Unprofessional and unskilled English Teacher's do you feel guilty?

[TerrylSky]

Well, I am an English teacher. A native speaker of English. I don't have a degree so to speak. I do have years of education and worldwide teaching experience. I have a good heart and give each class and student my fullest. I teach for free. I have friends who are non native English speakers, but nevertheless also volunteer their time teaching English - which provides unique comparison and style - and therefore a contribution to the class and children. Even foreigners can provide quality English classes, sometimes with a unique and different style. But if one is an idiot, broke, braless, dreadlocked, sunburnt farang seeking a quick meal who is from Timbuktu, well, hell, this lowers the standards needless to say - it tarnishes the reputation of other helpful and talented teachers, with a degree or not. They should stay at home - or on the beach at Haadrin - no problem - but stay away from my school! If you are going to teach English do it with some heart and soul! These students are influenced by you and you have an opportunity to help them develop positive, educated lives. Go get a job somewhere else, idiots, or go sleep on the beach.

[Blindside]

"The camps usually aren't worthwhile educationally, but might be a bit of fun."

Absolutely true. Most camps are crap. The one's who should be ashamed are the school owners / directors who run said camps for profit.

Teachers who are unqualified and or not native speakers are less of a problem than Thai teachers teaching English and sexpats / "tourists on non-B's" teaching English - for different reasons obviously. Many Filipino teachers are very dedicated and caring teachers - often quite well qualified. Granted there is an accent and sometimes grammatical problems with many, but at least most of them give a toss.

[duanebigsby]

I agree that some non-native speakers with very heavy accents shouldn´t be teaching, but there are a lot of foreigners (like myself) who have trained and achieved a near perfect accent and are therefore very much qualified to teach if we have the linguistic knowledge.

Accents aside, I believe that non-natives often have much greater knowledge of English than natives, since the natives simply have acquired the language, and not really learned it.

In the U.S. and Canada, we study English grammar and literature all throughout elementary and high school. Twelve years of it. If someone doesn't know every little thing grammar detail you know it's because we've forgotten it, as the language is natural to us. I do agree that if your accent isn't pronounced you should be fully encouraged to teach here. Your post; however, sounds like you think less of native speakers because it was "easy" for us to pick up our own language. That is a bit patronizing.

[Neeranam]

Do you expect the unqualified teachers to work for nothing?

[Neeranam]

When I did some of that kind of thing when I was an English teachers I was drunk or on pills all of the time - never felt guilty at all - easy money.

[duanebigsby]

Chris from Belfast, Steve from Glasgow, Bill from Liverpool & Phil from Newcastle.

All native English speaking people, all with varying degrees and all eligible to take TEFL or whatever other foreign teaching courses there are.

Truth, they all find it difficult understanding each other let alone, on the basis of being a native speaker, teaching English to others.

Of course the above is hypothetical, but does demonstrate a side of native language speaking that shouldn't be ignored.

why my school only hires Native speakers with neutral accents, No Liverpool, South Carolina, Newfoundland etc.

[wilcopops]

wilcopops, that means you're not Mr. Clements. I'm disappointed

I don't get drunk

I'm shocked.

How about me and thailiketoo get drunk and you berate us?

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Watching drunks is seldom entertaining especially as their CLARITY of speech disintegrates as the operation proceeds. Sad thing is they tend to be completely unaware of it...........bit like someone above...

[wilcopops]

I agree that some non-native speakers with very heavy accents shouldn´t be teaching, but there are a lot of foreigners (like myself) who have trained and achieved a near perfect accent and are therefore very much qualified to teach if we have the linguistic knowledge.

Accents aside, I believe that non-natives often have much greater knowledge of English than natives, since the natives simply have acquired the language, and not really learned it.

In the U.S. and Canada, we study English grammar and literature all throughout elementary and high school. Twelve years of it. If someone doesn't know every little thing grammar detail you know it's because we've forgotten it, as the language is natural to us. I do agree that if your accent isn't pronounced you should be fully encouraged to teach here. Your post; however, sounds like you think less of native speakers because it was "easy" for us to pick up our own language. That is a bit patronizing.

The problem with that is that a lot of the grammar taught at schools was put into the curriculum by those who knew nothing about it.......so most of the grammar people learned at school was quite simply WRONG.....especially in the 50s and early 60s. Of course a lot of schools never heard of the massive rethink on grammar and still yeah utter nonsense today.

Remember English is not static and there are NO RULES ...only conventions; that's what makes it such a useful language.

Edited May 30, 2014 by wilcopops

[duanebigsby]

I work in the field and have met "qualified" teachers with the right degree, that are shit teachers. I have also met some with nothing more more than a 4-week TEFL certificate that are really good. I think a passion for teaching and caring about the students is more important than having the right qualifications. Even dodgy teachers care more about learning than the school management. As far as non-NES, I have met some ESL people who speak better English than some native speakers...just saying.

Agreed, it's an individual thing. I love teaching here. don't know if they are picking it up but I'm sure some are.

[wilcopops]

Chris from Belfast, Steve from Glasgow, Bill from Liverpool & Phil from Newcastle.

All native English speaking people, all with varying degrees and all eligible to take TEFL or whatever other foreign teaching courses there are.

Truth, they all find it difficult understanding each other let alone, on the basis of being a native speaker, teaching English to others.

Of course the above is hypothetical, but does demonstrate a side of native language speaking that shouldn't be ignored.

More nonsense - accent has little or nothing to do with it.........as anyone in a place like Pattaya will tell you they, they talk in English with native speakers from all over the world with no problem. I have many friends with strong regional British accents and only one do I find difficult to understand and that's not because of his accent; he just speaks indistinctly.

Any Scots person will tell you that when outside their home region they consciously or subconsciously tone down their dialect so as to communicate more easily with

Problems seldom come from accent, of you need to know what an accent is before thou make that assertion - the problems arrive from regional dialect or slang and even more often lack of CLARITY. You can watch TV anywhere in the world and 99% of the time as a native speaker you'll understand it fine.

with Thai speakers the problems come with rhythm and stress - but I doubt if anyone has paid much consideration to that even in their own speech.

[wilcopops]

Chris from Belfast, Steve from Glasgow, Bill from Liverpool & Phil from Newcastle.

All native English speaking people, all with varying degrees and all eligible to take TEFL or whatever other foreign teaching courses there are.

Truth, they all find it difficult understanding each other let alone, on the basis of being a native speaker, teaching English to others.

Of course the above is hypothetical, but does demonstrate a side of native language speaking that shouldn't be ignored.

why my school only hires Native speakers with neutral accents, No Liverpool, South Carolina, Newfoundland etc.

What pray, is a "neutral accent?

E.G. - "I'm from Edinburgh and I don't have an accent"??

[wilcopops]

"The camps usually aren't worthwhile educationally, but might be a bit of fun."

Absolutely true. Most camps are crap. The one's who should be ashamed are the school owners / directors who run said camps for profit.

Teachers who are unqualified and or not native speakers are less of a problem than Thai teachers teaching English and sexpats / "tourists on non-B's" teaching English - for different reasons obviously. Many Filipino teachers are very dedicated and caring teachers - often quite well qualified. Granted there is an accent and sometimes grammatical problems with many, but at least most of them give a toss.

You haven't considered then what benefits however tangential a "camp" might have - sitting down and learning grammar isn't the whole of learning English - if a person spends some time in an informal situation where English is the main factor, even if they think they've learned nothing, the chances are they have been exposed to aspects of English that they never knew before or wouldn't have experienced in a classroom - that's why they are at "camps".

[duanebigsby]

Chris from Belfast, Steve from Glasgow, Bill from Liverpool & Phil from Newcastle.

All native English speaking people, all with varying degrees and all eligible to take TEFL or whatever other foreign teaching courses there are.

Truth, they all find it difficult understanding each other let alone, on the basis of being a native speaker, teaching English to others.

Of course the above is hypothetical, but does demonstrate a side of native language speaking that shouldn't be ignored.

why my school only hires Native speakers with neutral accents, No Liverpool, South Carolina, Newfoundland etc.

What pray, is a "neutral accent?

E.G. - "I'm from Edinburgh and I don't have an accent"??

A gray area I admit. I know nothing of Edinburgh, but I'd suggest a heavy Scottish accent to be outside of what my school would accept. Most Canadian accents are acceptable, but the Maritimes , well I can't follow someone from Nova Scotia. Many southern states have incredibly harsh accents. I can't really say the "not normal" because, of course , I have to say it from my (and the school's) perspective. They consider a West coast, Midwest, or Canadian accent as neutral.

[wilcopops]

Somebody mentioned earlier "the right qualifications" - one wonders what they mean by that. An English degree? well normally that is in English literature so hardly any use for teaching English t foreigners. Business MBA or something - that might ell teaching in industry. Art - help for teaching kids.........what about unquantifiable things like dedication, patience and a love of teaching? No degrees there but they could help.

How's about training as a TEACHER? - that might help. ...or in the method of teaching English as a foreign language? Even better and not so hard to teach......and of course a splash of experience............native speaker? maybe but certainly not in many.many circumstances.

The truth is as an English speaker, unless you have studied Linguistics or specialised in English LANGUAGE teaching like most of the people on this thread you know little about how your own language works and even less about how to teach it.

[thailiketoo]

Most newspapers are written at a 6th grade level. For the average Thai person a 7 year old native speaking and comprehension level would be great.

further evidence you don't have a clue what you are talking about

High school students today are reading books intended for children with reading levels far below those appropriate for teens, according to a recent report.

A compilation of the top 40 books teens in grades 9-12 are reading in school shows that the average reading level of that list is 5.3 -- barely above the fifth grade.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/22/top-reading_n_1373680.html

The average high school student reads books on a fifth-grade level, according to a comprehensive survey whose findings point to why American teenagers lag so badly in literacy and knowledge.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/nation-illiterates-high-school-students-reading-5th-grade-level-new-study-finds-article-1.1053539

What does Meyer find after crunching 2,125 stories from newspapers as diverse as the Grand Forks (North Dakota) Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Houston Chronicle? Only 25 percent of those stories could be understood by someone who reads at an eighth-grade level or lower. The other 75 percent needed an audience of people who at least struggled through high school English, including a few who opened the Borzoi Reader in college.

Meyer creates a ranking for the 40 newspapers he surveyed based on the difference between their Flesch-Kincaid readability score and the education level of the people who live in their home counties. Those newspapers with the biggest difference - that is, those that write most below the reading level of the community - rank highest.

No. 1 on the list is the Grand Forks Herald with a reading level of 5.04 - a fifth-grade - five levels below its community; No. 4 is the Houston Chronicle with a tenth-grade level, just about on par with its community.

What I want to write is this: In other words, the dumber the writing, the higher the readership.

http://www.timporter.com/firstdraft/archives/000418.html

Reader's Digest magazine has a readability index of about 65. 13 year olds is 60.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readability_tests

End of quote.

[thailiketoo]

Somebody mentioned earlier "the right qualifications" - one wonders what they mean by that. An English degree? well normally that is in English literature so hardly any use for teaching English t foreigners. Business MBA or something - that might ell teaching in industry. Art - help for teaching kids.........what about unquantifiable things like dedication, patience and a love of teaching? No degrees there but they could help.

How's about training as a TEACHER? - that might help. ...or in the method of teaching English as a foreign language? Even better and not so hard to teach......and of course a splash of experience............native speaker? maybe but certainly not in many.many circumstances.

The truth is as an English speaker, unless you have studied Linguistics or specialised in English LANGUAGE teaching like most of the people on this thread you know little about how your own language works and even less about how to teach it.

So who the heck are you? You appear to me to be a high school dropout who took a TEFL course. Why should we believe you?

[simon43]

I feel there also needs to be a distinction in this discussion between 'subject' teachers and 'homeroom' teachers.

A subject teacher is (should be?) qualified to teach a single subject, whether it be English, ESL, EFL, Maths, PE etc. Typically, a subject teacher will be teaching secondary age students.

A Homeroom teacher has to teach a wide range of subjects - English, Maths, Science, History, Geography, Citizenship etc, even perhaps PE. The Homeroom teacher will typically be teaching primary age students.

Should the Homeroom teacher be qualified to teach all those subjects? That is not really realistic. When I work as a teacher (second career), I work as a Homeroom teacher. My qualifications are in Maths and Science, but I also have to teach EFL and the subjects that I mentioned above with the exception of PE.

IMHO, single-subject teachers and those who work in language schools where they are teaching ESL or EFL should be qualified to teach that subject. They need a 'quality' TEFL qualification and a sound understanding of all aspects of English grammar, pronunciation, phonetics, intonation etc.

BTW, teaching ESL/EFL is not the same as teaching English Literature....

A Homeroom teacher needs to be qualified 'to teach' ==> a PGCE or equivalent qualification AND a very sound knowledge of all homeroom subjects, including English.

[duanebigsby]

Somebody mentioned earlier "the right qualifications" - one wonders what they mean by that. An English degree? well normally that is in English literature so hardly any use for teaching English t foreigners. Business MBA or something - that might ell teaching in industry. Art - help for teaching kids.........what about unquantifiable things like dedication, patience and a love of teaching? No degrees there but they could help.

How's about training as a TEACHER? - that might help. ...or in the method of teaching English as a foreign language? Even better and not so hard to teach......and of course a splash of experience............native speaker? maybe but certainly not in many.many circumstances.

The truth is as an English speaker, unless you have studied Linguistics or specialised in English LANGUAGE teaching like most of the people on this thread you know little about how your own language works and even less about how to teach it.

Drivel. You don't need a degree in linguistics to teach a language you.ve spoken for half a century. You need passion, a love of kids, and a desire to share.

Our job is to talk to kids. Get them interested in trying to speak English with a foreigner. We supplement the grammar the Thai teachers are lecturing about, but we are there for accent and conversation.

[Datebayo]

I once, eons ago, when I was still a backpacker doing the South-East Asia route, was also an unprofessional and unskilled ''English teacher''. It paid, who cares about my quaifications? my many students didn't... Neither did the schools who hired me after a 10 minute job interview. I could speak English, looked like English and behaved like I'm from England or you es eey, that's all one needed to start a teaching career in Thailand.

[thailiketoo]

To Thailiketoo

I don't think that Wilcopops nor myself mentioned 'good English'. We were both talking about accents. YOU should learn to READ English.

Sean in Udon.

Your Mr. Clements sounds like the whole team of English teachers that I had. We had 3 periods of English per day. Two of grammar and one of Eng. Lit.I went to one of those schools that were soundly beaten at the yearly sports, but we won all the BIG intello prizes.

If you want an answer include a quote or a question. If you don't think I can read English kindly quote where that took place or ...........

[wilcopops]

Most newspapers are written at a 6th grade level. For the average Thai person a 7 year old native speaking and comprehension level would be great.

further evidence you don't have a clue what you are talking about

High school students today are reading books intended for children with reading levels far below those appropriate for teens, according to a recent report.

A compilation of the top 40 books teens in grades 9-12 are reading in school shows that the average reading level of that list is 5.3 -- barely above the fifth grade.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/22/top-reading_n_1373680.html

The average high school student reads books on a fifth-grade level, according to a comprehensive survey whose findings point to why American teenagers lag so badly in literacy and knowledge.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/nation-illiterates-high-school-students-reading-5th-grade-level-new-study-finds-article-1.1053539

What does Meyer find after crunching 2,125 stories from newspapers as diverse as the Grand Forks (North Dakota) Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Houston Chronicle? Only 25 percent of those stories could be understood by someone who reads at an eighth-grade level or lower. The other 75 percent needed an audience of people who at least struggled through high school English, including a few who opened the Borzoi Reader in college.

Meyer creates a ranking for the 40 newspapers he surveyed based on the difference between their Flesch-Kincaid readability score and the education level of the people who live in their home counties. Those newspapers with the biggest difference - that is, those that write most below the reading level of the community - rank highest.

No. 1 on the list is the Grand Forks Herald with a reading level of 5.04 - a fifth-grade - five levels below its community; No. 4 is the Houston Chronicle with a tenth-grade level, just about on par with its community.

What I want to write is this: In other words, the dumber the writing, the higher the readership.

http://www.timporter.com/firstdraft/archives/000418.html

Reader's Digest magazine has a readability index of about 65. 13 year olds is 60.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readability_tests

End of quote.

You've gone off and googled - well done but understanding English takes a little more than that - several years more in fact - You really are having problems here.....most people on this thread will have a reading age of between 7 and 13 and yet they still think they can comment on EL education.

[wilcopops]

I once, eons ago, when I was still a backpacker doing the South-East Asia route, was also an unprofessional and unskilled ''English teacher''. It paid, who cares about my quaifications? my many students didn't... Neither did the schools who hired me after a 10 minute job interview. I could speak English, looked like English and behaved like I'm from England or you es eey, that's all one needed to start a teaching career in Thailand.

not anymore

[simon43]

^{but we are there for accent and conversation.}

^{Well, that depends on your job spec....}

^{What happens when a secondary grade student asks what 'schwa' is and please give some examples? What if they want to learn about homophomes? I agree that you do not need a degree in Linguistics, but I bet many so-called ESL teachers would not know their homophome from their left kneecap}

[wilcopops]

His English is better than a lot of native Brits.

In what way ?....I keep hearing these sorts of comments, what benchmark are you using ?

I am still waiting for some to define what constitutes "good English".....please don't say its because they know where to put an apostrophe...

Waiting or a definiton of good English? You'ill have a long wait.

anyone who thinks there is a definition really hasn't got the point.

here's a good one though.....

"language that "hits the mark," expressing "exactly what the speaker or writer wishes to express."

Edited May 30, 2014 by wilcopops

[susan d]

Yes. sometime I saw english teacher from Philippine.

[thailiketoo]

Most newspapers are written at a 6th grade level. For the average Thai person a 7 year old native speaking and comprehension level would be great.

further evidence you don't have a clue what you are talking about

High school students today are reading books intended for children with reading levels far below those appropriate for teens, according to a recent report.

A compilation of the top 40 books teens in grades 9-12 are reading in school shows that the average reading level of that list is 5.3 -- barely above the fifth grade.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/22/top-reading_n_1373680.html

The average high school student reads books on a fifth-grade level, according to a comprehensive survey whose findings point to why American teenagers lag so badly in literacy and knowledge.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/nation-illiterates-high-school-students-reading-5th-grade-level-new-study-finds-article-1.1053539

What does Meyer find after crunching 2,125 stories from newspapers as diverse as the Grand Forks (North Dakota) Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Houston Chronicle? Only 25 percent of those stories could be understood by someone who reads at an eighth-grade level or lower. The other 75 percent needed an audience of people who at least struggled through high school English, including a few who opened the Borzoi Reader in college.

Meyer creates a ranking for the 40 newspapers he surveyed based on the difference between their Flesch-Kincaid readability score and the education level of the people who live in their home counties. Those newspapers with the biggest difference - that is, those that write most below the reading level of the community - rank highest.

No. 1 on the list is the Grand Forks Herald with a reading level of 5.04 - a fifth-grade - five levels below its community; No. 4 is the Houston Chronicle with a tenth-grade level, just about on par with its community.

What I want to write is this: In other words, the dumber the writing, the higher the readership.

http://www.timporter.com/firstdraft/archives/000418.html

Reader's Digest magazine has a readability index of about 65. 13 year olds is 60.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readability_tests

End of quote.

You've gone off and googled - well done but understanding English takes a little more than that - several years more in fact - You really are having problems here.....most people on this thread will have a reading age of between 7 and 13 and yet they still think they can comment on EL education.

Your education is a TEFL course. Get real. Who is going to take anything you write with any seriousness. If you want to be believed start quoting a reputable source.

[wilcopops]

You've gone off and googled - well done but understanding English takes a little more than that - several years more in fact - You really are having problems here.....most people on this thread will have a reading age of between 7 and 13 and yet they still think they can comment on EL education.

Your education is a TEFL course. Get real. Who is going to take anything you write with any seriousness. If you want to be believed start quoting a reputable source.

Who are you addressing?

[wilcopops]

Chris from Belfast, Steve from Glasgow, Bill from Liverpool & Phil from Newcastle.

All native English speaking people, all with varying degrees and all eligible to take TEFL or whatever other foreign teaching courses there are.

Truth, they all find it difficult understanding each other let alone, on the basis of being a native speaker, teaching English to others.

Of course the above is hypothetical, but does demonstrate a side of native language speaking that shouldn't be ignored.

why my school only hires Native speakers with neutral accents, No Liverpool, South Carolina, Newfoundland etc.

What pray, is a "neutral accent?

E.G. - "I'm from Edinburgh and I don't have an accent"??

A gray area I admit. I know nothing of Edinburgh, but I'd suggest a heavy Scottish accent to be outside of what my school would accept. Most Canadian accents are acceptable, but the Maritimes , well I can't follow someone from Nova Scotia. Many southern states have incredibly harsh accents. I can't really say the "not normal" because, of course , I have to say it from my (and the school's) perspective. They consider a West coast, Midwest, or Canadian accent as neutral.

"acceptable" to who??????? Accent has NOTHING to do with it, it isn't a grey area, you're barking up the wrong tree.

The "I'm from Edinburgh" refers to a well-known joke about how people perceive accents - EVERYONE has an accent.

[thailiketoo]

You've gone off and googled - well done but understanding English takes a little more than that - several years more in fact - You really are having problems here.....most people on this thread will have a reading age of between 7 and 13 and yet they still think they can comment on EL education.

Your education is a TEFL course. Get real. Who is going to take anything you write with any seriousness. If you want to be believed start quoting a reputable source.

Who are you addressing?

You. It is obvious you have no formal education.

[inutil]

One of my favorite co-teachers was a youngish teacher in Trat. I wont say her name, but she busted her hump to teach those kids English. The rest of the English department in that school was... weak, either lacking confidence or inclination. But she was a phenomenon. She was pulling those kids up purely by the force of her own will and energy. These arent easy battles, the kids are super sweet, but English wasn't really the most pressing of their concerns (despite living in a town that does see enough tourism to at least make it relevant to some degree). We did a speaking test just before i left that had me stunned in amazement at just how low their level was (all the way to M3). Youre talking about kids who are repeating text books in their English class and literally just mouthing sounds out. They could read the passage they were currently on, but couldnt read an incredibly simple passage from the P4 textbook. (This is my friend... she is... she has... etc). This is the backdrop of what she was pushing against.

Anyways, i remember having a conversation with her. She comes from Chiang Rai, and aside from lamenting that the kids in Trat were super rude in we were talking about pay for English teachers in Thailand. She told me flat out that she could walk into a job in tourism, like her friends did, paying almost twice what she earned as a teacher. Now maybe there is some hyperbole there. Maybe there isnt. Im not an expert on Thai tourism. But the point is this:

There may come a time that Thailand loses one of the most dedicated, hard working teachers Ive personally seen simply because it doesn't reward them and to be honest, that should be viewed as a national failure. Lets not even speak of ESL salaries (which are embarrassingly HIGH in Thailand despite being relatively woeful in the East Asian ESL industry). For a country like Thailand, they really need to start collecting taxes and paying for a proper and functioning education system. And part of that will be a genuine living wage for QUALIFIED and DEDICATED teachers. And by teachers we dont mean someone who passed a stupid test by reading some books. We mean people that have had supervision over the course of several years by qualified and experienced teachers culminating in a genuine and formal teaching qualification. In that same school i also saw some shockers. Homeroom teachers who laughed at clear examples of students being bullied and ostracized by their entire class as well as teachers who spent their time in class on their phone while the students did something with a textbook. Then theres the teachers who just didnt show up and the schools who had no one around to even supervise the kids, let alone teach them. Its a mess.

I left for China because it was just utterly overwhelming. I didnt even know where to begin...

Inutil, if you're an English teacher, with your leaving, Thailand's schools are the winners.

I don't set out to be objectionable, but your English is not good, even after I allow for potential typos.

Oh god...

I presume you don't agree??

All I'm saying is that if you teach English, and criticize others for not being able to deliver the goods, you need to be showing a high level of competency yourself, and I don't see that in your post.

If you'd prefer to place a note at the top of your posts that you're an English teacher, but don't care to write a reasonable standard yourself, you can probably get away with what you write without criticism.

Well, sadly,(and with a touch of self-delusion) i maybe do. Also as a by product of my actual degree/major, your claim of hypocrisy is rather forced. As is your need to have another pop at it when i didnt respond... correctly? I dunno man. Id love to just say "youre not a teacher, you havent observed a single one of my classes and you couldnt possibly know how good a teacher i am"... but that would be... churlish.

So in the spirit of teacher to teacher, let me tell you flat out, i actually admire people who can be disciplinarians. (I cant. Its just not in my nature). I also admire people that love the subject enough to be passionate about its accuracy and its use. All effective teachers have developed the style that best suits their strengths. if you want to go the disciplinarian method, im not going to tell you youre doing it wrong. In fact im going to tell everyone else theyre idiots for failing to understand that every student responds to their particular learning style (and that also includes students who respond to clear, ordered and systematic learning).

If you do jump in and find yourself having problems (and you will have problems, no single style is effective or we'd all be doing it all the time), then i'll offer you a hundred or so activities on the forums you can try in class to bring back their motivation and interest since thats really where i excell.

Edited May 30, 2014 by inutil