Teacher Discussion Forums

COlleagues:
I want to know how you feel about your job. I feel excited and happy when I come into the occupation at first. But little by little, I become unphhappy, because i am too stressed out. I'm a teacher in Junior 3 now, i have to face the entrance exam of senior school in coming June. But now my students are not doing everything except CHATTING AND PLAYING. The headmaster always threatens us with dismissal. we have to give a public lesson every few weeks. Therefore, we are undertaking the pressure from the school, students and ourselves. How about you? the same as us in CHINA?

When I intially started teaching high school (September 2004), I was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the class and forced myself to be an extrovert to combat the noise. I was teaching high school and now realize that although the students had fun, I didn't discipline them at all and so, by the time the second semester rolled around and I wanted to be more serious, it was hard to get their attention.

I realized that there was no point being someone else in the classroom, to an extent we have to be a bit louder and more direct as teachers but we should remain true to ourselves and our own personality.

The next year I taught middle school, I was expected to play games, all the time and was really just a foreign face, although the teachers were very supportive and helped out with discipline if need be.

The students are mostly quiet now, they learn new ideas and we do revision, also playing games occasionally but probably not enough for their liking!

Sadly, only a small percentage will take part in the lesson (and I've tried everything, but it seems inertia reigns!).

I did feel upset at times, when I speak to other foreign teachers who 'love' their classes and their students, when I often felt that I could happily be doing something else and not worry about it or that I've 'failed' as a teacher because some of my students refuse to do the work I ask of them.

I think its a very difficult job, particularly when the foreign teacher and the school/students have a different objective (you want to teach, they want to play), your students English is nowhere near the level it should be for their age or their textbook isn't suitable (example, discussing amusement parks in a small Chinese town and having to ask students "So, have you ever been to a water park?". So ridiculous and I adapt it, of course!).

I am serious about my job and want students to learn, but I've accepted the fact that even if I reach a small percentage of them, its something. As the saying goes "You can't please all the people all of the time".

Ellen, my advice to you is to speak to your colleagues and ask their advice, they should help you control the students. If not, try taking in tongue twisters or a song for the first few minutes of class, this always interests my students (even those who couldn't care less will begin chanting because its second nature to them). After that, you begin the lesson.

Be firm but friendly. Have they been so difficult previously? My students (Junior 1 and 2) are becoming a bit more difficult lately but I'm giving them plenty of exercises/hand outs and even music for meditation (they can use that time to study if they wish).

The goal of English teaching for Junior Middle School is to make the students acquire elementary knowledge about English and the ability to use English for preliminary communication through the training of listening, speaking, reading and writing, to arouse students’ interest in English learning, to make them form a good habit of learning and lay an initial foundation for their further learning.
Teaching is the unity of teaching and learning and it is a two-way operation. When teachers face these underachieved students, they should do more research on “How to teach?”
English teachers must put interests on the top. To develop students’ communicative competence means that the teachers should develop their language skills, namely, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Einstein said, “Interest is the best teacher.” Interests are a kind of direct motive to push students’ study. It can not only make students concentrate their attention on listening to a class and thinking actively, but also make students show enough willpower to face difficulty and have confidence and determination to overcome difficulty.

It seems that this is an age old complaint of substitute teachers and teachers of non-core subjects. I think that this is a world wide phenomena and it certainly happened when I was in school 50 years ago so don't become discouraged. I bet even your classmates did this to teachers when you were in school. Do you remember the teachers who were able to overcome it? What did they do to win over the students? Getting to know the ones who are the ring leaders for causing trouble is one of the best ways to win over a class. I make sure I walk with them to class or talk to them afterwards, not about their behaviour but something of interest to both of us. I spend the first few months of class on regulative teaching, more than instructive teaching. Every teacher has their own likes and dislikes as far as discipline goes. The students will try out various behaviours until they find out what you will put up with and what pushes your buttons. If you love English, then it will seep into the classroom. For students that never come around you can use stricter methods, asking them to sit in the back of the room and keep quiet, keeping them after school if that is possible, sending them notes telling them that they are holding back others in the classroom, asking them to leave the classroom and so on. I would suggest that you speak with your principal as well and ask for more support. You can tell him/her that you are a much better teacher with support and would welcome suggestions to improve your teaching. Do the kids behave during the demonstration lessons? If they do, then I would ask as many people as I could find to come to my classroom and keep reminding them that they behaved well with guests and should try to do the same during regular classes. I would try to get them to feel proud of themselves in how they behaved and performed when guests were there as well and give them as many opportunities to shine as you can in front of guests. Ask your supervisor to tell you positive things about your teaching for awhile until you get your confidence and love of teaching back. Find out how many students you have taught passed their exams and try to increase that every year so you can show your supervisor you are improving. Find out the statistics for other teachers in your areas and see if your results are below the average or above and use this information either to improve your teaching or to show your supervisor that he/she doesn't have to worry. I would try and sit in on classes of teachers that are known to do well and see their methods of coping with the classes. Don't beat yourself up though and try to focus on the students who do pay attention and do well.