What are the characteristics of good teachers?
March 5, 2011 by Cintia Stella
I thought it would be interesting to answer this question now that I’m embarking on a teaching career, and compare it with my answers in a few years time.
What are the characteristics of good teachers? This is the opinion of a teacher-to-be:
Good teachers:
• are creative
• have a sense of humor
• have a positive outlook on life
• understand that they don’t know everything nor do they attempt to act like they do
• have faith in their students and help them to build faith in themselves
• are aware of the huge responsibility they have as role models
• aim at getting the most out of their students
• understand that each student is unique
• enjoy learning and applying the new knowledge they acquire in their teaching
• are flexible and open minded
• know the subject matter they teach and know a bit of everything, too
• add value to the students and colleagues
• are passionate about what they do
• create a positive learning environment
• balance their work and personal life effectively
• are consistent, generous, patient and caring
• encourage students to follow their passion
• reflect on themselves and their surroundings
• try to improve a bit everyday
• keep themselves updated
• set realistic goals for students
• are willing to try new things that may boost students’ learning and motivation
• share their experiences with other teachers
Surely, the list goes on. It would be great to hear from other teachers, both new and seasoned ones!
Posted in teaching | Tagged good teacher, opinion
Sabtu, 23 April 2011
Turning Disappointment Into Opportunity
Turning Disappointment Into Opportunity
March 16, 2011 by Cintia Stella
I spent the whole weekend planning a lesson. I designed several activities, plus two extra ones just in case. I rehearsed the lesson at home and pictured how much the students and I would enjoy in class. I made 20 copies of each worksheet and headed to the language institute on Monday morning.
This was an optional reinforcement class so it was not possible to know in advance how many students would attend. For some reason (maybe because it was what I hoped for), I expected that there would be around 15.
The class started at 8.45 am. 10 minutes early, I was already in the classroom, waiting anxiously for the crowd of students to arrive. The bell rang, and the classroom was empty. A few minutes later, a student arrived. Her name was Carmen and she was very shy. I told her that we would wait for 5 more minutes in case other students were on their way. Time passed but the door did not open.
It was Carmen and me, just the two of us, together for 90 minutes. A jumble of thoughts ran through my mind simultaneously:
• I will run out of activities very quickly. Should I play Hangman when that happens?
• Does Carmen feel uncomfortable because she is the only student?
• How am I going to teach only one person?
• Does she regret coming to class?
• I need more students to play the game that I have planned. What will I do?
• I’m so disappointed. I’ve worked so hard hoping that there would be more students!
This last thought struck me like a thunderbolt. One person is as important as fifteen or more! I was focusing on myself instead of focusing on my student. Rather than being disappointed, this was a fantastic opportunity in my teaching career.
I decided to change plans. Instead of doing the activities I had planned, I started asking Carmen about herself and I told her a bit about myself too, so that we could get to know each other. I could see how her body language changed as we held a conversation. She began to smile and turned into a totally different person from the one that had entered the classroom a short time before.
She was eager to learn all that she could and welcomed every task with genuine enthusiasm. I enjoyed teaching her, and she enjoyed learning. Or I should say, I enjoyed both teaching and learning, because I learned so much from this young girl. She taught me that teaching is wonderful, regardless how many students you have, and that every soul in the classroom is important. She made me realize that it is not about how much I work to plan a lesson, but about how much value I can add to a person’s learning experience.
Those 90 minutes passed really fast and when the class was over, I was sad to see Carmen leave.
Posted in learning, teacher training, teaching | Tagged learning, opportunity, student, teacher training, teaching
March 16, 2011 by Cintia Stella
I spent the whole weekend planning a lesson. I designed several activities, plus two extra ones just in case. I rehearsed the lesson at home and pictured how much the students and I would enjoy in class. I made 20 copies of each worksheet and headed to the language institute on Monday morning.
This was an optional reinforcement class so it was not possible to know in advance how many students would attend. For some reason (maybe because it was what I hoped for), I expected that there would be around 15.
The class started at 8.45 am. 10 minutes early, I was already in the classroom, waiting anxiously for the crowd of students to arrive. The bell rang, and the classroom was empty. A few minutes later, a student arrived. Her name was Carmen and she was very shy. I told her that we would wait for 5 more minutes in case other students were on their way. Time passed but the door did not open.
It was Carmen and me, just the two of us, together for 90 minutes. A jumble of thoughts ran through my mind simultaneously:
• I will run out of activities very quickly. Should I play Hangman when that happens?
• Does Carmen feel uncomfortable because she is the only student?
• How am I going to teach only one person?
• Does she regret coming to class?
• I need more students to play the game that I have planned. What will I do?
• I’m so disappointed. I’ve worked so hard hoping that there would be more students!
This last thought struck me like a thunderbolt. One person is as important as fifteen or more! I was focusing on myself instead of focusing on my student. Rather than being disappointed, this was a fantastic opportunity in my teaching career.
I decided to change plans. Instead of doing the activities I had planned, I started asking Carmen about herself and I told her a bit about myself too, so that we could get to know each other. I could see how her body language changed as we held a conversation. She began to smile and turned into a totally different person from the one that had entered the classroom a short time before.
She was eager to learn all that she could and welcomed every task with genuine enthusiasm. I enjoyed teaching her, and she enjoyed learning. Or I should say, I enjoyed both teaching and learning, because I learned so much from this young girl. She taught me that teaching is wonderful, regardless how many students you have, and that every soul in the classroom is important. She made me realize that it is not about how much I work to plan a lesson, but about how much value I can add to a person’s learning experience.
Those 90 minutes passed really fast and when the class was over, I was sad to see Carmen leave.
Posted in learning, teacher training, teaching | Tagged learning, opportunity, student, teacher training, teaching
Teaching Practice: Give Students Power
Teaching Practice: Give Students Power
April 11, 2011 by Cintia Stella
Today was the penultimate teaching practice in the teacher training course. Same as last month, it was a reinforcement class for Basic level students who had just learned the Present Continuous tense, and despite the fact that I could have used the same activities that I had used in March, I wanted to plan new ones. I knew that my fellow trainees, who had done the teaching practice the day before, had given the learners a good amount of written activities such as Listen & fill in the gaps, Read the questions & answer and Write a Postcard so I decided to plan different ones.
This is one of the activities that we did and that worked very well:
- Picture dictation: I told the students that I would read a description so they had to listen carefully and draw what they heard. I anticipated that some of them might not feel comfortable due to their lack of artistic skills, so I explained that the quality of the drawing didn’t matter, as long as we could all understand what they had meant to draw. I gave them an example, by making some drawings on the board, and that was clear enough. You can look at the photo below and you’ll notice that I’m not very artistic (or should I say that I am not artistic at all?):
The description I read was about people on the beach, and I included some more challenging sentences such as: An old man is NOT reading the newspaper, he is smoking a pipe. Two tall women are walking but ONLY ONE of them is wearing a skirt.
I allowed plenty of time between sentences for them to draw and I noticed they were really enjoying the activity. When I finished the dictation, I asked the students to get in pairs and show their drawings to their partners. Finally, I asked if anyone wanted to copy the drawing on the board, and I quickly had 3 volunteers. Here they are:
I didn’t expect to do anything else with this activity after the students had copied their drawings on the board, but two of them had drawn some objects which they didn’t know how to say in English: to represent an old man, one of the students had drawn a person sitting in a wheelchair while another student had drawn a man with a walking cane. I gave them the English word for both objects and elicited some sentences to make sure that they had understood.
Some of the students asked me if they could do a similar activity because they had liked it a lot, so I asked the whole class if they agreed and they all did. I didn’t have another description to dictate, so I suggested that they did the whole activity by themselves. I told them to get into 2 groups, and that they would have to write the description that the other group had to draw.
I wasn’t sure if students at this level would be able to work independently, but they did such a wonderful job! I was there in case they needed me, but I didn’t interfere.
I enjoyed the idea of giving students power. During the teacher training course I’d read about this but honestly, I didn’t know how to put it into practice. Finally, without even planning it, I did, and I feel that I’ve made a good step forward as a teacher.
Posted in activity, learning, teacher training, teaching | Tagged activity, give students power, picture dictation, teaching practice
April 11, 2011 by Cintia Stella
Today was the penultimate teaching practice in the teacher training course. Same as last month, it was a reinforcement class for Basic level students who had just learned the Present Continuous tense, and despite the fact that I could have used the same activities that I had used in March, I wanted to plan new ones. I knew that my fellow trainees, who had done the teaching practice the day before, had given the learners a good amount of written activities such as Listen & fill in the gaps, Read the questions & answer and Write a Postcard so I decided to plan different ones.
This is one of the activities that we did and that worked very well:
- Picture dictation: I told the students that I would read a description so they had to listen carefully and draw what they heard. I anticipated that some of them might not feel comfortable due to their lack of artistic skills, so I explained that the quality of the drawing didn’t matter, as long as we could all understand what they had meant to draw. I gave them an example, by making some drawings on the board, and that was clear enough. You can look at the photo below and you’ll notice that I’m not very artistic (or should I say that I am not artistic at all?):
The description I read was about people on the beach, and I included some more challenging sentences such as: An old man is NOT reading the newspaper, he is smoking a pipe. Two tall women are walking but ONLY ONE of them is wearing a skirt.
I allowed plenty of time between sentences for them to draw and I noticed they were really enjoying the activity. When I finished the dictation, I asked the students to get in pairs and show their drawings to their partners. Finally, I asked if anyone wanted to copy the drawing on the board, and I quickly had 3 volunteers. Here they are:
I didn’t expect to do anything else with this activity after the students had copied their drawings on the board, but two of them had drawn some objects which they didn’t know how to say in English: to represent an old man, one of the students had drawn a person sitting in a wheelchair while another student had drawn a man with a walking cane. I gave them the English word for both objects and elicited some sentences to make sure that they had understood.
Some of the students asked me if they could do a similar activity because they had liked it a lot, so I asked the whole class if they agreed and they all did. I didn’t have another description to dictate, so I suggested that they did the whole activity by themselves. I told them to get into 2 groups, and that they would have to write the description that the other group had to draw.
I wasn’t sure if students at this level would be able to work independently, but they did such a wonderful job! I was there in case they needed me, but I didn’t interfere.
I enjoyed the idea of giving students power. During the teacher training course I’d read about this but honestly, I didn’t know how to put it into practice. Finally, without even planning it, I did, and I feel that I’ve made a good step forward as a teacher.
Posted in activity, learning, teacher training, teaching | Tagged activity, give students power, picture dictation, teaching practice
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