A Teacher or a Leader

I have never thought myself as a leader.

I was always passionate about teaching and learning but never ever dreamt about going beyond the role of a class teacher. I actually thought that I have no leadership capacity within me. But to my surprise, my friends and colleagues always tell me that I am a good leader. In the meantime I got an opportunity to face an interview which opened me the first gate way to my leadership
journey. I have decided to walk along that path and discover what I am capable of.

Then I gave a serious thought to it. Am I truly a leader? Do I possess any characteristics or qualities of a leader?
I realised that yes, I am excell at giving positive feedback to those who are around me. This should be true because according to what I got to know from my students, my words had made a huge positive impact on their lives. They set me as an inspiration when they set their future goals. I have helped them to identify their talents and set targets to suit them, so that they can be successful in their lives. It was benificial for me that I meet my students everyday which makes us understand each other perfectly well. This understanding paved way for better interaction and provided benefit for both of us. But it was not successful all the time. There were instances where I could not provide any inspiration to some students. No matter how hard I try, they were not willing to change in any circumstances. After doing some research I realized that these qualities that I possess reflect a coaching leader.

The studies show that there are different leadership styles in people and one may have one leadership style or one may be

a combination of many leadership styles which changes based on the situation. 

Thus, I analysed myself a little deeper and realised that at times I have been a democratic leader too. For instance, when I had been appointed as the teacher-in-charge of a " House" in the school sports meet, I never wanted to lose. I was determined, sometimes
beyond the children, that we should be champions. Thus, I divided the duties and responsibilities among the house captains, and the senior students in the house, appointed a teacher for each group, and let them handle. I was always behind them, guiding them taking the full responsibility but it was them who took the lead.

Just like a democratic leader do, I took decisions but allowed others to occasionally take the lead and motivate them by providing feedback. This leadership style was very useful during sports meet season where everyone's knowledge and experience were needed to move ahead and win. But still there's a possibility to fail; I failed two times, when the team has no knowledge or experience regarding the matter. When the team you have has no prior experience or knowledge they are not capable of fulfilling the responsibilities given to them. Thus the task fails due to lack of team work. But with a well experienced group, we can always embrace the winning moments.

Ultimately I have realised that I am a leader and I have the capacity to change my style to suit the task and people. I have been acting as a leader throughout my life without even knowing about it.

You may also be the same as me, thinking that leadership is not for you. But remember that there is a leader living within all of us. Knowingly or unknowingly we become leaders at our work place or at our home. We must believe in ourselves and discover our unique leadership style. Just like me realizing that I can be a guiding light or a shepherd to suit the task and lead my team to success you will understand your potential and the capacity to lead. So are you ready to embrace those winning moments....

Lovers to Enemies

 What happened? Where am I? My mind is in turmoil. The only vision I have is a flash of a light making me blind. When I opened my eyes, I was here, injured. "Oh, hello". A nurse came to me, smiling. " You were so lucky to servive. It was terrible. Why did you cut youeself?" What? My head was burning like it was about to explode. I remember, it was dark. I was in the kitchen making dinner. Suddenly there she was, covered with blood, pointing the knife at me. She wanted revenge for her murder, I did that day.

සංචරණී ගේ පිලිතුරු කවිය

 මගේ පුංචි මැයි මාර ළමයෝ, 

ඔබ නොදන්නවා උනාට 

මමත් එදා බලන් හිටියා.

තුත්තිරි මල් යාය මැදින්

හැමදා මා ඇවිදින විට 

රතට රතේ හැමදාමත් 

බබලන මැයි මල් විස්මය

වැලි ඇතිරූ මාවත මත

නැවතී විඳිනා හදවත,

හැමදාමත් බලන් හිටිය රහසේ ඔබ හමුවන්නට.

මැයි මල් ගස පිරී තිබුණු

රතට රටේ බබලන මල්

වාරෙ අවාරේ අමතක

වී ගස මත බබලන විට, 

හැමදාමත් හිතේ කොනක 

හටගත් ඒ සිතිවිල්ලට 

පිළිතුරු පද පබඳින්නට ඔබ සිටියේ නෑ තනියට.

හැම උදේම මල් මාවත

දිගේම මා පැමිණෙන විට 

ඔබෙ ඇස් මා පසුපස බව

දැනුනා මට හැම මොහොතේම. 

ඒ හැඟීම තුරුලට ගෙන 

හිනැහෙන විට මා තනිවම,

මැයි මාර ත් හිනැහුනානෙ මාත් එක්ක මගෙ තනියට. 

ඔබ නොදන්නවා උනාට 

ඔබේ සුවඳ හිත මත ගෙන 

හැමදාමත් මග බලාන 

මා හිටියා මාවත ලඟ.

ඒ සිතිවිලි සුවඳ දරා

ජීවිතයේ මිහිර සොයා

ආවේ මම නුඹව සොයා තුත්තිරි මල් දෝත දරා.

ඔබ නොදන්නවා උනාට 

මැයි මාර ත් බලන් හිටිය 

හමුවෙන තුරු මට මගෙ හිරු.

වාරෙ අවාරේ පිපි මල්

සේ අදටත් මගේ හිතේ

ඔබ හිඳිනා බව සත්තයි නවතින තුරු හුස්ම මගේ.

හැමදාමත් සසර මගේ

හමුවී, වෙන්වී නොයන්න 

උපදින මතු හැම භවයෙම, 

තුත්තිරි මල් මිටත් අරන්

මැයි මල් ගස යටට එන්න.

මම ඔයාගෙම සංචරණී. 

 Nadee 

You vs. You

Nobody understands your pains.

Nobody understands your anxieties.

Nobody understands what you are going through.

 They all live in their own worlds .

They all have their own assumptions.

They all have their own problems.

Life is hard.

So hard, because day by day

You understand this harsh reality 

that you are on your own.

No matter how understanding you think you are

You don't get that understanding

From the people around you

and the ones you are associated with. So, how can you say that 

You are so understanding, when you are not.

The real understanding comes

When you understand yourself.

When you get to deal with

Your own fears.

When you need to hold on

to yourself,

and lean on your own shoulder

because, you are the one

who knows the cause

of your own feelings.

You are the best person

to rely on to in tough situations.

You are the only one

who can controle your own emotions,

And finally,

it is you, and only you

who would walk with you

Hand in hand

in this journey.

The Love Poem

 I am your corona virus.

No matter how hard you try 

To keep me away from you,

I'll wait for you

To catch your finger tips.

Then I'll come into you

Straight to your lungs.

You'll try to be protected

By taking a covi-schield vaccine.

But I'll use my witch powers

And change my form to be

More powerful.

So , no one, no one

Can stop me from

Getting into you.

So I can attack you and make you mine

Forever ......

Smile

Smile can do miracles.

A smile can make

The business grow,

A smile can teach

People to love,

A smile can light up

Someone's life,

A smile can bring hopes

To a desperate soul,

A smile 

Can make

Someone

Live

Nadee

Online Teaching and Learning

 

Online teaching and learning has become an essential part in human lives due to the Corona pandemic in the world. Though it was already available and used by a few people for sometime, Sri Lanka was not even experimenting the use of it even in higher educational levels. Many universities all over the world has been using online platforms to conduct their courses but, it was totally new to Sri Lankans until now. This was simply because the narrow mindedness of the people, as a nation and their pride. According to my point of view, Sri Lankans are arrogant and not flexible to the changes happening in the fast moving world. Even the leaders of the country who are the authority are being ignorant and let the people live with this 'frog in the well' concept. But they are smart enough to get their children experience the new trends and use them to be a step ahead in the global community. 

It is inevitable that Sri Lankans cannot live in an isolated life moving away from the technological development happening around. Further there should be a clear understanding about the benefits the younger generation can achieve through an online platform. To give a simple example, Even a student who live in a remote area can access to the courses offered by many universities in the world with the palm of their hand. By maximising these distant learning facilities, the young generation will be benefited and will gain the ability to stand upright in the globalised world. Even in the school level, all the students get the opportunity to learn from one teacher because of online teaching. Further it is healthy for the teachers when compared to the classroom teaching because no shouting involved in it. It is true that it limits the teaching and learning experience to some extent but, it broadens our insights in many ways.    

When I say like this there will be many arguments against this about uneven distribution of facilities, poor technology, wealth and life style of the people, cultural inappropriateness etc. It is true that all these things should be taken into consideration, and these are mostly the faults of the authorities who has power. My question is that, even with all these problems, are we not coping with the Covid 19 situation right now? Each and every school has started their teaching learning proses through an online platform and each and every university is conducting their lectures online and the students take part in these lessons. Even the evaluation is done online using different methods. So if we can have a clear reflection on the things happening around us, we can see even the examinations can take a different shape which can give an authentic account of the real ability of the student. Thus it is like we have been blinded for a long time and Covid 19 has opened our eyes to a new comprehensive world. 

Thus it is left to us to decide weather to remain in our own wells with the 'proud history' we have or step out of the frame and let the future generations feel proud of us, who will be their ancestors, for being creative and innovative. Further we should all realise that for the benefit of our own children what we have to do is to teach them how to use technology effectively, without prohibiting the new trends for them. As adults, it is our responsibility to make our children aware of the new technology and make ourselves updated with its developments without depriving the opportunities of them.