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Revathi Balakrishnan makes the whole India, especially the teachers, proud of her achievement by bagging the title of “The Texas Teacher of the Year 2016”
“We think of teacher-heroes that taught us the academics but we don’t often think of those teachers that taught us life’s lessons.” — Maria Wale, My Teacher My Hero
I absolutely second the above statement. As a student, my relationship with my teacher is just as common as every other student-teacher relationship is. And I think I am not the only one, everyone I look around shares the same relationship. What we fail to recognize is the teachers’ efforts to love us dearly and endlessly, to put up with us when we study late in the night, be there for us in our happiness when we pass our exams, to encourage and lift our spirits with their hugs when we fail. We might have a favourite teacher but no teacher has a favourite student. At least I have never seen a teacher having only one favourite student. And that’s the beauty of teachers. They keep sharing their knowledge, selflessly to look at us fly high in the world as they prepare themselves for the next batch which will annoy, irritate, perhaps give her a headache, but will stand on his/her expectations.
This article is to address one such teacher who’s done a tremendous job not just in her field but in her life too. Revathi Balakrishnan, a teacher at Patsy Sommer Elementary School, has been named 'Texas Elementary Teacher of the Year' 2016.
"It is not work for me. It is actually a passion," said 53-year-old Austin-based Ms Balakrishnan.
Ms Balakrishnan was a systems analyst with Liberty Mutual, managing databases and programming for about 12 years before becoming a teacher. When she decided to take up a teaching job on the elementary level, people popped up questions to her, which was but natural. To silence the questions, all she said was
“Let me just put my foot in the third door.”
And she did! Her interview at the Patsy Sommer Elementary School went great and she was asked to join the school as a talented and gifted (tag) teacher. It surprised her because she had never taught in a school before. But the confidence that she had in herself and her techniques of teaching not only made her the school’s favourite teacher, it also helped her earn the title – Teacher of the Year.
She follows a pattern called Independent study in her class which means the students choose the topic they want to learn or research about. Her idea of this unique technique is to understand the child’s interest and motivate him/her to think about it. This technique insures that the child is interested in learning and he/she will not wait for anyone. She believes that the excitement is enough motivation to take up the challenges and if there’s a problem, Ma’am Revathi is there. Look out for the “No Nonsense!” format in her teaching skills!
According to her, the excitement of teaching, learning with students and the opportunity to shape students who are the "leaders of tomorrow" drives her.
If any of us were in her class now, we would be more than just grateful! This also means that we call up our teachers right away to thank them for who we are and where we are. (Just a thought!)
Ms. Balakrishnan was honoured by US President Barack Obama at the White House in the first week of May 2016 and will now represent Texas in the ‘National Teacher of the Year’ competition.
Here’s wishing her the best of everything!
Image Courtesy: Revathi Balakrishnan – Kickoff 2015 – Round Rock ISD, www.tasanet.org