teacher

In the second meeting I presented about teacher, especially a good English teacher. I asked the students some questions about what a teacher means, who their most favorite teacher is, why they like that teacher, and whether or not they want to be teachers.




It was not surprising thing anymore that I found, for example, only 5 students out of 17 students who want to be teachers or 8 students out of 21 students who want to be teachers. In all the TEFL classes I teach, the percentage of the students who want to be teachers iss low. I really hope that the number of the students who want to be teachers increase at the end of the course. I really hope that smart students want to be teacher because this nation needs smart and motivated people who care about education to be the teachers for the better next generation.



Since this was the first time I gave the material, this also the first time I distributed stickers. Although I told the students that they need to collect at least 10 stickers to get points, they didn't dare to speak. I told them that they could ask me questions, respond my explanation or answer my questions to get the stickers, but many of them kept on silent. I had to work hard to make them speak. I don't know what makes them afraid of. Is it too scary for them just to say a simple sentence, or do I make them scary? I know I have to change their attitude in learning. It's a real challenge for me.



Anyway, here is the summary of the class.

Before the class began, I arranged the chairs. I managed them to work in group. I applied think pair share cooperative learning structure for this topic. One by one the students entered the classroom. They looked a bit confused of where to sit. I said that they could sit anywhere as they wish. It was not necessarily sitting with the same group members (the group where they belong).

After everyone sat, I began the class. First I asked the students to give opinion about the statement saying "A teacher shape the future one child at a time". They thought by themselves first, then brainstorm with pair. After a few minutes, I invited each group to share with the class.



Then I asked them to watch the movie about Miss Thompson and her student, Teddy. To make the movie more dramatic, I asked them to keep silent and I turned off the lamp. When the video ended, I turned the lamp again. I saw tears in a few students' eyes. I knew that for those who understood they would be touched with the movie. Again, I asked the students to give comments about the movie. From the comments they gave, they concluded that 'a teacher who cares will give impact to a student's future life'



The next step was I asked them to go to the past and dig up the memory of their past time at school. I gave them a question: "Who is your favorite teacher, and why you like him/her?" I asked them to think about the moment when they were in elementary school, junior high school, and senior high schoo. I added that they should mention the subject which the teacher taught, not the name of the teacher. I got many answers for this, but from all the subjects they mentioned the most frequent ones were English teacher. Then I said that they entered the EESP somehow is because the impact that the English teacher gave. They might deny it, but the resul of the simple survey that I did to them showed it.



The next question they should answer was why they like that teacher. The students' answers were almost the same. They like the teacher who:

- is caring and loving

- has good sense of humor

- is wise and friendly

- is smart and clever

- can entertain the students

- is attractive and can make the class alive



Before going to the next material about the roles a good English teacher shoud play, I asked them 'what is English teacher?' Again, the students were confused because I gave them three alternative answers. I didn't mean to make them confused. I just want to ask them to think.



From Harmer and Doff I learn that there are some roles the teacher should play as follows:



-A controller

-An organizer

-An assessor

-A prompter

-A participant

-A resource

-An observer

-A tutor

-A performer

-An entertainer



What makes a good teacher?



-A good teacher cares more about his/her students’ learning than he/she does about his/her teaching

-If the teacher is indeed wise, he/she does not bid you enter the house of his/her wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind



What makes an effective teacher?



-Enthuse students

-Treat students as individuals

-Know the subject

-Be loving and warm

-Teach for learning

-Empathize with students

-Relate to parents and the wider community

-Be firm, fair and flexible

-Be organized

-Prepare students for life

-Manage the classroom

-Have high self-esteem

-Have a sense of humor

-Be a total person with a full life outside school

-Take risk to be a peak performer

-Be an agent of change



I really hope that the students possess some of those characters.

Amin.



You are all did good job this week.