Teaching Perspective

I try my best to create a classroom environment where the students feel the learning is fun and meaningful. I think the classroom environment is a “playground” of intellectual minds where teacher and students raise thought-provoking questions & issues, do activities that enhance their practical knowledge and work collaboratively on deeper understanding of the concept.

To achieve this, I need to be creative to engage students’ interest and show the attitude of being a learner as well. I want my students to get accustomed of the habit of learning how they learn. With this self-reflection, students gain a deeper understanding of who they are as a learner, which I believe is an essential element for them to become life-long learners.

Teaching is something where one can transform the knowledge, one has gained from their own experience, to others. I believe this is one of the noble jobs out there and I feel grateful to be part of this community. The primary reason why I chose this career is the strong desire to positively influence students and educate them. I feel satisfied that being a teacher, I can enrich someone’s life. It is a great feeling and very satisfying to spend a day like this.

My teaching has been inspired by many great people I have met in life. One of them had a great impact on me, professionally as well as personally. I was working at the BIS Institute of Sciences & Technology, Moga, India and Dr. Sawtantar Singh Khurmi visited there as an external examiner. That was the first time I met him, and since then we have had a great professional and personal relationship. Later on, he became our PhD supervisor as well. He encouraged me to write books. Getting inspired from him I, along with my wife Maninder Kaur Tatla, wrote six books, mostly on microprocessors and computer architecture.

I have learned lots of things from him. Whenever we met, we discussed about how to handle a classroom, and how to make it interactive and engaging. In my early teaching days, I didn’t pay much attention to students who didn’t participate in the class, those who lacked interest in the topic. Sawtantar made me realized that those students need equal attention from me as the other students in the class. He told me different strategies on how to engage those types of students and earn their interest. Since then, I have tried my best to make an eye contact with each student, walk around in the class and foster flexible learning environment.

He has inspired many people in his life and keeps doing it till today. I feel grateful that I crossed path with him in my life and got the opportunity to learn so many things. I still talk to him occasionally and whenever I talk, he motivates me to become a better person. Sawtantar is a great person and he has inspired me to reach higher, learn more and do better.