One of the questions that has vexed, perplexed, and has most often been xxx’ed out, for me … is the question:
What are the (basic) defining characteristics of being a good teacher?
I don’t think this is a multiple choice question, but I’ll start it this way. If anyone responds, I hope that you will elaborate or add to the list.
A good teacher is:
a) responsive and accomodating to the boss
b) responsive and accomodating to the parents
c) responsive to the students
d) following his or her own internal precepts according to his or her best intentions and ability
I prefer d), or all of the above, but reality says …
Young
Dumb and Clueless
Can’t speak Chinese
Doesn’t know anything about Taiwan
Believes everything there boss tell them
Willing to work in poor working conditions
Works for naff all money
No experience
Sadly enough these are the things that make an ideal candidate for someone to work at Hess.
I still say is popular with STUDENTS. Students are the ones in your class, not the parents. If the kids don’t like you, they go home and tell mum and dad. Parents only complain about you as a teacher when their little Lee complains to them.
[quote=“IYouThem”]One of the questions that has vexed, perplexed, and has most often been xxx’ed out, for me … is the question:
What are the (basic) defining characteristics of being a good teacher?
I don’t think this is a multiple choice question, but I’ll start it this way. If anyone responds, I hope that you will elaborate or add to the list.
A good teacher is:
a) responsive and accomodating to the boss
b) responsive and accomodating to the parents
c) responsive to the students
d) following his or her own internal precepts according to his or her best intentions and ability
I prefer d), or all of the above, but reality says …[/quote]
I generally start my class off (adults) with “How’s everyone today?” “What’s new and interesting in your life?” or something along those lines. Essentially, I’m saying “hi” and hope they’ll say hi back and we can start a conversation.
After months and months and months of absolutely no response, or “fine”, I started teaching them a greeting at the beginning of each class. People with a clue seemed pretty grateful for this, but a lot of people got pretty angry because they thought it was far too simple (never mind the fact that they weren’t capable of actually answering most greetings or telling the difference between them).
However, if I just waste time for the ten minutes or so I went over greetings with them, they’re totally happy. I thought I’d make the chat time more productive (they’re generally bored as hell and I have to fight them to chat with me, so nobody’s mad I’m not chatting anymore).
Basically, if I try to improve their English in any way, they rebel (as in they just stop coming to my class… my school basically only cares about numbers in classes so this is bad for me). If I waste time and make class boring, they’re cool with it. The only thing they’ll do willingly is take turns reading the day’s material and then resume being silent idiots.
Those few who actually want to learn get it and like me a lot, but most people will actively fight any attempts to HELP them. They just really love wasting their lives in class after class never improving.
So, I’m pretty confused about what it is they actually WANT. They do not want to practice English or learn how to speak naturally. If they just want to learn how to pass the TOEIC test, then go to the damn TOEIC class.
After reading this thread I feel that I wasted a year of my life training to be a teacher!
Specific Learning objectives shared with the class.
3 or 4 part lesson.
Differentiated material (essential over here)
Good plenary to sum up learning.
Assessment for learning.
Lesson catered for different learning styles.
If you do all of the above in a well planned lesson then the ‘liked by the students’ will come automatically as they will enjoy your lessons and feel like they are making progress.
Ian_g, not necessarily. You have the " Mum, we have a new teacher at school, but I like the old one better" and parents will complain about that. No amount of planning or consideration of learning styles will get you around that. I know it is something petty, but management at schools where I have worked in the past took comments like this from parents very seriously, and couldn’t care less about anything else. Happy kids = Happy parents = Bills paid.
Ian_g: In theory, yes. In practice, no. In order to do that, you’d have to change how the students think about learning. Most have probably spent twelve years in school, then another four at university, where the only time they’ve had to actively participate in their learning has been to parrot back what the teacher has said, in other words, they’ve been completely passive. It’s also been perfectly acceptible for some students to sleep up the back and still pass. The buxiban system continues this style of “learning”. So, anyone attempting to convince students (let alone parents and/or laobans) that everything they think they know about education is completely wrong has a mammoth task ahead of him and/or is out of his mind. It’s a long term task and by then, the teacher would probably be out of a job due to plummeting enrollment rates.
That doesn’t mean anything you’ve written is wrong, it just means that there’s a massive amount of counter momentum.
Comments taken, I have also heard stories about the whole buxiban system being primarily about making money; kids happy=parents happy etc. but I’d feel as though I was letting the kids down if I didn’t use all the educational tools that I have been taught? I guess I’m lucky in public school in the sense that nobody is judging me because the parents aren’t directly paying for my services. It also means that I can teach in a similar way to what I did in the UK, and so far I’ve have had nothing but positive feedback from my co-teachers. It’s not about trying to change the entire system for me, it’s just teaching how I know best, if any of this rubs off onto other teachers/pupils then great for them in my opinion.
You can still teach the same material, have fun and develop independence within a properly planned lesson.
Also, it’s no wonder that the kids have no enthusiasm for learning if they have done x number of years in a passive learning environment. I had so many issues in the UK with kids who can’t be bothered/what’s the point etc. but if you give them the material, and set a challenge at the right level then nine times out of ten they will respond.
Ian: It really depends upon the buxiban. Many of the chain schools have very particular ways of doing things. Hess has its own “Hess Method”, for instance. Deviation is not allowed. Indeed, that’s a large part of the appeal of somewhere like Hess: a student could literally leave a Hess class in one part of the country and go to another Hess class (at the same level) on the other side of the country. You could tell them how far into the lesson they were supposed to be (e.g. 37 minutes) and they could open the right book to the right page and be doing the right activity without even breaking stride. That’s why those places are called McBuxibans.
As for the government system, some may agree with Western methods. Some may disagree. Many won’t care one way or the other. The kids aren’t tested on whether they can communicate in English. The Taiwanese teachers teach to the test. Everything else is irrelevant. Every year I’ve taught in the government system here, I have received a performance bonus. This has, at various times, been decided by: first year Taiwanese teachers, people who don’t have to adhere to the same standards, teachers who have not observed my classes, or sometimes all three! At no time have I ever received feedback on these supposed observations (though I’ve always received high scores). Of course, to go and ask people who are first year teachers, don’t teach to the teaching standards I am supposedly judged by, or haven’t even been in my classes, is the height of absurdity. A lot of people here are just playing around. They’re not really concerned with education.