Thread: What are your strengths and weaknesses as a teacher?

I really wanted this thread to be minus the 'as a teacher' but it had no home, but feel free to comment about life in general.

It is often said that you biggest weakness is not admitting you have any and your biggest strength is admitting you do.

I've looked and I haven't seen a similar thread, but if there is, I apologise.

I shouldn't really need to say this, but this is a genuine thread and the legitimate answers will make good reading for me(but to be frank every other derailed thread was genuine too)

I just ask for the usual suspects to do one of two things, posts something genuine related to the thread and not to me or, and this would be my hope, just stay away.

Originally Posted by Cream

I tend to speak too fast when I think a class is advanced

Do you use your hands when you speak? I ask this because often people 'speed up' there body language and in turn speak too fast. Being a little bit more deliberate with the hand movements tends to slow you down a bit. I think this also ties in well with introducing 'hand movement' to an advanced class, killing the proverbial two birds.

As for your strength/s telling people what it/they are and why you believe this may help others who have it/them as a weakness.

I'm a bit of a pushover in class,
I talk fast when I get excited (that sounds dirty but I didn't mean it like that :D )
I use 'dude' and 'cool' far too often.

Strengths - umm. I'm approachable? The kids don't seem scared to ask for help or to tell me to slow down etc.

Originally Posted by Bird71

My weaknesses: I can be a little too strict sometimes, and I'm not always at my best. On the other hand, I love teaching (and seeing some of my students making good progress is my biggest reward) and therein lies my strength.

Instead of making it your biggest reward, make it theirs. Rewards are great, in any form, and teachers that tend, at times, to be too strict can often soften that perception with a reward. I've used little certificates in the past, with meaningful bit sometimes light-hearted awards, like managed to complete a lesson without speaking Thai or listened to the teacher not his friend throughout the lesson. Those as well as the more serious ones.

---Update---

Originally Posted by po3try

I'm a bit of a pushover in class

Is that a strength or a weakness? With the right balance, I could see that being a strength.

---Update---

Originally Posted by Cream

I use a lot of body language and use my hands like an angry Italian lol. My main strength is that I am a very relaxed person and rarely get mad.

Me too, but as things were flowing(well in my mind anyway) the hands got faster and so did the words. Being aware of this I started being more deliberate with my hands and in turn slower with my words.

For a lot of new teachers, the hand movements can be nerves and they can easily use those hands to solve the problem. Slowly gesturing a three syllable word for example helps speed and encourages better pronunciation.

As a teacher:
I'd like to think my strength is knowing what the students need to learn and what will be useful for them. I often ditch course books and make my own lessons geared towards the weaknesses of my sts. I don't have to follow a curriculum and that allows me the freedom I need to skip the passive voice lesson for upper-ints and go back to quantifiers and/or the zero article, etc..

I think my weakness is my seriousness. I'm no comedian and I'm more than willing to let the sts who aren't self-motivated slip through the cracks. I'm not a motivator. Mind you, the vast majority of my sts have been adults and I treat them as such. I'd like to improve on this but until then, it's a big weakness.

As a trainer:
I get anonymous feedback from every trainee at the end of a course. From their reviews, my feedback to their lessons seems to be valued. They say I take it more seriously than the other trainers and apparently my tough love approach is appreciated by more than I would have thought. Also, as the months go by my phonology lessons are getting better and more people seem to be grasping the importance of pronunciation practice.

As for a weakness, apparently I can be to impatient and condescending. I have no time for trainees who refuse to do work for themselves. I get frustrated with their flippant attitudes towards teaching and I will not tolerate laziness. I'm a bit of a task master and I know that rubs some the wrong way. The harder trainees work for themselves, the harder I'm willing to work for their benefit. Again, I am not a motivator and that's an issue for an educator.

Good topic idea.

Guitar (hand coordination in general)
Photography
Mechanical
Explaining things
Foreign languages
Driving
Lying

^^ yes jonny but what of your strengths?

Originally Posted by crew

I'm no comedian

Originally Posted by crew

^^ yes jonny but what of your strengths?

Modesty forbids? Okay you may not have reached top spot on 'ajarn's got talent' but, there is something there.

Refreshing thread so far.

Brings to one of my strengths, if I know it's right, no matter how rocky the road gets, I will stick with it.

Strangely one weakness I have in life is completely different when teaching. In life, I judge people too quickly, but it is the complete opposite when teaching.

A weakness when teaching is 'my favourites' I think we all have them, but I often feel some of mine are based too much on personality and not enough on performance.

^^ I can lift heavy things

Originally Posted by jonny danger

^^ I can lift heavy things

What about, using arrows because you are too lazy to quote :o)