3712. Is My Work as a Teacher Any Useful?

 One month ago I wrote down a note that said something like “The teacher’s function is to get knowledge into his or her students’ minds.” In fact it was taken from a book I was then reading, by J. B. Chautard, which book was published about a century ago, and it has been published into numerous editions ever since. Actually the note was in Spanish and it sounded kind of “La misión del docente es que los conocimientos penetren en las mentes de sus alumnos.” 

And I guess it’s just great, and nowadays we should say the same about our function as teachers. Well, you know, you teacher may feel some burn-out or you may be hectic, or even alienated, yet just let me tell you something which might perhaps help you out somehow. 

I consider the teacher as also – or primarily – source of knowledge. For that aim he or she ought to continuously keep learning and reading about the subject they teach. Just a few minutes per day, or half an hour if attainable. 

And then we have that teacher, philosopher and pedagogue Gregorio Luri tells us that that teacher needs to speak a lot in class: he or she is source of knowledge on the cell, or on Ancient Regime, or on phrasal verbs. And they have to speak well, with accurateness, exactitude and just an example to admire and follow: they have to get their students enthused with the cell, or the period before the liberal revolutions, or phrasal verbs. 

Each teacher should have one book in his hands, so as to put it. I think all this stuff is something to avoid it would be let down. Have a nice day, and if you’re enjoying your summer vacations, just rest to rejuvenate yourself: maybe a large group of students – and their families – are awaiting for you after the summer. Your work? Just crucial today!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3124. Our Attitude to Our Students

Image
  We teachers should be very human and humane with our students: with each and every student. Kids need adults that would listen to themselves. And they have us: they should expect we’re going to listen to them, in the classroom, at tutoring sessions, at the school halls, at the playground. As I said on the previous post we teachers could be like their dads or moms. Be careful: we teachers might be the single persons who could be listening to them. Maybe their parents are split or engaged in busy businesses and don’t listen to them much. Maybe not anyway. We teachers have to make those parents realize they must listen to their kids. All this listening to them by us is pretty educative for students. Better if male teachers would listen to boys at tutorials and the same concerning girls. Even more: we in some way must live for them, for any of them, and they’re part of our reason we go to the school every day: we owe ourselves to them. They’re the reason of our lives,...
Read more

3711. No pain, no gain

  What does an English language teacher wish, really wish? That his or her students would learn English! One point for you, for you got it!  Like a couple of days ago I wrote down some notes, in Spanish, whose translation would be, “In order for his students to actually learn English they need to read a lot, and write a lot, and speak a lot.” And that’s it. The article is over.  Yet let me tell you more about that point, just in case it may help you out, if you’re a second or foreign language teacher, or otherwise a learner of that language.  You know, it’s my experience, and a lot of people’s one. Since I’m a teacher, I’ve had to speak a lot in class, for my students to input a lot of English, plus from the CDs, plus from their class peers, plus from our assistant teacher. And by practicing a lot, I’ve learned a lot, I mean, to speak -- and much more I’ve still got to learn!  And I’ve read massively and intensively, and I’ve written a lot of articles on this ve...
Read more

3135. For Irish People but Not Only

Image
I dedicate this post to my Irish readers and so many of you who are in the US and Spain and all over the world. I miss Ireland quite much. - Be alert because I'm posting on the fact that the teacher has to be very human and humane, as you are. I'm posting on this maybe tomorrow, for I have not much time today. / Photo from Eskipaper, and it shows a cute Irish village, similar in some way to the places I've found in your lovely awesome country.
Read more

884. Another new beautiful vista

Image
Some of my adult students tend to say that they know little of English, whereas the truth is that some of them have an upper-intermediate level of language, I’d say. I teach a group of those people. They tell me they’re too old to learn – they’re recently retired workers. How much can they really learn and acquire, concerning some competence at communicating in English? I believe – some of them are rather oldish – I should help them become more capable of learning and acquiring English. How shall I do this, how shall I prepare them to become more skillful to learn and acquire English? Scholar and expert H. D. Brown wrote, referring to learners: ‘Don’t sell yourself short! You can no doubt take in a lot more information if you just make up your mind that you can do it and then exert some effort!’ (Page 50 from already mentioned A Practical Guide to Language Learning... ). Summing up: right now I make the resolution of trying to help those people become more skillful t...
Read more

921. Now classes are interesting

Image
One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, "Some students can see the subject of English as something boring and with no sense relating their daily lives. The coursebook of English, in some cases, could seem something that has nothing to do with their lives and interests. The failure number among students can be high. Well, then we have that the good teacher is the one who achieves his or her students work. If he's convinced that things have to stop being like that, little by little, with his or her continuous everyday work and enthusiasm (or at least sense of fulfillment of his or her duties as a teacher) in and out of the classroom, he or she will achieve a big improvement among their students, because that teacher will have learned how to have their kids see the positive points each single one of them actually does. One more word. In this blog we've talked a lot about connecting the subject of English with the students' real lives, like may h...
Read more