miércoles, 9 de mayo de 2007

Teaching in a service training

I was invited for a group of graduate teachers to be a menber of the staff of a service training, teaching mainly in companies. I got surprised the other day when I opened up my E- mail box and found a message telling that I've been chosen to be a menber of the group of teachers. So the following day I went there for an interview with Peter Harrison, a teacher whom I met in a course in English business and management two years ago. While I was waiting for Peter there was a notice on a board showing the most important qualities that a teacher needs to have to work for this kind of service. There was also a sign at the end of the notice that said "any suggestions you'd like to add?" and I wondered myself of a list of thing a teacher needs to have, and here are some quotations I'd like to share with you:
- a teacher needs to be/have
- tolerant and patient
- handle the class dynamic
- Allow students to communicate themselves
- Allow students to feel confident with the language
- Tolerant to errors
- Grade the task according to the students interests and needs
- promote discovery learning
- Select appropriate material to students
- Help the learners to contrust their own knowledge
- Provide the students all the necessary tools to manage with the language
- select relevant activities to them
These items I thought are the ones that accompany my every day life when teaching. To me , a good teacher needs to have this quealities, and the most important thing: we teachers needs to have the capacity of believing that we are not God, we do not have the capacity of knowing everything, this will help us to grow with our students, to see what you need to adjust in your classes, according to our students interests and needs. All of these things are "in your hands" because I'm the one who thinks that everything is posible if you want it, so let's work on that.
From Teaching and learning........ By tricia Hedge
(Discussion topic item 5)

2 comentarios:

osval dijo...

On 31-may-2007, Gladys Baya said:
Being humble is certainly an important attribute in good teachers, Osvaldo, I think you've got a point there!
and I love your idea that teachers (and particularly language teachers, I'd say!) should work to enable their learners to out through their thoughts and feelings.

Keep blogging!

Gladys
NOTE: I believe you may enjoy reading Leonard Kaplan's paper "The Teacher as a Learner" (1998?)

osval dijo...

On 06-jun-07, Loreley said:
Oswald, I agree with your comment on "not being God", as I always tell my students, "I don't know everything, if I did I would be really bored".
See you
Lore