Job Discussion Forums

coffeedrinker · Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 149

It's hard to be objective about what makes "the best" in one's own profession...I think being responsive to each particular group and each situation is important.

Plus - what is "the best"? The class students enjoy the most? The one students learn the most from? The teacher with a difficult situation who does "okay" or the teacher with an easy one who does "pretty good"?

Looking back at my own teachers who I would consider "the best" - a couple really made students work...ie responding to a question with "I don't know, what do you think?" which was very frustrating at the time. I think others encouraged students to think but also came up with examples of what they were looking for.

While I agree with the fairly obvious idea that a piece of paper doesn't make someone a good teacher...a degree or certificate is not "just" a piece of paper. If it is "done" right, it can actually be an indication of a person's performance, and not just the fact that they sat through a few classes. I guess the problem is sorting out which pieces of paper are only that, and which are something more.

william wallace · Joined: 14 May 2003 Posts: 2869 Location: in between

Dear Kent,
Yepper, that is one major element of ESL, and one that makes ME scratch my head. If I'm going to be a semi-salesperson, why not go the whole bit and become a salesperson through and through.

merlin · Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 3:12 am Post subject:

coffeedrinker · Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 149

Again...it depends what paper you are talking about. Do you feel sure that every university program is a "mass production line"? Is a delta, where there are - what, 12 trainees per group and two tutors and is externally assessed - a mass production line?

I disagree that that is an accurate way to describe them.

I agree that a person can be without a degree and still be a good teacher - but acknowledging that doesn't mean admitting that degrees and certificates are useless. It doesn't have to be one or the other.

The problem in my mind is that some certificates and probably some degrees - I don't know which ones - ARE just "pay the money and get it", and the presence of these means that it's hard to know with certainty that the other ones are good - even when they are.

In any case, I didn't tie some certain degree or certificate to the best teacher ... but I think it's just common sense that additional training or development can often help people become better.

ktodba · Joined: 02 Aug 2006 Posts: 54 Location: UK

Speaking as a teacher then what makes someone the best are those unteachable things 'talent' and 'caring' which cannot be shown by a certificate although I always feel that someone who has a certificate is demonstrating the third quality I feel to be important, namely 'commitment'. Ultimately it comes down to waht the students learn.

When I had to recruit for schools in the past I always looked for the above but also had to be realistic and have a major criteria of 'being able to work in this school' meaning match personalities with current staff and frankly at times accept working conditions that were not ideal and sometimes working to keep students happy and coming back rather than ensuring they learned.

I should say though that the most successful teachers for retaining students were generally those whose students learned the most and whose parents could see were learning. Being able to make the parents or whoever was paying for the course think they were a good teacher also helped from a business point of view.

It all depends on your perspective and what's important to you as a perosn at the end of the day.

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

merlin · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:35 pm Post subject:

I'd say employment history says more about commitment than a degree. You don't know how many times a person changed degree programs enroute to getting a degree unless you read every transcript carefully. But if you see a lot of 4 month non-summer gigs on an employment history or even blank spaces, you know something that won't show on a diploma.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 2:55 pm Post subject:

Employment history is a valuable one-

How many employers check the veracity of this one, though? Just because it's on the resume, doesn't mean it's true...

Best,
Justin

nomadder · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 5:29 pm Post subject:

Merlin: Your thoughts are exactly the same as mine. Scary. Re:your last post-who hasn't met the student for life who works a few years(months)and then decides they want to do something different.

I got some "training" once from a head teacher who had done CELTA and frankly I wasn't impressed. Like rote learning. Formulaic.

I think an important thing is to be attuned to your students' needs. It is a relationship.

By chance recently I was happy to see a school in Spain that really stressed that the teacher be friendly, personable, approachable etc. But they still wanted the dang CELTA. Rolling Eyes

Another thing this sorting does is dismiss those without the economic means to get something like a CELTA which you could say is at least $5000 for one month if you factor in lost income, expenses etc.

Of course it's not only this field where people have to spend a fortune before getting a crack at a job. Give me internships, apprenticeships etc. anyday. Seems it would be good for both parties. Something like 1 or 2 weeks unpaid training(with lodging) might be nice/fair.

In another field-acting I saw an interview with a British actress who financially helps out young actors. She says there's no way they could do it otherwise and it didn't used to be like that.

I would say there is an unfair strain put upon our generation. No helping hands to up and comers-companies, schools, etc. making more and more money from everyone. That explains why half the people are out there doing TEFL(paying off student loans &/or can't or won't pay for another degree to get a job back home).