Teaching is an extremely important part of education. A good teacher, someone who truly cares about his/her job can have a massive effect on their students: they can make a student become significantly more interested in the subject at hand (potentially developing a thirst for learning or acquiring knowledge) and can also improve grades. In an ideal world this would be common place but this is quite often not the case. I've got to know several dozen teachers over the course of my education in France, and while I have yet to encounter a teacher who completely fails at their job some of them could improve in a few places. Seen as I also envisage being a teacher in a few years time I thought it would be a good idea to write down a list of pet peeves I've had with certain teachers. You know, so as to not repeat these mistakes whenever I get the job. I mean who know's, I could forget something...
1) Be subjective with explanations, honest.
I love a teacher that isn't afraid to inject some of their own personalty into proceedings, it makes them feel more human (a rarity with teachers these days) and makes you like the subject they're teaching. Teacher's are trained to talk about their subject of course, and small talk isn't really something they have time for in the classroom. Injecting humour or some of your own opinions every now and then into proceedings are vital to getting the class on your side though. History in particular is a minefield for funny comments, for example you could make a joke about the ridiculously silly hats the French wore in the Renaissance era or the ridiculous number or Louis's over the years...History in general is one great bloodbath of dark humour just waiting to be explored. The important thing to remember here future me is to be yourself and not some emotionless robot that spouts cold facts for an hour. If you're passionate about your subject, we'll be passionate about it as well.
*RULE 101 OF HUMAN NATURE*: If you're nice to us, we'll try be nice to you back. You know that teacher that always smiles to you when you enter the classroom? You wouldn't want to disappoint him/her would you? Of course not, likeability is a great boon to those worthy enough to obtain it, and statistically speaking (as far as I'm concerned) it works. We have a habit of associating teacher's with their subjects, so nice/cool teacher = more passion/interest in the subject. Because the teacher associates a joke with a factoid about history you will most likely remember that fact more because you associate it with a funny joke made by the teacher. This means less revision time and you can concentrate more revision time on some of the less vital topics. But having said that...
I've known a few teachers who fall into this trap. It's a thin tightrope to walk but if you come off as too nice or forgiving the class will walk ALL over you to the point where you have no control over the lesson. Back in college I had a super nice German teacher who didn't have a strict bone in her body (she never raised her voice) and my class at the time were extremely disrespectful towards her: they openly talked to one another throughout the lessons, threw pretty much everything that wasn't bolted to the floor at each other and didn't give one sh*t about the language or the teacher. The class wasn't really like this in the other lessons, just in German. I guess you see the common denominator. Point being: if you have a weakness we will exploit it. They knew she would never punish them for anything they did. So what did the teacher do? 'If you don't listen you won't get good marks' she'd say, 'Those who listen will learn', or 'Don't you want to learn?' When appealing to their better nature didn't work (it never does), she threatened to talk to the headmistress. That means she was so incapable of handling the situation she had to resort to getting another adult to fix it for her. That's a tad pathetic, a good teacher should always keep their class under control and should toughen up in these circumstances. Now, you don't have to be Miss Battle-Axe all the time, but you need to have at least some form of authority over the class or it doesn't work in extreme cases like this.
3) Don't go on autopilot
I've experienced a few teacher's doing this. They don't seem to care whether we listen or not, they just go into some sort of zombie bubble and act out the lesson like the class isn't there. Class participation is almost none-existent and you get the feeling that they're all secretly an automaton with settings on autopilot mode. These are teacher's who probably have stressful lives or are bored with their occupation and just want to get the lesson over and done with. Or maybe they just can't cope with the early 8am start? Either way it isn't exactly the best way to engage your students, as in these type of lessons all we have to do is write down a few key words in our books for later and go to sleep. Sure our eyes might be open but when the teacher clearly doesn't give a f*ck then you struggle with having one. Bear in mind these teacher's do their job adequately well, as long as you revise you should get a decent mark, but other than the marks there is very little motivation on either side.
4) Keep things running, have lot's of class interaction
Protip future me: it's good to pace your lessons and make everything run along smoothly like a well oiled machine. Some of my teachers spend half an hour waiting for the class to finish an exercise that we had completed in the first ten minutes. That's a lot of dead time and you start to fall asleep (especially if it's late in the day), so try to reduce that. You can get a lot of things done in that 55 minute time frame. To keep us wide awake is to increase the level of interaction and randomly pick one of us to answer a question. You can be damn sure we'll stay awake then, just in case we'll be caught out by the eagle-eyed teacher and make a mockery of ourselves trying to answer a basic question because we weren't paying attention. Ideally you should try to have everyone in the class participate at least once every lesson, that way everyone will be alert and on their game, enabling more efficiency.
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| Pictured: the ideal classroom. Not pictured: REALITY. |
5) BE ORGANISED
Is it really so hard to get your sh*t together beforehand? Teachers are supposed to plan lessons out and have some sort of structure right? My current German teacher walks into class like she's all of a sudden inherited a severe case of amnesia and we are the ones doing the explaining to her about what happened last time because lord knows she doesn't know! Lessons feel haphazardly put together, and she ALWAYS forgets our names. IN EVERY. SINGLE. LESSON. I've lost count the amount of times I've been called Tom! This isn't a good start and it demonstrates a lack of professionalism. I mean sure these sort of things can happen but EVERY. SINGLE. TIME?! *SIGH* Just make sure you know what you're doing, okay? Keep tabs on your schedule, plan your lessons out beforehand. GET ALL THAT CRAP IN LINE.
6) Rushing lessons to meet deadlines is not a good thing
Due to the frequent holidays, days off and the usual winter sickness in France it's not uncommon for teachers to have numerous set backs during the year, to the point where it's impossible to cover the entire programme in the designated time frame. This often leads to teachers rushing trying to meet the deadline, which is bad for subjects like Maths and Science, for example. These lessons require a certain amount of time for a few of the more mind-boggling notions to sink in. Trying to cram everything and the kitchen into one lesson is not the best tactic, even if it is understandable. I'd say cut your losses and just try to do the best with what you've been given, it's better to cover a few things well than covering everything with diminishing returns.
7) Make sure we know what to expect from a test
A lot of teachers do this: they say we'll have a test next week but be incredibly vague about just what this test will contain, or the day it'll take place. 'It might be a bit of this...' they'll say, 'maybe a bit from that last chapter we did...' MIGHT is the big word here, as they haven't actually wrote the test yet and are being purposefully vague so as to not trap themselves in a corner. Look, can you at least give us SOME direction as to where to start revising? It's annoying to spend half the time revising for something that's not going to be in the test. I mean could you at least give us a hint as to what the subject is about?
8) Embrace technology
Back in June we watched an old German VHS on a T.V monitor that was practically black and white with the worst static droning imaginable. I'm not asking for ipad's to be handed out or anything, but can we at least get out of the stone age when it comes to teachers presenting media at schools? Why couldn't the teacher have just shown us a video on Youtube anyway? Apparently our Teacher has never heard of Youtube before, or Facebook. HOW CAN SOMEONE BE ALIVE IN 2014 AND NOT KNOW WHAT A 'YOUTUBE' IS? Quite a few of my older teacher's have been painfully inexperienced with technology, I mean basic things like switching on a computer and playing a DVD take ages for them to set-up. It could just be the computers, but watching a VHS? Get with the times oldie.
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| ipad? WHAT IS THIS WITCHCRAFT?! |
9) 'Why aren't you doing it my way?'
Okay this one really get's up my spine. It's nitpicky, but there are certain teachers out there who refuse to believe there is more than one way to do anything. It's little things like 'ALWAYS underline the titles in red' 'ONLY write in blue' or 'Make sure you write it EXACTLY like I worded it'. Back in College I had one teacher that insisted we had to get out a new sheet of paper for every new page of the test, rather than turning it over. Because heaven forbid he had to turn over the page! I also knew a guy in my class who somehow during Maths managed to get the same results but using a different formula than the one the teacher had outlined on the white board. The teacher insisted he rub everything out and start again using the formula he outlined. God help the poor sod who tries something different! Every student has different methods of writing down notes and planning exercises, so let them do their thing. Sure to you it may look like a labyrinth of intertwining words dotted around the page but to the student it's just the way he does things. Trust us to do the thing that's best for us basically.
10) On a micro level make sure every pupil understands
Trying to teach a crowded class of thirty and making sure everyone understands is hard, our education system would greatly improve if we focused on smaller classes. I don't need to tell you this, but *SHRUGS* that's how it is. Smaller classes means the teacher can devote more time to each individual student, essential for lessons like Maths or Science that people often struggle with. My old Maths teacher used to go around the class scanning everyone's work and when she saw one of us had got an exercise wrong she stayed with that person until they understood. That's great because you're getting help on a semi-regular basis and you don't even have to put your hand up. You want to know the main reason why we don't put our hands up when we need help? Nobody else is doing it so we're CLEARLY the only one with difficulty understanding something. You wouldn't want to look like a idiot in front of the class do you? Of course the reality is that EVERBODY is struggling to get to grips with a new maths formula, but none of them want to put their hand up and look stupid in front of the class so they keep quiet. Being thorough with your students is always welcome then. Yes there's no way in hell you can devote enough time in a lesson to everyone, so there will have to be a lot strategic planning on that front. You would need to a) identify the kids most in need, and sort them out from the whiz-kids, b) allocate spare time in the lesson to help these kids, c) concentrate on a few at a time and d) make sure you keep the lesson moving during all of this. It's going to be tough, but you'll just have to be logistical about it.
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| Counting down... |
11) Give us a full week to prepare for tests
Make sure you warn your students ahead of time when the next test will be, ideally a week in advance. Knowing a week beforehand will give us time to prepare and ensure a level of quality when it comes to revision. I know some teachers who leave it to the last possible second, which always means you're rushing to meet a deadline. Most of my revision for this year has been done on 'free hours', hours in the day where we have no scheduled lessons and can basically do whatever the hell we want. Seen as they come after the 1h15m lunch break on Monday, Tuesday and Friday there's a good 2h in the middle of those three days to focus on studying. I know the moment I get home after school I'm not going to be in the mood to revise for anything so practically all my homework is being done inside these three hour breaks. Announcing a test the week beforehand could potentially give me around 6h to revise then, time to become one with the subject matter if you will. Thankfully late in the week test's aren't often the case but it's still something to remember if you want to ensure your class gets a good grade (assuming everyone if your class will use the extra time to revise more...).
12) Have consideration for our workload on other subjects.
This one is linked to announcing test's in advance, it's mainly to do with workload. I know it's difficult to comprehend, but we have A LOT of other subjects, not just your one. And LOTS of other subjects means LOTS more homework, tests and just general busywork outside of school hours. So when several teachers seemingly conspire against us and put several tests on the same day that can be....kind of stressful for us. Not to mention difficult, as revising for three tests at a time is bound to result in problems during the exam. I for example can only keep one test in my head at any one time for fear that my brain will explode in pink mush. Teacher's don't do this on purpose of course, they simply don't look at our test schedule and act as if their lesson is the only one that exists. Giving us a pile of homework everyday isn't funny when you have several other piles lining up behind you, it can get irritating. Consider our workload, please.
13) Mix things up
Doing the same old thing day in day out can get tiresome for some people, so why not shake things up a bit? Granted your options are limited in the classroom but instead of doing a page of grammar exercises everyday how about showing us a few videos or make us play an educational interactive game on the computer? If the goal is to make the class learn English how about showing a film they'll like with subtitles on? Because let's be honest here: we'll only ever learn something if we want to learn it, whether that's to get good marks for a test i.e out of necessity or because we like whatever it is we're learning. I can name every episode of 'Doctor Who' because I love the show and I didn't have to study hard to learn them off by heart, they just come to me naturally. Students liking the lesson is paramount to getting them to liking the subject, and if you can do that then half the work's done. It's like the secret sauce of teaching.
14) Don't spam exercises
I had this French teacher once who for two hours every week just gave us a truckload of exercises to complete during the two hour, back-to-back lesson. While she was busy doing stuff on the computer we had to fill in ad nauseum the same copy/paste questions again AND again AND again. They weren't even imaginative, some exercises where clearly the same as before just with the words changed! It was pure paperwork to pass the time, plain and simple. Any teacher who just spam's the exercise button constantly deserves their spot in hell...in my humble opinion.
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| Putting spam in the trash, if only it were this simple. |
15) Explain to us WHY it's important we know this stuff
Lesson's can lack context at times. For example why did I spend four hours in Lycee learning about how frogs reproduce in severe detail? What is the point of all this? Telling us the reason for why we are stuck in a classroom to endure five hours of French every week could do wonders for our outside-starved minds. Or better yet, tell us why we should be interested in what you're teaching. Just give everything a purpose rather than having it seem like mindless filler to fill up a school week. PS: it being 'part of the program' doesn't work as a feasible excuse.
16) Don't assume we know everything, we don't.
Every time I come back from the Summer holidays I can't remember a bloody thing about what went on before it. Vague memories perhaps, but most of the notion I had spent hours revising for were completely absent from my long term memory. Teachers tend to file the past year under 'been there, done that' though and presume you have retained everything about the previous year. Well here's the memo: WE DON'T. Long, protracted holidays are the equivalent of mind-bleaching your brain and we'll ideally need a few weeks of catching-up before we start new territory. In Maths this can be a pain, as all of the new is at least partly based on the old. Treat the first few weeks as a crash course then on the previous year, it should come back to us after a while. Just make sure you don't skip over something vital because you're under the assumption we retained that knowledge from the previous school year. BECAUSE WE DON'T.
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| This is us after the Summer holidays. |
17) Don't be late for exams!
So let's say I have an exam that lasts one hour...except it doesn't. The teacher's are about eight minutes late (probably coming from another lesson, needed to finish their lunch...), and once everyone has settled down and got the necessary materiel out of their bags we're down another six minutes. Suddenly an exam that at a fairly quick pace is finish-able in an hour now has to be done in 46 minutes! Do you know how frustrating that is? Those fifteen minutes are crucial in a test, and could literally be the difference between life and death. You have little time to think about the questions at hand, and generally have to rush just to finish the test. So as a last piece of advice to future me, I'd say to always try to be early to a test AND plan your tests in a way that would take into account the necessary delay of about ten minutes give or take.
So will the 'future' me take into account everything I've put on this list? I sure hope he does, but if not then I want a f*cking explanation as to why he committed one of these cardinal sins of teaching!
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