Job Discussion Forums

[Moore]

What is the worst type of teacher to take over a class from, or are you that person and why?

[dmb]

One that encourages 'bad' learning strategies. For example, always using the students' L1 in the classroom. However as 'good' teachers we should easily rectify this.

[Kaspar Hauser]

A British teacher who tells his or her students that Americans speak "bad" English. It's happened to me several times. Really professional and really stupid too. Apparently it never dawns on these teachers that students repeat things. What goes around comes around.

[valley_girl]

It's doubtful that you are your students' first English teacher (although entirely possible), so most likely you are 'following' another teacher whenever you have new students.

All teachers have different teaching styles, philosophies and methods. It's always an adjustment for students to have a new teacher. It's always an adjustment for a teacher to have new students. Sometimes, teachers of English - like those on this forum - disagree on basic grammar points, definitions, pronunciation (which varies greatly, of course), etc., so it can be rather confusing for students and exasperating for a new teacher. When I was teaching in Taiwan, the Taiwanese teachers insisted on teaching that the correct pronunciation of "an" was "un" (with a very pronounced "UH" sound) and it sounded absolutely ridiculous. Un apple. Un elephant. We Canuck teachers (four of us) kept trying to convince them that it is really pronounched AN and that only when you are speaking quickly does it sound like a schwa (which is not a stressed syllable). I mean, hadn't they ever seen Sesame Street? "The man in the tan van with the golden AN."

Quite often in class, I will hear, "But my teacher in [Country X] said..." I've learned to arm myself with appropriate responses. Students need to know why they should believe us when we tell them something and not just 'I speak English so I'm right and your other teacher is wrong'. With an explanation and examples, they usually come around to seeing why I think they might have gotten inaccurate or incomplete information (I never say "wrong"). Besides, no one is perfect and English is a complicated language to teach - even for, or perhaps especially for, native speakers.

[Glenski]

Someone openly prejudiced to his students about your nationality and ability, and who has a terrific rapport with them.

Following lazy teachers is easy. You have empty space in your students' head to fill. Unless, of course, he has made THEM lazy, too.

[some waygug-in]

Following a teacher who let the students run wild. His only strategy of classroom management was to throw handfuls of candy into the center of the room and watch them kill each other for it.

[eslHQ]

following a bad teacher can be rectified, like dmb said, within a couple of weeks. i find the flip side harder to handle.

for example:
i visited one of my old classes that i had worked so hard with to take L1 out of the classroom. But 2 months later the teacher who replaced me was speaking the local language and all the students had regressed back to L1.

[halif]

I hate taking over a class of teenagers from a teacher who was both incredibly popular and also slack with the rules. It makes for some difficult lessons in the beginning while the students adjust to my style (which isn't particularly strict anyway) and I have to restrain myself from wanting to punch them in the face when they say "but X didn't make us do that!" or "X always did it this way!".

[gaijinalways]

I once took over a class from someone in a special program where we had students 4x a week.

He..

didn't use the book.
constantly took students on 'field trips' outside the classroom'.
had lessons with no discernable structure.
spoke Japanese over 50% of the time (even though this program was supposed to be an only English program).
only played game-like activities often requiring no or little language use
allowed free conversation for entire periods (minus the field trip time)
didn't ask students to stop speaking Japanese (again, this program asked students to use Japanese as little as possible)

So he got paid, practiced his Japanese, and then he tells me I might need to review what he didn't teach!"

[Will.]

One who does it by the book, the set text I mean, and all that has happened was that pages were turned according to a toimetable of achievement pre-ordained by the powers that be and the teacher was so unaware of learner need or so inexperienced not to have experimented with any work that was "off the book"

[Deconstructor]

It doesn't matter who came before me because I'm gonna do my thing and the students are gonna love it.

If you're a great teacher it really doesn't matter who you'll be replacing because the students will soon realize your great efforts. Replace a mediocre teacher and you'll shine; replace a great teacher and you'll reinforce the idea that there truly are great teachers out there.

On the other hand, if you suck as a teacher there is no way you can hide your true dreary colors.

[Boy Wonder]

Teaching Italian men I could see I wasn't as popular as the blue eyed, voluptuous, blonde haired English Rose who taught them before me.

After 6 months teaching this class, on my departure, when I told them my replacement would be young and female the celebrations were worthy of a winning goal in the 90th minute!!!

And I do not blame them.....I'd do the same in their shoes!!!

[Brooks]

I know a teacher that did the grammar-translation method in class.
Every class there would be a quiz and the students had to translate ten Japanese words into English.
Once he even gave them different sentences in English and had them write Japanese translations on the board.

I think it is good for the students to know that the EFL teacher studies the L1 but it is the job of the teacher to teach English, not to improve his Japanese. Students need to hear English. Not too many Japanese teachers will speak English in class.

Another teacher was just useless. At least he used English in class (because he couldn`t even write his name in Japanese) but he was never strict and showed videos all the time because he couldn`t bother to prepare (especially for classes that started before nine a.m.).
So after he left I had to take over for him for a time. Turns out they were still in chapter 2 even though he "taught" them for four months.
I was "strict" because I actually wanted to use the book and wanted them to learn!

Another teacher used to push his religious agenda and liked to have discussion classes on moral issues, abortion, etc.

One teacher my wife worked with would often end class thirty minutes early. Don`t know what, if any excuses, he made.

[merlin]

It only rubs me the wrong way when I'm expected to BE that person or CHANGE into that previous teacher. Then it would be more an issue with the management than students.

It is very sad though, to follow a teacher who's supposed to be preparing a class for a mega exam just two months before they are to take it only to realize that their charismatic and oh so kinaesthetic not to mention attractive teacher just wasn't qualified. the school was shorthanded so they made do with what they had ...

I see it in the students' eyes - they thought they were learning english and maybe they were to some degree but they realize too late that they'd been had ... so many months and so little accomplished.

I don't like following such a teacher because I feel so sorry for the students when they realize what's happened.

[Moore]

Funnily enough, a few days after putting up this topic, I've just been asked to replace a good mate of mine after students complained about him - truly a situation which sucks: either he was a bad teacher, which I find very hard to believe, or the students are whingers who blame him for their lack of progress... either way, pretty much lose-lose.