, as they practised, I constantly praised their effort, telling them they would meet the learning goal if they continued the practice. Lastly, I would always end the lesson by showing them the progress of their hard work.
Whenever I talked to parents, I told them to believe in their children. I believe everyone should play a part in making students believe in themselves, including their peers, teachers and parents.
I make better choices
If you search “Differentiated instruction (DI) strategies” on Google, you will find at least twenty-four strategies. If you search “Inquiry-based learning (IBL) strategies”, you will get another 15 more.
The hundreds of teaching strategies on our social media feed can be distracting if we look at each strategy in depth. With so many choices, which would suit you and your students best? For me, I first look at my purpose.
Rather than memorising the steps of these approaches, I tried to understand the guiding principles behind these approaches. Then, I followed these guiding principles to achieve my purpose.
For example, once, my school encouraged all teachers to try formative assessment in our classes. Instead of choosing a formative assessment method straightaway, I asked, “Why formative assessment?” and “How can it help students to believe in themselves?”
Through reading, I realised that formative assessment is not merely using a checklist or rubric to evaluate students’ performance. It is about making learning visible so students know what to do next.
Imagine you are blindfolded and try to practice shooting a basketball into the hoop. Do you think you will ever improve? No right? Because you need to see where the ball is going before you can make suitable adjustments. That is a formative assessment.
If formative assessment is so simple, why do we need many different strategies?
Because the class is big, not every learning is visible to the learner. Every student needs a checklist, a rubric or a friend to evaluate their performance. The quicker they understand what to do next, the faster they learn.
After understanding the what and why of the formative assessment, the next step is to think of the how. How formative assessment can increase students’ self-beliefs.
In one basketball lesson, I decided to allow students to adjust their success criteria based on their observations. I told them to change their shooting distance until they see more success. I also paired them up so their partners could advise and encourage them.
Even after this combination of formative assessment, peer coaching and student empowerment, I still thought students were not developing self-beliefs. Many of them looked worried about being judged.
I reckoned they still had the fixed mindset that if they missed, people would judge their abilities, making them avoid practising more. As such, I gave them a pep talk.
I told them even the greatest basketball players practise shooting near the basket. Even the greatest basketball players missed thousands of shots. What made them great was not their exceptional talent but the never-say-die attitude to continue shooting until they could consistently score.
In the end, the peer assessment and coaching worked very well. In the survey, most students shared they were motivated when their friends helped them. Had I not given the pep talk, they would still be worried about missing the shots.
Till now, I still use the same approach when I look at the various teaching approaches. I customised approaches such as IBL, DI, and EdTech to align with my purpose. These approaches became the tools that helped me achieve my goal faster.
Every student needs a leader
Imagine all the teachers in your school spent many days crafting a new school vision and mission statement. All of you are motivated because you could envision the kind of students that every teacher in the school would work together to develop.
However, when the semester started, the school’s principal seemed to lose this focus. He did not remind you about the vision and mission. Instead, he talked about using artificial intelligence (AI), which was becoming popular.
While everyone was busy thinking about using AI in the lesson, the principal spoke about improving parents’ engagement. Although using AI and building relationships with stakeholders can impact students, he never talked about how these can help to achieve the vision you set.
How would you feel when the focus seems to change all the time? What about the mission which everyone was excited about? When are you going to reach the destination you hope to be?
It can be frustrating when the leader does not bring you to the destination. Imagine you ask a cab driver to drive you home. But every five minutes, the driver stops because there is something nice to see or do.
Similarly, in the classroom, our students want us to bring them to a destination they want to go to. They want a leader (us) to lead them to a destination where they feel good about themselves.
However, reaching the destination takes a long time, like a year. Hence, we need to stay committed to it so that our students can see themselves grow bit by bit.
We cannot tell them we want them to be hardworking and then seem to forget about it after a couple of weeks. We need to show them we mean business by communicating that purpose until they see it.
When I stick to my purpose, I help students move in the desired direction. I am not the cab driver who stops every now and then, and I am not the principal who forgets about the school mission.
When I use a new assessment checklist, an EdTech tool or a DI strategy, the students know the purpose is to develop their self-belief more efficiently. As such, they are more willing to try.
For instance, if I have to conduct a 2.4km run test, I do not see it as a run test. I see it as a tool to help students believe in themselves. How? By carefully designing the practice and my messaging to them.
First, I told the students the intention of the test many months before it, which is a fitness goal for them to work towards. Then, I taught them to set realistic goals for themselves and work towards them gradually.
Lastly, I consistently conducted practice runs. I wanted to get them to see their progress and see the power of consistent training. Students are often motivated when they see progression, and they set higher goals for themselves when they see hope.
Over time, the students saw the meaning of the fitness test. They started to enjoy running because every goal was achievable. They saw themselves improving, and so their confidence increased.
They saw how a run test can increase their self-belief. They no longer see the run test as a tool to judge their running ability. And they no longer avoid running or anything too challenging.
Conclusion
“Children don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
- John Maxwell
Have you tried DI, and it did not work? You lowered the challenge, making it easy for some students. However, these students were still not motivated to practice hard. They could have practised twenty rounds, but they only did five.
You thought lowering the challenge would give them more success, so it would motivate them to try again. But they saw it as being left out because they were not as good as others.
Therefore, we need to tell them the intention of every task constantly. And why it will help them achieve the aspiration you set out for them.
We need to tell them that everyone can be great. Others look “talented,” but that is because they started earlier. They can do it, too, but they need a more manageable challenge before improving their skills.
Students know we care when we are clear about our intentions. They know we care for them when we constantly work hard to achieve what we have promised. When they know we care about them, they become motivated to learn.
There are so many teaching approaches out there. And more are developed every day. One minute, you saw an exciting drill on Facebook. The next, you saw another on Instagram. It is tempting to try all of them because they seem to engage the students better.
Trying so many approaches without focusing on one intention can overwhelm the receiver. To the students, they just want to enjoy learning. They just want to be good people they and their parents are proud of.
They do not care whether we use inquiry-based approaches or collaborative approaches. They only care whether the approaches can help them become the people they always hope to be.
Each of us has a different purpose in life and as a teacher. But we all want the best for the students. That is precisely what our students want — to become the best they can be. If that is the case, we should focus on our purpose!
