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slowest teacher you ever had
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Zyzyfer



Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: who, what, where, when, why, how?

PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2003 4:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

They're after Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, aren't they?

Tiger Beer: Yea, homies dig a girl with booty. I can see where they're comin' from, too.
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matko



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: in a world of hurt!

PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2003 4:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

More like Matko Monka's salami hut!! Twisted Evil
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The Bobster



Joined: 15 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2003 5:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The slowest teacher I ever met might be me - I'm pretty good at it now, but it took me a while to get here. Okay, it might be a case of excessive modesty but there have very few among my colleagues that I have not been able to learn something from - sometimes it was quite some time later after we had moved on from each other, true, and sometimes they were coworkers I didn't get on well with at the time, but there have been several times that I've noticed myself doing something in the classroom that I'd learned either from watching another teacher or hearing them talk about what they do in the classroom.

Sometimes it's various things that seem completely contradictory, picked up magpie-like from people whose style and techniques seem wildly opposed to one another - the key is not only knowing what works, but also knowing when it works. Completely divergent methods can have completely different results, depending on various factors inside the classroom.

I have actually taken some courses in pedagogy, but most of what I know about teaching came to me by watching people, and then watching myself as I made a whole lot of mistakes ... much better today than I was 5 years ago, a little better than was only one year ago, and I hope to be just that bit more skilled a year from now also.

Oh, but the VERY worst teacher I ever had was Mr. Bentley, my high school geometry teacher. He was a good one for a future liberal arts major like me because there was never the slightest bit of risk I might actually learn anything from him (though I recall a few things from the textbook). I was actually in that class trying to avoid the harder higher-level algebra, trig and calc classes intended for people on their way to the physical science realms in univ ...

He was about a year and a half from retirement, and he looked and felt much too old to be working any sort of job - and I mean old in the sense of being tired in the spirit, and just hanging on for the pension or something, because I've since that time met many active and energetic seniors 2 or 3 decades older than this guy. He was just terrible, mumbled all the time (who cares as long as he put the homework assignments on the chalkboard) and yes, he'd nod off regularly in class ... a big joke, but a guy that close to retirement can't be fired for any reason without the unions calling down the wrath of god, not unless molested a student or something.

There are days, now, when I berate myself after a killer day in the classroom, when I feel that I was doing everything wrong and there was no way any kid I saw even came close to learning anything ... but I could sit back and smile and know I was better even on that worst of all possible days than Mr. Bentley was for the whole nine months I had to sit in his room.

Ah, but I guess this thread is about who are the poor specimens of esl teacher that we see around us, and what do those critters look like - it's odd when I look back that I can't think of any I actually worked with that fit that description. Plenty of times I've had drinking buddies over here, though, and I shuddered to think what they were like in the classroom, but fortunately I know better than to judge someone's teaching abilities by what they do and say while they are in their cups on Saturday night ...

Zyzyfer :
Quote:
GWoW's little ditty is exactly how the teacher who replaced me at my old workplace speaks. It's awful...

Speaking slowly is something esl teachers are supposed to be able to do, though, right? I've often though that Texans and Southers USians oughtto be just right for it, but then you run into the regional dialect thing ... yep, I'm aware that GWoW was making a little funny about "Slowest Teacher" idea, and I laughed, too. I really did.
Tiger Beer :
Quote:
But on the other hand!! I've noticed some REALLY HOT women in the West!! (usually asian girls incidently), but sometimes they get hooked up with some really goofy looking dud of a guy!!

Every once in a while there is an asian woman who is NOT shallow, NOT solely interested in how well a guy wears his clothes or what kind of car he drives. Not often, maybe, but it happens sometimes that a girl will be intrigued by what she perceives inside a fella's charcter, his mind and maybe even his sense of humor. Yeah, it's hard to figure out when you see it, but when you do you either have to reexamine your set of core beliefs about whether everyone behaves the way you expect them to - or else, um, you might prefer to think that what you are seeing is an individual instance of faulty judgment on the part of someone who "could do better" ...

I was happy that a lot of people wanted to return to the stated thread topic but since one person here is confused about concepts, perhaps a few others are as well - not my job to educate people but I gotta admit that when I get quoted by people who miss the point, I'm gonna respond, just a little, so my views don't get misrepresented ...
TheUrbanMyth
Quote:

Look at yourself Bobster. Talk about character assassination. You were just saying that Corporal shouldn't judge people who she has never met, and yet you go on here and make judgements about her "despite your supposed concern for the young woman."
I made no judgments about Corporal as a person, but I made some strong condemnations of her behavior on the Board - not having met her, that's all I have to go on, but it's all I really care about in this instance anyway. Goodness knows, she is probably a kind and polite and considerate person in other contexts of her life, but for the reasons that I stated, I noted that she has not displayed anything like that here.

Character assassination is when you frame a debate in such a way that as to try to persuade people that someone is a bad person, and that therefore because of the badness that exists in this person, no one should accept their opinions as having validity. It is also called ad hominem argument, and in rhetorical parlance it is considered faulty logic. In a courtroom, it would be the same as a prosecutor telling the jury that the defense attorney enjoys the services of a call girl and that therefore we must convict his client of murder.

Please note that I did not in any way do this in regard to Corporal, certainly not in the post that you quoted. I pointed to specific behaviors that Corporal has engaged in - and I stated that I don't like them. I didn't say she is a bad person (how could I know that?) but when I see someone being rude and obnoxious, I will sometimes point that out and express my displeasure.

As far as being taken seriously, oh well, I guess I wouldn't mind but I'm sure I should cop to taking myself too seriously sometimes ... it's one of my own character flaws, and it's one I've been trying to cure myself of by working with kids. Despite that, I don't mind being accused of inducing people to think once in a while - is that a bad thing?

Oh, yeah, and Myth, please learn to use the quote function, or else just use quotation marks like they taught you in college ... the way it ended up here, hard to tell your silly ideas from my silly ideas. Wink
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Corporal



Joined: 25 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2003 5:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Bobster wrote:

I have actually taken some courses in pedagogy...



No s-h-i-t! Cause speaking for me personally, I couldn't tell just from reading your posts.
Rolling Eyes
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Zyzyfer



Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: who, what, where, when, why, how?

PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2003 6:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Bobster wrote:
Speaking slowly is something esl teachers are supposed to be able to do, though, right? I've often though that Texans and Southers USians oughtto be just right for it, but then you run into the regional dialect thing ... yep, I'm aware that GWoW was making a little funny about "Slowest Teacher" idea, and I laughed, too. I really did.


Not THAT slow. This guy was a Northeastern cat, and I dare say even the kids could predict his next word at a 100% success rate.
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Howard Roark



Joined: 02 Feb 2003
Location: Canada

PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2003 6:26 am    Post subject: no appreciation Reply with quote

i used to work with this ignorant pig from new zealand. he would sit across from me and say very rude and insulting things about the korean staff, who were sitting in the same room!!! i just stared at him kind of wide-eyed and he would just say, "ah, they don't know what the *beep* we're saying". well, i guess they did cause he eventually was fired. he was also fired from his following job.

then i sat across from a fellow canadian who did nothing but play bingo all day long. you could hear him calling bingo all over the hagwan. i secretly referred to the bingo game as "Tom's lesson plan".

then we got another guy after him who did the same thing. bingo all day every day. and he had the nerve to ask the school to "show him the money", that's exactly how he put it. he was there for 2 months.

now i sit across from an aussie guy. can't complain about him. at least i don't have to hear him shouting bingo all over school every day.

there's a lot of crumby teachers in this country. hagwans should show more appreciation for teachers that truly care about their work and put a bit of effort into it. i'll be heading home next week. i'm afraid of what dope they'll find to replace me. when i asked for a pay raise (upon contract renewal) the boss replied (in an 'are you serious?' tone) "there's lots of teachers in korea". nice hey? and i could have been playing bingo all this time instead of teaching well prepared classes. guess what? i'm not renewing that contract!
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Crazy Oz



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Location: Ilsan, Korea

PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2003 6:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bingo! Damn I dislike that course of instruction. To hear it all day very day....aaarrrgggghhhh.
I once had a Korean English "teacher" at one of the hakwaons I was at who used it and candy as her mainstay for education. It was hell try to follow her on a schedule. The kids were all sugared up and Bingofied.
On a more serious note, I had a teacher (an actual qualified teacher) from my home country turn up looking for work a fair while ago. The boss didn't need anyone, but decided to give him a few lessons and some won to go with them, just till the guy found a spot. Anyway, after a few days this guy was noticed to be particularly attracted to soju and makju. He would appear for classes well and truely sloshed. The boss said no more teaching for you, not at my schools, but let him use the accommodation till new work appeared. The room was next to the hakwon, and while I was teaching one afternoon, this guy had taken offense at not being able to sleep because of the noise from the school. He decided to wander into the place in nothing but his jocks, pissed to the eyeballs, and demand that everyone be quiet.
This was the end for that guy. He was ordered to pack, chucked in a cab bound for Itaewon, given the cab fare and food money and got rid of. Worst thing was that he couldn't understand why he got the flick. Now that is slow.


Still crazy, still here.
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TheUrbanMyth



Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired

PostPosted: Fri Mar 21, 2003 11:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

[quote="The Bobster"]ExpatriateJoe :
Quote:
but you weren't really interested in the first place, I'll wager, despite your supposed concern for the young woman. It was just a club to beat him over the head with because you had some left over steam from a similar set of ill-mannered responses you authored on another thread about "Megabombs" or somesuch. There, as here, you felt no responsibility toward general courtesy nor to keeping the thread topic intact, and your main tool of argument was to call your opponent ridiculous names.

[.







I guess you have a hard time remembering what you wrote. This is what I am talking about. You claim that Corporal is merely using the girlfriend issue as a club, despite never having met her. You further claim that Corporal has no right to make comments about Mr.Beckerson, because of never having met him. .


Last edited by TheUrbanMyth on Sun Mar 23, 2003 1:59 am; edited 1 time in total
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William Beckerson
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 22, 2003 7:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

UrbanMyth- Corpral was attacking Beckerson's personal life in an attempt to... well, there didnt seem to be much of a reason for it, outside of an unwilingness to be civilized. Which, I've noticed, is a pretty common theme in Corpral's posts. It pretty much had nothing to do with anything, therefore it was character assassination, pure and simple.

Bobster, on the other hand, did not attack Corpral's personal life. Bobster attacked Corpral's boorish and unpleasant behaviour towards Beckerson, and just about anyone else who falls into her disfavour.

Read what you quoted again. This is what he does.
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The Bobster



Joined: 15 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Sat Mar 22, 2003 9:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'll send you something in pm so we don't have to continue distracting the thread.

One thing I mentioned about being "self-indulgent" - while flame arguments like what happened on this thread can be entertaining, it's usually inconsiderate to the other people who might actually want to post something about the topic. I think at least one person has made that comment on this thread, so we would do well to heed it in the interests of being good neighbors.

But I will respond to something you said here though.
Quote:
Deriding someone's reasons for making a thread and then making up your own reasons why they made this thread is pretty close to character assassination.
First, she didn't make the thread, someone else did. Yeah, I was making assumptions about her motivations regarding ill will toward Beckerson being carried over from another thread argument, but I'll note that she pretty much agreed with that when she responded with "I think it's sad what a hard-on you people all have for Beckerson." Well, I thought it was sort of sad to see someone hijacking a thread topic over some hard feelings with a particular person, and I pointed out how inconsiderate it was to the other people here.

I don't want to do that and that's why I'm not responding in detail right here. Also, I sort of already did respond to it already - and, no, I don't have a hard time remembering what I wrote, especially when it's so easy in this board format to just scroll up and read it again ... check your mailbox, Myth.
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Medic



Joined: 11 Mar 2003

PostPosted: Thu Mar 27, 2003 2:23 am    Post subject: Good Korean Teachers Reply with quote

I teach part time at one of these home school type franchises. The adjuma, or hosewife is usually the teacher, and she teaches anywhere from 10 to 80 pre-school to middle school children. Some of these housewives I have found are outstanding teachers,and I often shake my head in amazement at the ideas they come up with. Some of the teachers did graduate in English, others graduated in other subjects, and still others lived abroad for several years. Some however speak only barely speak English, but for some inexplicable reason they manage to get all of their students speaking very passable English. Now what is this?
I used to do my rounds with Korean staff working with the company, and they used to shake their heads in amazement as well at poor English speaking teachers motivating their students and teaching their students well.
I would rather not name the franchise, but I continue to work with it, because I can do my part in Korean now rather than English which kind of goes against the grain, and also out of respect for the dedicated Korean English teachers who never stop trying to find novel and newer ways to get English across to their kids.
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