Teach English in Daxing Zhen - Linyi Shi

How many times has it occurred to you or to people around you that someone does not enjoy a particular lesson due to having a “bad” teacher? How about the opposite? We all have, one point in our lives, ended up loving a subject because we loved the teacher. Effective learning is based on several factors which most of them are inward i.e. comes from the student, for instance, the student’s time management, ability, and interest. However, the teacher, on the other hand, has a major influence on the student as they are seen as the first producer of the lesson, and particularly language. The first force that makes a teacher a teacher is the passion they should have for teaching. Students can easily spot if their instructor enjoys their job, and thus results in making the students passionate about the lesson “enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm”. To love teaching does not mean being happy, overwhelmed, and positive all the time since a teacher is most likely to have stress, work-load, and responsibilities on a daily basis, but a teacher can prove to themselves and others that they love their job if: the teacher is organized and is ready to learn, prepare, and constantly conduct research to stay up-to-date, the teacher is sensitive and respectful towards their students, and colleagues, to sum up, metaphorically speaking, the teacher never stops being a student as the very first role of teachers is teaching and sharing knowledge. If the above actions made, the teacher is most likely to feel an occasional sense of achievement and comfort. Another vital role of a teacher is being seen as a role model. It is sometime believed by a few people that the personality of a teacher should not be considered as long as the teacher behaves well in class. On the contrary, it is widely agreed upon that the teacher’s personality has a great influence on the learning environment. A teacher cannot guide their students to work hard, and behave appropriately unless they themselves do so, and this must be indirect; the students should notice these traits in the teacher without being stated. First of all, the teacher must implement punctuality, flexibility, a sense of professional love, respect, and assistance among the students and between himself/herself and the students. In this way, the teacher can easily create a suitable learning environment since students usually mimic their teacher’s actions, be it young students or adults. In a nutshell, the teacher is responsible for the social atmosphere of the class as students’ behavior can merely be a reflection of the teacher’s actions and the environment the teacher has set. Building a healthy student-teacher relationship is a component that inevitably produces interest, obedience, and respect from the students. Teachers should understand that building rapport with students is not an easy task, and cannot be done in a short time, however, actions must be taken from the first session of the classes as it would be much more difficult to build rapport after control is already lost. Teachers should listen to their students, try to understand them, care about their needs and difficulties, support them, and have their doors open for them. Moreover, the teacher must never intimidate their students, and this can be done by continuous encouragement and constructive criticism upon making mistakes, another way to do so is to make them understand that even teachers make mistakes, for example, if a student asks you a question and you are unable to respond accurately, be honest and tell them that you will get back to them once you get the correct answer. These small actions would bring out honesty, commitment, and interest out of students. Above all, having humor and fun is a major key in the classroom and specifically in language teaching. Based on the previous factors mentioned above, the teacher should be cautious not to be too friendly and flexible with the students, and this takes us to another role of teachers: creating a balance between fairness and strictness. Teachers should be fair and consistent in treating the students, giving homework, assessing their works, and students discipline. For instance, if a student sees that you did not accept when the other day a student publicly answered one of the other students rudely, students would less likely repeat the same action. More examples of the fairness-strictness balance could be in giving homework, teachers should give homework on a daily or weekly basis as it is the only way that makes some students practice the lesson outside of class, however, if a student is missing a homework once in a five time, strict actions should not be taken because, once again, teachers should consider and remember that students have their commitments, too. Despite different factors that make learning effective, a teacher has a great duty in making the classes successful since teaching today is different from how they used to be years ago. Previously, a teacher was given a course-book and they were expected to cover the materials from cover to cover in a given time. While in today’s world, a teacher is expected to be multi-functional. Their role is to teach, support, assist, and create interest in their students.