BEING TEACHERS

‘‘If the teacher is indeed wise, he does not bid you enter
the house of his wisdom,but rather leads you to the
threshold of your own mind.’’

Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet

 Why Do We Need Teachers?

-They know things that students

don’t,
-Can motivate the students,
-Can provide incentive and,
-They can also help students to
pinpoint errors and weaknesses.
 The teacher’s role as a transmitter
of knowledge is repositioned so that
their role is not to tell things, but
rather to encourage to do their
own investigative work.
 One way of looking at the teaching-learning
process is to see it in terms of ‘instructional
scaffolding’. This concept, developed by
Jerome Bruner in the 1950s, accounts for the
way in which children learn things. Scaffolding
becomes a very powerful metaphor when it is
allied with Vygotsky’s suggestion that children
have a zone of proximal development (ZPD).

 This is where they are ready to do a new thing-

but with guidance. Instructional scaffolding,
then, takes place when the learners are ‘ready’
to learn the new thing because they are in the
zone of proximal development.
Zoltan Dörnyei and Tim Murphey see the business of teaching
as the exercise of group leadership. One of our principal
responsinbilities,is to foster good relationships with the classes
in front of us so that they work together cooperatively in a spirit
of friendliness and harmonious creativity.
When teachers and classes first meet each other, they suggest that ,the students
expect leadership and direction. This gives them a clear focus and makes them
feel secure at the same time. But as the classes develop their group identity,
teachers will want to relax their grip and foster more democratic class practices
where the students are involved in the process of decision making and direction-
finding.
Two things need to be said about this view of the teacher’s craft;
In the first place ,being democratic and letting the students participate
in decision-making takes more effort and organisation than controlling
the class from the front. Furthermore, the promotion of learner
autonomy is only one view of the teaching –learning relationship, and
is very culturally biased. It is worth pointing out that being a
‘democratic ‘ teacher is simply one way of teaching, informed by
strong beliefs, but nevertheless only one way of doing things.
 Finally, we need to consider what kind of a persona the teacher
should have in the classroom. One of the things that we all have
to do- or find- is how we are in the classroom. While some people
think that teachers should keep themselves aloof from their
students and erect some kind of professional ‘wall’ between
themselves and the people they teach, Jim Scrivener does not
agree , he writes ‘‘ I don’t want to spend my life acting the role of
a teacher, I want to make contact with learners ,human to human.’’
We have to develop a teacher persona , whether this means just
being authentically ourselves, or whether, make a difference between
‘me’ an ‘me-as-a-teacher’.

Perhaps we might agree with Jody Keisner that ‘developing a teacher

persona requires teachers to experiment with a variety of classroom
activities and teaching styles, to solicit feedback from their students
on what is and isn’t working, and to keep a journal where they can
reflect on areas that cause the most frustration or curiosity.’
WHAT MAKES A TEACHER A GOOD ONE?
 QUALITIES OF A GOOD TEACHER

John rogers asked students to write essays on what they thought about
good and bad teachers. They highlighted a teacher’s ability to motivate
students, and most of them wanted their teachers to be a mentor and a
guide.
Wei-wei Shen asked fifty-one writing students at a university in Taiwan
the same question, and one of the qualities that was most often
mentioned was patience.
Sandee Thompson used questionnaires, portfolios, teacher observation
and tutor observations to gather data from students, teacher trainees and
experienced teachers about what makes a good teacher.
Overwelmingly, her respondents told her that good teachers
‘build
rapport, are knowledgeable of their subject matter and have
very
good classroom management skills. Specifically,
respondents
valued teachers who were caring, creative, enthusiastic,
patient,
well-planned and respectful.’
 THE MAGIC OF RAPPORT
Rapport, according to the Longman
Dictionary Of Contemporary English is the
‘friendly agreement and understanding
between people.’ In teaching
terms, there is more to it. When teachers
establish good rapport in a classroom, the
level of respect, humour and safety is
almost palpable even though it is difficult
to describe .
Students trust the teacher to be even-
handed, and they know that they will be
listened to with interest. This means that,
as soon as possible, teachers should get to
know who their students are.
Because, as an eleven-year-old once said, ‘a
good teacher is someone who knows our names.’
There are several things we can do to make learning our students ‘
names easier:
Have the students sit according to a seating plan.
Have the students put name cards on the desk in front of them.
Have the students wear name badges.
Write notes about the students (what they look like,etc.) in the
class register.
Study the register before going into a lesson to try to fix the
students in our heads.
Take a photo of the class and attach a name to each student.
Have the students always say their names before they say anything
in a lesson.
 There are things we can do to try to ensure that good
rapport is created

The teacher’s attitude is also highlighted

Jim Scrivener suggests,
amongst other things , being
welcoming and encouraging
and remembering positive
things about the students.
by Rose Senior, who suggests being ‘with’
the students rather them ‘against’ them. We
should regard our students favourably and
give them the benefit of the doubt when
things go a bit wrong. She also suggests
rewarding the students by being ‘generous-
minded.’
We can add two more things to the list of what informs good
rapport,

Firstly, it is worth remembering that ‘eyes talk’. We

should show, by our facial expressions and by the way we
pay
attention to our students, that we are fully engaged in what
they
are saying and doing.

Secondly, a lot depends on exactly how we respond to what

our
students say and do.
 INSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Once inside the classroom, teachers have to ‘think on their

feet’.

This has traditionally been called ‘reflection-in-action

According to Richard Gabrielli, teacher’s actions ‘are
informed by thought’, and as a direct consequence of
this, it is vital for teachers to understand their own
thought process in order to make sense of their
classroom practice.
He calls this interactive decision making.
Where teachers actually position themselves also matters ,
especially when teachers and students come from different
cultural backgrounds.

Some teachers like to stand at the front of the classs, and

some like to sit. Some perch on the students’ table while they
are explaining things, others lean back, half –sitting, on the
teacher’s desk.
A good rule of thumb is to ask ourselves how we would feel
if our teacher behaved as we are doing, and the second is to
try to see ourselves through the students’eyes.

Issues of proximity and position are exactly the kinds of

thing we can investigate through filming –ourselves or
through action research.
Bibliography
Toon Vectors
LIVedChat
Quote Master
Thewellspringfoundation
Goodreads
me.me
123rf