Are teachers teachers?

My wife is a lawyer (insert wife/lawyer jokes and it’s all true) and unfortunately for me she is very good at what she does but she can’t speak the same for her colleagues. Having a degree/certificate doesn’t necessarily mean you are good at something.

I have been teaching since 2004 and only recently I have become certified teacher. I have to say that during the certification process, I did learn more about education however my passion and dedication and most of my teaching skills were not developed through the course, it was through the years working with kids.

I have worked with both certified teachers and non certified teachers and there are good ones and bad ones in both.

I would recommend teacher who are serious about education to get certified so that it gives you more opportunity. After I got certified, I worked at a private international elementary school in their bilingual program, but after two years, I changed my job and went to work for a buxiban/cram school. I know it sounds crazy but this after so many years, I finally found a school that put emphasis on kids and teachers.

I try not to let labels or stereotypes influence me.

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No, her grandmother was a teacher so I am respected.

Joe can make more money but most Joe’s don’t get paid vacation, fixed salary (you get paid for typhoon days and public holidays etc) and paid flight tickets (80,000 maximum) per contract to go back to your home country.

heh?

no my neck is fine.

I did the buxiban thing for 2 years then switched to public school teaching, really good decision.
My school has had some pretty shitty teachers though, so I don’t think they think foreign cert teachers are the best thing since sliced bread.

also, if you would like to see the pay scale I could PM it to you.

You have them westerners such,
As Aristotle, and Plato:
uN-credentialed.

Then Gods like Confucius;
Upon a pedestal.

Such is edumificationalism.

There’s a huge scope for nonsense is the conversation about teacher qualifications. It would, obviously, be ideal for teachers to be qualified, but I don’t think that we need to suckle at the teet of qualification too strongly. There are plenty teaching certification courses in the US that are basically rubber stamps that make you a certified teacher, and even a good PGCE course in the UK is only a year. I spent 4 years working with qualified teachers whilst being trained on teaching methodology in Taiwan, I don’t think that’s incomparable to 12 months academic/practical teaching for a degree.

The analogy of engineering/surgery is telling. Would you rather a surgeon who’d spent a year studying surgery, mostly academically with little practice, or one who’d spent four years doing surgery under the supervision of qualified surgeons? The former is a qualified teacher, the latter could be a teacher in Taiwan. I don’t think that the choice is so clear…

I’ve been a full-time teacher at a boarding school for four years, but only have a temporary five-year teaching cert (that I haven’t yet upgraded to a permanent one because it will cost me $6500 US and add nothing to my skillset). I’ve worked with hundreds of middle- and high-schoolers and gotten graduating seniors into top US and UK schools. I’m on several admin committees at my school and work pro bono as a curriculum specialist because my school can’t/won’t pay M.Eds to fill that position. But because I’ve only got a B.A. and a temp license, I can’t call myself a teacher?

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Apprentice Teacher/Educational Services Rep. would be the ideal nomenclature.

Scene: A classroom in a cram school in Toufen, Miaoli County, in 2004. A child leaves a book on the floor.

ME: Pick up the book.

CHILD: You’re not a teacher.

A lump of coal, the very thing!

(Explanatory note: The phrase “A lump of coal” does not refer to the child mentioned above, nor does it refer to any poster on Forumosa. It means that the notion that cram school English teachers are not real teachers is so widespread that even some children seem to be aware of it.)

I’m an assistant professor at a university. Can I call myself a teacher?

You are not a teacher as a professional vocation, because you don’t have a licence. Assistant Professor would be the ideal nomenclature.

Oh. Okay.

Tando is 100 percent spot on. From my understanding profs are often very attached to their titles and rankings (full, associate, assistant, instructor, etc.). Teacher would be too generic me thinks because it does not reveal the ranking. They can describe their actions (I teach a class), but I think their formal title should reflect the relevant rank.

isn’t is because teacher is a generic word?

You can specify by saying certified/licensed HR/subject/asistant teacher etc.

I agree 100 percent.

Not from what I have seen of you so far …:rofl: Joking Old Man :wink:

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Teacher is as teacher does.

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