Have you ever been in a situation where the students have complained about YOU (or perhaps a colleague) to you directly, their parents and/or the school? What was your reaction, what did you do about it?
Apparantly a complaint (or complaints) was made about me by an undisclosed number of students to their parents last week, the parent(s) in turn contacted the school. The complaint(s) were questioning my knowledge, just how good was it. Apparantly I said 'I don't know' to some of their questions during lessons. Well, I'm not a perfect teacher (yet) so maybe I did, but I usually bullshit my way through a tricky situation if needs be.
I have to say it really pissed me off, but the school were decent enough about it, telling me not to worry & make sure I know the lesson in detail. I began wondering what prompted a complaint in the first place after months of apparant satisfaction. Each of the kids in our programme has a computer & they have a habit of sneaking over to it & MSN'ing their mates etc. so I nicely asked em' to pack it in, they didn't of course. A couple of weeks ago I located the network server & managed to get some firewall rules implemented to block a whole load of sites. The students weren't happy about this, arguing they should be able to play games etc. at lunchtime. Now, I wonder if it was this that prompted a revolt by some students? A co-incidence eh! Well maybe & maybe not.
Now I'm on my guard against students & when they ask a question I just tell them the answer, I don't bother to try & illicite it or get them to think it through etc.
They are 'orrible little creatures.
There are certain students who will hurt a teacher anyway they can, by pouring their derision upon anything they do and exposing any weakness however carefully hidden.
They are evil.
Be careful...
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
Just say you were trying to get them to think for themselves. There are no perfect teachers or students - we all "don't know," somethings. I think it is a wise person who can admit that.
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and I'm wiser than most.
Last edited by mig; 10th November 2006 at 09:05. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
Bark like a Donkey!
My TGF was taught teacher's know everything.
"Ka warea te ware. Ka area te Rangatira."
don't let it get to you...keep going as before. but find a better response than, "i don't know..."
"...ever wonder why they kill the weak ones, baby?"
Try, "That's a very good question, but I hadn't planned to cover that today..."Originally Posted by Unwell
I used to use that one in Math class.
"It would seem that you have no useful skill or talent whatsoever," he said. "Have you thought of going into teaching?" - Terry Pratchett
that's cool. or, "we don't have time to cover that right now, come and find me later if you want to discuss it".
I wouldnt be surprised if they plotted against you after upgrading the security on Computers. I bet this is exactly what they did!
Don't worry about it. It happens to the best of us.
Foreign teachers used to always tell me it is always good to have the students on your side. Students have alot of power. They can make or break you. As corrupt as it sounds, it is very true. Good Luck.
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Math. You have to be very cautious in this subject particularly. In English you may be able to get out of a jam easily, not in Math! Lessons have to be carefully planned and you have to anticipate questions students can ask and how to handle them in advance.
Expressions, like the one you pointed out 'Nightowl' will get you out of a rut occasionally but it's not good to make a habit of it. (not saying you are mate!)
There are some preety sharp Math students in LOS that can have you pinned quickly.
Last edited by traveler2; 10th November 2006 at 09:32. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
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That was the best bit of advice I was given before I came over, get the kids onside & it really doesn't matter how poor you are at the job. TIT.Each potential new teacher here has to do a 40 min. demo lesson & his/her future depends to a large extent on the reactions/ feedback of the students.
In fact when I did my demo lesson, I had NO ONE checking me out, it was just the students & me. Fark knopws how I got the job, desparate I spose.
it's a bad sad to say but yeah, in thailand, give the kids what they want. don't fret about it, just do it. make them laugh, make them smile, make them tell mummy, daddy and their other teachers how much fun their silly white monkey is. the trick is (to satisfy that western, pedagogical western work ethic) to slip some teaching in there unnoticed.
always keep them happy. you don't have to but your work here will be much more tolerable as long as you do.
Banned how old are they, pratom? they ask some difficult questions don't they, like what's this?
only joking. the strangest thing i find is when you deliver a lesson to 6 different classes of the same age and they all enjoy it and seem to be having some fun with it, then you get to one class and you're full of beans only to find this class think you lesson sucks and you are an alien buffoon who is trying to trick them into using a language that isn't really English. i can never work it out. its not as if its always the weakest class either, its usually one in the mid range.
banned rise above it mate, if you are teaching a certain area that has some grammar in it do a bit of research first.
Those that want to read whatever they can want all freedoms, but have to understand they can have freedom, but it must be within the law.
Nice one!
Hey, we're in Rome. First: Spend at least 20 minutes cleansing yourself of any wrong doing. Second: Find out who really is responsible, then forgive them .. with a fake smile.
Young teenagers. Questions aren't usually difficult and I honestly thought up til' now they'd received a more than satisfacory service. If I don't have an immediate answer I usually wait until an opportune moment in the lesson, work it out and go back to the student (who has usually forgotton what they had asked in the first place). Anyway, it's all a quation of how you deal with enquiries, a number of stock responses as has been previously mentioned are the order of the day.
I've got one bird who studied in the U.S for 10 months on an AFS exchange thingy.
These days, back in M 6/7, she likes to try and catch me out and has a bit of a snotty Western teenager thing going on. But it's all good 'cos 99% of the time she's wrong!
The other day I pointed out that 'very fun' was sloppy and frankly poor.
'Looks ok to me' came her drawled response, which still freaks me out.
'Yeah but Cher, fun is an uncountable noun. You might as well say 'very water'. Try enjoyable.'
I clown around to get them on side, and it works. Not surprised at comments on another thread about highly qualified teachers going under here in LOS.
I'm everywhere you've never been and better than I've ever been
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