''If you want to be a boring teacher follow these nine ideas,'' said Gunaraj Nepal to the hall-packed participants quoting Prodromou, ''Assume students know nothing, sit still, be predictable, speak in a monotone, let students do nothing, teach the textbook, be right all the time, lose your students and keep talking.'' Nepal, also the chair of Nepal English Language Teachers' Association (NELTA) Morang district chapter, was presenting on the theme titled 'At the Heart of Teaching: Ecology, Engagement, and Innovation'' Saturday afternoon at the auditorium hall of Meeryland College Biratnagar. His half-hour-long presentation talked about the best ways of teaching in interactive and innovative ways.
Nepal was one of the three presenters presenting in the one-day-long seminar and workshop, titled 'On becoming a teacher: Early Career, Sustainability, and Growth'. The other two presenters were associate professor Motikala Subba Dewan and Indra Chauhan.
Dewan presented on 'Reading Comprehension in ESL Teaching' and Indra Chauhan's presentation was titled 'Becoming a Resourceful Teacher: What Does That Mean for the ELT Classroom?' Facilitators on the 'spark session' were Babita Parajuli, Dipak Puri, Shiv Kumar Tajpuria, Pratiksha Khatiwada, Hemantaraj Dahal. Professor Emeritus and poet Vishnu Rai delivered a keynote speech at the seminar and workshop. He cautioned to what he called 'rising and shining stars in the English language teaching fraternity, ''We need to go beyond English. We must not be like English. We must stay Nepali.''
NELTA Morang said the privately run and funded function was hosted to boost the teaching prowess of English language teachers. Teachers from Morang, Sunsari, Jhapa, and Ilam were among the attendees of the function. After concluding the function, NELTA Morang chair Nepal remarked, ''The blending of center and locals was real and productive for some good reasons. We were so happy to learn that youths are more, a lot more promising. I am now very optimistic: Teachers can make a difference. Innovation is real.'' Umesh Bhandari, an attendee from Itahari also echoed Nepal. He added, 'For government-funded community schools' teachers, there are some sorts of training. However, for private school teachers, there is not much training to boost their English language command and teaching prowess. NELTA has come to plug in this void to an extent.'
