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thegadfly
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
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 Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 2:44 am Post subject: |
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| edwardcatflap wrote: |
As for this part, I'm not sure what the problem is here. I observe and assess a lot of teachers and have never found it difficult to say exactly what is missing from a teacher's performance that makes them ineffective or what qualities they have that make them special. There's nothing mysterious about it as you seem to be implying. |
Then impart some of your wisdom to me, as I have asked. I am not talking about glaring omissions -- I am talking about a clearly prepared lesson by a person with clear knowledge of the subject, with clear educational goals, clearly within the range of student abilities, delivered in a clear voice and at a pace in keeping with the students' ability to comprehend, by a teacher who is clearly trying to form some sort of rapport with the students, in a classroom environment that is safe and encouraging...and yet the teacher consistenly bombs in the classes (and by bomb, I mean that students are dissatisfied with the lessons in many ways, and show this dissatisfaction by nebulous complaints of having a "boring" teacher, and then by leaving, sometimes en masse).
What would you intuit is the problem here? The suggestion to play more games never solves the problem of being labelled "boring," and there are several teachers that are considered "interesting" and "fun" that never play games, period. Interesting and fun do not equate to games at this school, and actually serve to make a teacher LESS popular here...so please, enlighten me as to what the deficiency is in the teacher I have described.... |
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edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 2:52 am Post subject: |
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| Fortunately I'm not responsible for student numbers or pandering to the whims of kids - I assume you were talking about young learners. I observe teachers and assess individual lessons. I didn't see the one you mentioned so can't really comment. |
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thegadfly
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 3:03 am Post subject: |
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Edwardcatflap,
Wow -- pandering to the whims of kids?! Defensive much? You must be from the school of thought that whatever you do in the classroom must be the right approach, and if no one learns anything, and they all leave, it is because of some deficiency on their part, and has nothing to do with you?
The clearest metric of teacher performance is student retention, in a situation where students are free to leave and dissatisfied parents are free to move them elsewhere. In a school where the goal is simply to entertain students, then retention is based on how entertaining the teacher is....
However, in a school with a strong academic goal, then it is the teacher's job to promote a strong academic performance from the students, and it is what the parents expect and prefer. In that case, if the students are learning and improving, the parents will keep them there, despite any other factors (including the "no fun" and "boring" complaints). It is the school's job to get kids into the class in the first place. It is the teacher's job to give them something in which they perceive value once they are in there...though I suppose if the teacher sees no value in his or her own teaching, there is no way to make the students see it.
I guess I have been wasting my time trying to engage you in a serious discussion -- my bad! I'll be more careful in the future...possibly. |
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edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 3:51 am Post subject: |
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| Didn't mean to come across as defensive and wasn't having a go either. You yourself said the teachers you watched were perfect in every regard so if there is a problem with the classes, that only leaves the kids doesn't it? Kids sometimes take against people for no or little reason, hence the comment about having to pander to their whims. |
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jrwhite82
Joined: 22 May 2010
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| Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 4:02 am Post subject: |
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What does this teacher do to connect with the kids? Does he have any kind of sense of humor? Is he kind? Does he go out of his way to get to know them. And is he genuine about it and not just going through the motions?
I'm not at all saying that you should strive to be cool and be a friend with the students. In fact, I think you should absolutely not do that.
What I'm saying is that you should strive to take a personal interest in each student both in and out of your class. Cracking a few jokes doesn't hurt either (just make sure it's not a student's expense).
So if this teacher's content knowledge, planning, pacing, delivery, management ability, personality and relationships with the students are all solid. It can only be two things.
1: The content (for lack of a better word) sucks.
2: The children are whining and complaining in an effort to take control of the class. I don't think children would do this maliciously towards a teacher who is doing everything right. So they are probably doing it because of reason 1 anyway.
Try changing the curriculum. |
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Quack Addict
Joined: 31 Mar 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 4:34 am Post subject: |
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| edwardcatflap wrote: |
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You don't feel comfortable speaking in front of adults?
You couldn't even do this in front of 3 people? WOW.
And you want to be an English teacher in South Korea? Sorry but if you couldn't do a mock class in front of your interviewers someone else deserves that job.
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That's ridiculous. As others have said, teaching has everything to do with preparation and knowing about your students. This sounds like a gimicky stunt thought up by amateurs who don't know how to conduct a proper interview. If they made a teaching qualification with observed lessons part of the criteria for applying for the job in the first place they wouldn't have to come up with lame requests like this one to get the right person. |
+1 |
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ontheway
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Location: Somewhere under the rainbow...
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| Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 8:32 am Post subject: |
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| jrwhite82 wrote: |
My mentor teacher in my MA program would literally sweat bullets ... when he had to present things to other adults,. |
So, you could truly say he was a high caliber teacher.
He must have had really big pores. |
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olsanairbase
Joined: 30 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 8:35 am Post subject: Re: Mock Class at a Job Interview? |
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| InDaGu wrote: |
I interviewed for a new job the other day, and things were going great. Then, out of the blue, they hand me a text book and ask me to do a 5 minute demonstration of a class over the material. Keep in mind, I've never seen this book and it's a different age group than what I've been teaching.
I don't think this part of the interview went so well, because I tend to get uncomfortable speaking in front of adults (I had to do this in front of 3 interviewers). But the rest of the interview was really positive. Has anyone else been asked to do this? |
So is mock class somehow related to mock trial? (sarcasm off) |
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jrwhite82
Joined: 22 May 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 3:17 am Post subject: |
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| ontheway wrote: |
| jrwhite82 wrote: |
My mentor teacher in my MA program would literally sweat bullets ... when he had to present things to other adults,. |
So, you could truly say he was a high caliber teacher.
He must have had really big pores. |
Are you having some kind of personal crusade against people who say literally? I think adding literally before a hyperbole makes it MORE of a hyperbole. So that's my defense, and I'm sticking to it.
Nice pun btw!  |
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languistic
Joined: 25 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 3:45 am Post subject: |
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| jrwhite82 wrote: |
| ontheway wrote: |
| jrwhite82 wrote: |
My mentor teacher in my MA program would literally sweat bullets ... when he had to present things to other adults,. |
So, you could truly say he was a high caliber teacher.
He must have had really big pores. |
Are you having some kind of personal crusade against people who say literally? I think adding literally before a hyperbole makes it MORE of a hyperbole. So that's my defense, and I'm sticking to it.
Nice pun btw! |
"sweat bullets" is not hyperbole and using "literally" means that something, though perhaps seemingly surreal or fantastic, actually took place. Far from hyperbole; using them together means that actual bullets came from his pores as sweat would. Though we all know what he is implying, it is incorrect usage, even from a figurative point of view. I have posted about this a million times already. |
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jrwhite82
Joined: 22 May 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 3:56 am Post subject: |
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| Literally a million or figuratively? |
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liveinkorea316
Joined: 20 Aug 2010
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 6:17 am Post subject: |
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Korea is literally my second home
Samsung employees are literally treated like slaves
That penalty for offside was literally a joke
my LG phone is so good its literally an iphone
I was so hungry my stomach was literally talking to me
...I have no problems with any of the above. LITERALLY just adds emphasis to the sentence. |
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ontheway
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Location: Somewhere under the rainbow...
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 7:43 am Post subject: |
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| languistic wrote: |
| jrwhite82 wrote: |
| ontheway wrote: |
| jrwhite82 wrote: |
My mentor teacher in my MA program would literally sweat bullets ... when he had to present things to other adults,. |
So, you could truly say he was a high caliber teacher.
He must have had really big pores. |
Are you having some kind of personal crusade against people who say literally? I think adding literally before a hyperbole makes it MORE of a hyperbole. So that's my defense, and I'm sticking to it.
Nice pun btw! |
"sweat bullets" is not hyperbole and using "literally" means that something, though perhaps seemingly surreal or fantastic, actually took place. Far from hyperbole; using them together means that actual bullets came from his pores as sweat would. Though we all know what he is implying, it is incorrect usage, even from a figurative point of view. I have posted about this a million times already. |
Exactly. English teachers should know that, when used correctly, "literally" is not used to add emphasis. It means that the thing actually happened according to the standard meaning of the word.
"Literally sweating bullets" means that real bullets are actually coming out of his pores.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/literally |
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sirius black
Joined: 04 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:05 am Post subject: |
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| Quack Addict wrote: |
| edwardcatflap wrote: |
| Quote: |
You don't feel comfortable speaking in front of adults?
You couldn't even do this in front of 3 people? WOW.
And you want to be an English teacher in South Korea? Sorry but if you couldn't do a mock class in front of your interviewers someone else deserves that job.
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That's ridiculous. As others have said, teaching has everything to do with preparation and knowing about your students. This sounds like a gimicky stunt thought up by amateurs who don't know how to conduct a proper interview. If they made a teaching qualification with observed lessons part of the criteria for applying for the job in the first place they wouldn't have to come up with lame requests like this one to get the right person. |
+1 |
+2, and also seond the come off your high horse comment.
In every company you sometimes get a dud, even in corporate america the ivy league grad who worked on wall street doesn't work out some time. If doing what some people on here see as no big deal was so important it would be done by the majority of hiring experts in the west. What compounds the santimonious BS of some posters being unsympathetic is that practically all the advertisements to get people to teach in Korea says 'No experience required'. Its a crapshoot. |
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jrwhite82
Joined: 22 May 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 4:01 pm Post subject: |
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| ontheway wrote: |
| languistic wrote: |
| jrwhite82 wrote: |
| ontheway wrote: |
| jrwhite82 wrote: |
My mentor teacher in my MA program would literally sweat bullets ... when he had to present things to other adults,. |
So, you could truly say he was a high caliber teacher.
He must have had really big pores. |
Are you having some kind of personal crusade against people who say literally? I think adding literally before a hyperbole makes it MORE of a hyperbole. So that's my defense, and I'm sticking to it.
Nice pun btw! |
"sweat bullets" is not hyperbole and using "literally" means that something, though perhaps seemingly surreal or fantastic, actually took place. Far from hyperbole; using them together means that actual bullets came from his pores as sweat would. Though we all know what he is implying, it is incorrect usage, even from a figurative point of view. I have posted about this a million times already. |
Exactly. English teachers should know that, when used correctly, "literally" is not used to add emphasis. It means that the thing actually happened according to the standard meaning of the word.
"Literally sweating bullets" means that real bullets are actually coming out of his pores.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/literally |
English teachers should open a dictionary before spreading misinformation about the language they are teaching.
In a number of dictionaries, "literally" is used as an intesifier before figurative language. Checkmate.
It's just like the word "really". It means both true or very.
ESL learners can distinguish the difference easily. Ever have a student say it was "really, really, really, really cold outside"?
But how can a word be the antonym of itself? Well, it's actually quite common. Look at the word "dust". I dusted the crops. Does that mean I spread pesticide dust over them? Or did I go out there with a feather duster and some Pledge and actually dust them? In context you should be able to figure out what the meaning is. So when I said he was "literally sweating bullets" use the context and your "mastery" of the English language to determine my meaning. Not too difficult for intermediate ESL learners. Shouldn't be hard for the teacher either. Or if you don't know, look it up in a dictionary before getting on your high horse.
I did make a mistake with my use of the word hyperbole. I was in fact using a metaphor. So I will concede that point. Either way, they are both figurative language and it is totally acceptable to use the word "literally" to intesify their meaning.
Just because two guys on the internet say its true doesn't make it so. I'll trust the books labeled reference in the library. (No, I didn't actually go the library...) |
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