Job Discussion Forums

[Salvatore]

While I agree with most of what Mr. Buttskins wrote, especially the written exam for an Oral English class, I disagree with this -

"Teachers who are generally bitter and take it out on the students. These are the teachers who get off to yelling at their students or giving extremely difficult but pedagogically useless assignments. A red flag for this category is if a teacher refers to his students as 'stupid'."

Some of the students are stupid. I recently had a student ask me when she would have to take a written exam for our Oral English class!

It's not her fault. It is the systems fault.

On the other hand, I think a multiple-choice, pre-Final Oral Exam about the vocabulary covered in class that semester is a good idea.

[wangdaning]

Agreed, I am not bitter but often find myself asking, what the hell?

Students can be quite out there. Coming to exam time I have had many ask about what the exams are. Seriously? Every teacher mapped it out the first day of class and they have a handbook with all the info. I refuse to answer anymore, I am tired of it.

As far as percentage of good/bad goes, who knows? I can only say a bad teacher is one who does not want to learn/get better.

[mat chen]

A good teacher consentrates on their job and doesn't comment on the work of other teachers.

[Non Sequitur]

Some posters including this one, have positions of responsibility and are actually evaluating FTs as part of their job.
An early poster on this thread mentions sensitivity to criticism by poor FTs.
'Impervious' is the word I would use. And 'criticism' is too pejorative. Just simply observing the Teacher Talk Time in an Oral English class should be less that 90% got me a blank stare.
Another point is that the salaries mentioned assume that the FT in question would get a job of any kind back home. Many would not and would have difficulty even in good economic times.

[Guerciotti]

[Salvatore]

In reference to the above - I guess the Administration is stupid if they require a written exam for an Oral English class.

Monkey see, Monkey do.

As for the students - I realize most really do not want to take the class, but, the aforementioned stupid administration requires them to. On the other hand, I would think that after 5 to 10 years of English study all of the students could recognize a banana.

A lot of it has to do with what sort of school you work at. Not everyone works with the elite. I once brought some fruit to class and perhaps 2 or 3 could say "banana". I'm sure they knew the Chinese word.

Since this is the 1st year that this school has had foreign teachers, I know your reference to previous written exams does not apply. Quite frankly - I began class by saying and writing on the board "No Final Exam". She asked her question after class. She was one of the many who never attend class but came last week because in the previous class I said - "Next class = Final Oral Exam".

The funny part about it is this - I said "Ok, here's your Final Oral Exam. What's your name?" Her friend had to translate my question.

99% of my students are stupid when it comes to Speaking English. I'll give them credit though because I definitely can't read Chinese. 4th tier private college. Does Gao Kao ring a bell?

Quite frankly, my spoken Chinese is better than their spoken English even though I haven't taken Chinese classes for 5+ years.

Can you say 27, 153 or 1578 in Chinese? Most of my "university/college" students can't say those numbers in English. I think they have the ABC's down though.

The system.

[MisterButtkins]

[mat chen]

So they are stupid. You still have a job to do.

[clownshow]

[Salvatore]

Maybe so, but, when you are being paid to get the kids talking after 5+ years of English study and find yourself "teaching" numbers and fruit, it can be a bit discouraging.

Last week a student said I was a bad teacher because I didn't play games, sing songs and watch movies!!

Now, I'm the greatest. Michael Jackson's "This it It" was a hit. Soon we'll watch "Superman Returns" and then I won't return to this school.

Just 32 days to go. 13 in class!!

[Halapo]

Not sure how common this is, but my high school groups students on their grades the year before. Meaning that one of my classes is full of the students with the top average grades, and another is not. This is only for their first year ( second/third year they are grouped by what subject they will major in), but the youngest subject teachers almost always end up with the "dull/worst/slow" classes ( Chinese teachers words, not mine. I rather like the one of my "dull" classes, they have the strangest questions and they ASK for help. The "top" students have a very hard time admitting they don't understand something in front of the class ), and the senior most teachers get the top class. Important when teacher bonus is determined by student performance.

As the FT, I am the only person who teaches them all, so I can see the gap better then my co-workers, until after final grades get posted anyway.

So there just might be a class full of poor students, its not always your imagination.

I would guess this is not a probable in University/College.

[dog backwards]

What happened to the original question asking what percentage of teachers are "good"?

[rap60]

I love this thread. My wife and I are taking up our first teaching jobs in September. I want to do well. i want to be a great teacher, so does my wife. My guess is that there's many FT's who start out with this attitude and for whatever reason get discouraged (rightly or wrongly). I'm not sure having a BA or MA in anything has a lot to do with the quality of teaching you will give to a class. We have just walked away from a job offer in a University, one of the reasons was that they wanted me to teach english at a level neither of us are competent or confident to teach at. We emailed back and forth to an FT at the Uni who had been there for 8 years, he told us that as long as the kids were kept happy and you turned up and didnt cause issues, you never saw a supervisor or got held accountable for anything. We have taken jobs in a 'rich kids' school, jobs that we hope to enjoy and do our best at. I know what I say next will possibly put me in the 'wowser, puritan' catergory but (I can only speak for Australian TESOL course sites) one huge school/academy actively promotes it's TESOL courses by stating that not only will you be able to teach in China but you will be able to get smashed every night and every weekend if you want to. I was on their mailing list for months EVERY email sent out was booze oriented. One email was devoted to tips on how to wing it through a lesson with a hangover. This school is not alone in emphasising cheap booze as a draw card for teaching in China. So maybe the way TESOL is promoted should be regulated in the home countries?. We both enjoy the grape and odd beer but it's not our focus in life. The 'Academy' we gained TESOL certification through didn't push the booze aspect, but they did (I think) give a false impression of life-style in China, we were told that we would be able to afford a cook and cleaner every day and eat out every day for all meals on our 4500rmb per month. We haven't moved to China yet, but simple research tells me the claims are rubbish, even on the 12,600rmb we will bring in per month (with apartment paid for). Seems to me (a total novice) that the FT 'industry' has it's charlatans as much as any other industry, but the majority of FT's need job satisfaction and fulfillment as much as any man/woman in any other industry, maybe that puts me in the 'naive' catergory. Anyhow, i'm looking forward to the China experience.