Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Summer Wine]

I notice a number of job advertisements with the term looking for a Good teacher.I have also read a number of Daves esl comments with people saying they worked with a bad teacher.

Can anyone say what they consider a good teacher and why and what do they consider a bad teacher?

Did they personally experience it? Was it told to them by the school? Was it understandable? Was it different from what they themselves had previously experienced in school? etc.

I entered another option, "of every other reason you can consider", it wasn't added.

[tomato]

I never say "He's a good teacher" or "she's a bad teacher" because there are too many variables.
If I gave an overall rating, you wouldn't know which variable I was thinking about.

Summer Wine, I'm sorry I couldn't take your poll, but it was for that reason.

Here are some variables which I consider important:

�� ability to keep order in the classroom with a minimum of scolding

If the teacher doesn't scold but doesn't keep order, that teacher doesn't score a point on this variable.
If the teacher keeps order but only does it through scolding, that teacher doesn't score.
If the teacher scolds but still doesn't keep order, that teacher gets a minus point.

This last week, our school had an influx of new students, new classes, new teachers, and new Heaven knows what else.
Everything was chaotic.
I hope I score on this variable, but I sure didn't prove it this last week.

�� creativity

A creative teacher is not only more enjoyable, but better able to get the point across better.

Maybe a teacher who "played games and didn't follow the book" SHOULD be considered a bad teacher, but a creative teacher can do both.
If the lesson in the textbook is on verbs, give us a bingo game showing a person walking, a person reading, and a person sleeping.
If the lesson is on adjectives, show us a tall person, a short person, a fat person, and a skinny person.

�� ability to see the student's point of view

Why should an English teacher in Korea study Korean?
Here's one reason:
It helps the teacher understand the students' mistakes.
Why do Korean students put objects before verbs?
Why do Korean students say "orenji" and "Bushi"?
Why do Korean students say "promise" when they mean "appointment"?
Study Korean and find out!

�� enjoyment of teaching

This is something you can't fake.
I once had a psychology professor who would rather be in the laboratory than in the classroom with all us lowly peasants.
And I could sense that the minute I first saw him.

�� genuine interest in learning

Have you ever known a teacher who who had an outside hobby? Or who took classes at nighttime? Or who was active in a local service organization? Or who ran a commercial business on the side?

Betcha that teacher assumed that the students were also interested in learning.
Maybe that teacher was wrong. Maybe the students weren't interested in learning. Even so, that teacher probably worked a self-fulfilling prophesy so that the students became interested in learning.

Have you ever known a teacher who never did anything but eat, sleep, and watch the boob tube?

Betcha that teacher worked a self-fulfilling prophesy the other way.

Why should an English teacher in Korea study Korean?
There is another reason, but I will let you figure it out.

[EFLtrainer]

double

[EFLtrainer]

[ajuma]

Good post tomato!

Just want to add one thing: You've got to LIKE your students! If you b**ch about them all the time, they'll get the drift. Doesn't make for a good classroom experience on either side.

[Summer Wine]

[Ya-ta Boy]

Good teaching is like obscenity--you know it when you see it.

It is my firmly held conviction that teaching is not a science, it is an art. I think you can take a good teacher and make him/her better by exposing him/her to the science of teaching, but you cannot take a bad teacher and make him/her a good teacher by exposing that person to it. They have already seen good and bad teachers through their life in public school. Another few hours in a college class isn't going to make a difference.

The essence of a good teacher is to know instinctively how to transfer the knowledge you know to the other person. Ideas from other good teachers expands the repertoire, but does not change the template.

One of my pet peeves are the classes where the teacher assigns the students to teach. I have suffered through several of those. I still want my money back. There is next to nothing I can learn from a beginner who knows no more than I know about the subject. There is an enormous amount of crap going on in education circles today. This is one of part of it.

There is something to the 'guide from the side' but the teacher really has to know what he/she is doing or it is a waste of time for everyone involved.

[Apple Scruff]

I'm a fantastic teacher, but my students are idiots.

[merlot]

[Homer]

Tomato pretty much summed up what a good teacher is (or can be) and by extension what would make for a bad teacher.

Well done.

[crazylemongirl]

In korea, Blonde, blue eyed, early 20s, thin, american women.

[Lizara]

I don't think any of those poll options necessarily define a "bad teacher." Or did you mean "bad teacher" from the point of view of a hagwon owner or principal or whatever?

I too agree with Tomato's assessment. I think the most important thing is to really care about your students and your teaching, and always try to learn how to be a better teacher. Creativity helps a lot, too, although not everyone is blessed with that ability.

[Seon-bee]

How about outcomes? Increased student achievement, proficiency, etc. would indicate the delivery of quality education, whether from teachers or curriculum.

Motivating students to actually like the subject they're studying. I'm sure that would have some degree of influence on our students' ultimate success.

The best teachers I know have an ability to make input comprehensible and relevant.

A good teacher wears an inviting smile.

[Gorgias]

I like your post @tomato, but...

[Big Mac]

I think it's pretty simple how this is determined in Korea.

If parents complain about you (no matter how frivolous the complaint), you're a bad teacher.

If parents don't complain about you and keep bringing their kids to the school, you're a good teacher.

I think this only applies to hogwans though.

Oh yeah, and one other thing. If you question or challenge the boss in any way, you are definitely a bad teacher. Doesn't matter what you do in the classroom in that case.

I've been at both ends of the scale at various points in time, depending on those things above that applied to me at the time.