Hello everyone!
Today I encountered a website created by Lori Wolfe, "Fun to Teach ESL - Teaching English as a Second Language" and it included a finding on her post entitled "25 Things" of another blogger's post entitled, "25 Things Successful Educators Do Differently" by blogger Julie DeNeen. DeNeen's post included several factors that can be seen as important in the development of teaching. Wolfe proposed that the bloggers reading her post find which factors they held important to themselves. As for myself, I found that these factors were important out of the 25:
#1. Objectives: As a teacher, I feel it is best to know your objectives. If you are lost in this, then all else will fall behind.
#2. Purpose: Without purpose, we are aimless. As a teacher who is essentially leading others, especially in language learning, without a purpose we cannot lead.
#5. Positivism: Positivism is what drives motivation and vigor for those who are eager to learn. For those who are not eager, it still stands as a method in which teachers can utilize to drive the students into the path of proper motivation.
#7. Humor: Humor always finds its way into classrooms, although I believe its best to receive humor from the teacher rather than sarcastic or unrelated humor from students. It can be disruptive but if a teacher uses humor in context to the classroom environment, then it will ease the stress of language learning and provide a comfortable zone for students.
#10. Consistency: A teacher's lesson plan should be filled with consistency; with proper planning as well as proper follow-up, a teacher can set an example as a consistent figure. If students see their teacher as inconsistent with their teaching, then students will also be inconsistent with their learning.
#11. Reflection: Reflection is completely essential to teaching. Reflection teaches us as teachers to remember the things we did that ended in both positive and negative outcomes in our classrooms. With reflection we will surely benefit and progress as educators.
#12. Mentor: Personally I feel that a mentor is important because if we are alone in the field without any sort of guidance, we may be running around like a chicken without a head. My intention of going to South Korea to teach ESL already had be hoping to find a mentor there. Mentors serve as a guiding light for teachers who may be fresh out of certification, as we will soon be.
#13. Parental communication: A proper communicative connection with parents will raise their confidence in us as educators and will confirm mutual intentions for the progression of education in their children and our students.
#18. Providing emotional support to students: Emotional support is important, although I believe there should be a serious line drawn to it. Students, especially young children, need the support of the adults in their cultural environment; which includes home, school, the library and so on. We as teachers must guide them, but only within the boundaries that we set as educators. We must remember to not act as parents.
#25. Master your subject: A mastery of subject may take some time, but ultimately this must be something that we strive for as educators. Without mastery, how can we teach?
Reading DeNeen's post was very insightful to me and I hope that it will serve to help other educators, upcoming and current, to shape themselves in developing their teaching.
Have a good day!
J
Although all the things mentioned in the list are important, perhaps the first two strike me as most essential.
ReplyDeletePurpose can be interpreted as the passion for guiding students in their learning and this is essential.
However, after purpose I would immediately choose objectives as the next most important thing that successful teachers do. Unless a teacher bases lessons or activities on clear objectives, these can be disjointed from the overall plan for learning and can end of being just "time fillers" and not advance the students' learning.
Reflection struck me as important. It is critical that teachers become reflective practitioners. In doing so, they can evaluate what they have accomplished and refine their processes.
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