Good Teacher

[shibli]

A good teacher prepares a lesson plan and follows it as such. For example, in each course we can follow the lesson plan in the following way:

Lecture 01: Introduction and Chapter 1 (What is business, what are the objectives of business, etc)

Lecture 02: Chapter 2

Lecture 03: Continuation of Chapter 2

Lecture 04: Review, and general discussion on sample quiz questions and human ethics and behavior

Lecture 05: Quiz 1 (Questions will be true and false, fill in the gaps, MCQ and short questions on chapter 1 and 2)

.......................................................onwards

Most of us remain so busy with student counseling, checking scripts and other academic, administrative and co-curricular activities that without following a lesson plan, we cannot reflect on our teaching.

We must follow a specific lesson plan, mustn't we?

[shamsi]

Definitely,it is good for a good teacher to follow a clear-cut lesson-plan.The teacher himself or herself can find out the difference between a class with a lesson-plan and a class without any lesson-plan.After a class with a definite lesson-plan,a teacher must have a feeling of contentment.Whereas,after a class without a specific lesson-plan, a teacher always feels dissatisfied and sometimes frustrated.

So,I think each and every teacher should reflect after his/her class,"How was my class today?".I am sure he/she will definitely get the answer and thus will go for a successful lesson-plan...

Shamsi
Department of English

[shibli]

Shamsi madam

Thanks for your reply. I would like to share one more thing. Some of us only emphasis on teaching Grammar in English 1 and 2. Very often students forget the rules of Grammar. What do you say to that? I think DIU students should be taught free hand writing and speaking too.

Regards

[shamsi]

Dear Shibli Sir:

We all know that teaching grammar only through rules is always something boring both for the teacher and for the learner.But sometimes,we the teachers have to go through this process for completeing syllabus;sometimes to pacify the learners who only want to know what will be there in exam,how will be the question pattern?,and how to go for that?...I don't think,that it is not our responsibility to guide our students how to prepare for exam,but I think that we should put them in such situations,where they must learn the grammar from respected contexts.And after that we have to confirm it again and again whether the students are using what they have learnt.If not,we will have to encourage them.Because,without practice,they happen to forget everything.They will be able to remember only when they will be motivated to remember.But you know,it is not that easy.Still,we will have to try again and again if we really want our students to talk English.At the beginning,it can be only one.But this one will motivate another one and another one.In this way,in the long run,it will be a good bunch...

So,when you dream,dream positively.When it is winter,spring is not far behind.

I wish you a very successful teaching career.

Shamsi
Department of English

[shibli]

Shamsi Madam

I like your positive attitude when you said, when winter comes; can spring be far behind?

Regards

[shibli]

Dear colleagues

The person who is self-educated is really educated, goes a proverb. Self-study is one of the most important things for students to do in order to qualify for an examination. Number of hours does not actually come into play when a student can actually study for 2 hours with the efficiency of 4 hours slog and there’s no point in studying more.

In classroom teaching, there are several factors which actually hinder the outcome of good learning. Since, the syllabus is quite huge and teachers are burdened to complete the syllabus in a restricted time frame, they often go on a faster pace. Pace doesn’t affect one’s learning process as much as the duration of each class. Long classes actually saturate students and they often feel tired and become less receptive. And in such a situation, our students, i think, can’t even take a break and let their brain become receptive again.

That’s where self-study outperforms the classroom teaching. When a student is studying by oneself s/he can actually take some time off and take break in order to get back to his/her usual self as an average student gets tired in an hour and a half or three hours.

To me, all that students need to do is to, draft a schedule and start working towards their goal in a systematic method. They neednot add up sky high study hours in their schedule as they are bound to lose on the track. They should Keep it straight forward and allot time to their subjects equally.

They should have understood that number of hours is not important but qualitative study is very important.

If they haven’t started doing this, they should start now as preparation which begins early will yield a much better result. As a matter of fact, we should inspire, instruct and incite our students to do self-study because i believe instilling a zest for learning is instilling a zest for life.

Regards

[shibli]

Good teachers show that they are the masters of their subjects. The first law of teaching is to "know your stuff," to be exceptionally knowledgeable in a subject area. This task never ends, because the flow of important research never stops. Staying current in one’s field is exacting yet crucial. Teachers must feel comfortable with a subject if they are going to succeed at explaining it. They should know how to talk about their subject from several starting points, prompted by a variety of questions. Teaching a subject is far different from conducting research or studying for a doctoral examination. No matter how good a teacher’s style or other abilities may be or how charming and devoted a person, the teacher will never be effective if he or she has glaring gaps in understanding the materials.

[shibli]

Great teachers know that they are always on stage and that who they are, how they act, and what they believe are as important as what they teach. Teaching, like leadership, is a performing art. Nonverbal behavior -- eye contact, posture, tone of voice, intensity, facial expression, and attitude -- have as much impact as, if not more than, what is said. Whether people listen to and believe, as opposed to just hear, a teacher depends on a host of variables.

[shibli]

Good teachers exhibit passion for their field. Memorable teachers are enthusiastic about their subject and teach with a joy and intensity that are often contagious. Time and again, former students recall their best teachers as those whose special quality was their infectious enthusiasm for what they taught. As Van Doren observes: "A teacher can fool his colleagues; he may even fool his president; but he never fools his students. They know when he loves his subject and when he does not" (1964, p. 39). What invariably touches the hearts and imaginations of students is a professor’s personal devotion to learning and truth. According to an old proverb, the mediocre teacher tells, the good teacher explains, the superior teacher demonstrates, and the great teacher inspires.

[shibli]

In concrete terms, the purpose of an education should be to prepare students for jobs that they will take when they enter the real world, ones that they can choose and ones that will earn their bread. Teachers should try their best to foster a desire for learning in their students, but it is really most important that a student is empowered to pick and choose which job they want; this could include pursuing a degree. They should be familiar with their strengths and weaknesses and learn how to use those to their advantage in the years following university. While there should be minimum standards for what all students are required to learn, education should ultimately lead to better self-awareness and a clear-cut path for success in the real world, in whatever form it takes for each person.

[shibli]

The objective of education should first always be to inspire students, be it inspire them to be better students and better persons. Learning can only come when a student is excited about what they are learning or how they are learning. The most successful students are those who have been inspired to become excited about what they are doing.

[shibli]

"Instilling a zest for learning is instilling a zest for life.

Few would dispute that the aim of education should be to produce individuals able to think for themselves and not merely follow what someone else has told them. For teachers to accomplish this is to concentrate on what M. F. Ashley Montague called "the drawing out, not the pumping in." Teaching should excite a youngster's natural curiosity. It was a wise mother who asked her young son after school not "what did you do today?" but "what questions did you ask today?"

The word "educate" comes from the Latin educare, which means, "to draw out" the student into a wider world of knowledge. It is by stimulating a zest for learning in general that teachers can perform their greatest service to those in their care.

Because teaching is challenging often with expectations from administrators, supervisors, parents, politicians, not to mention children, teacher burnout and stress related problems are a reality for part of the workforce. "A teacher is sometimes like a candle which lights others in consuming itself," wrote Giovanni Ruffini.

"If a doctor, lawyer or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some concept of a classroom teacher's job," wrote Donald D. Quinn, himself an experienced teacher. Faced with this daunting situation, some teachers can tire of catering to individual needs and striving for professional excellence.

Society has always expected an awful lot from its teachers, and now we are expecting even more from them. We expect them to serve to a large degree as surrogate parents, dealing with the emotional tangles and torments of the adolescent years. Teaching is one of those rare jobs in which one's work is wrapped up in one's personality. It is very demanding psychologically. The abdication of responsibility within so many homes adds to the psychological drain.

Yet at the same time as the complications and vexations of teaching life multiply, the public persists in undervaluing the teacher. Every thinking person would agree that the hope of the human race lies chiefly in education, but most of us pay little attention to the people who provide this precious service, nor do we give them much support in the vital job they do.

A tradition that has been lost and should be found
"If I had a child who wanted to be a teacher, I would bid him Godspeed as if he were going to war," wrote James Hilton, author of the great novel of teaching, 'Goodbye, Mr. Chips'. "For indeed the war against prejudice, greed and ignorance is eternal, and those who dedicate themselves to it give their lives no less because they may live to see some fraction of the battle won."

Not every teacher is a hero or heroine, of course. There are good, bad and indifferent ones, ranging from those who totally devote their lives to their students to those who give the profession a bad name. Our social priorities do not make it easy to encourage the best and the brightest to teach. Surveys of students who consistently get top marks in university show that they intend to go into more 'prestigious' and more lucrative professions. To a large extent, teachers themselves tend to be diffident about their occupation. "I beg of you," said William G. Carr to a representative teacher, "to stop apologizing for being a member of the most important ... profession in the world."

"Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition," Jacques Barzun wrote. If this society knows what is good for it, that regard will be restored. Parents and other concerned citizens will do all they can to make a teacher's life less troublesome and give due credit to the profession." extracted from internet

[shibli]

A focus on students will create a trend in which teachers recognize students as mature and capable judges of the quality of their education. And educators should adapt in a way that creates a better learning environment, one that gets students excited and gets them involved. This idea of regaining a sense of purpose in education would be the best-case scenario.

[bidita]

Dear sir

Thank you so much sir for your post.
I share my opinion with one proverb "I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand."

[shibli]

Principles of Accounting has the reputation of being a "hard and boring" course. It is difficult to motivate students to invest the time and effort necessary to succeed in the course. To meet this challenge, we have assembled a list of eight simple rules for keeping students focused and motivated. These rules are not original, and they aren't just for those of us who teach accounting classes. Indeed, most of these time-honored suggestions apply to any course students find hard and boring, and we think that makes them broadly applicable.

Rule 1: Emphasize the most critical concepts continuously. Reiterate these concepts in lectures and assignments throughout the course. Include questions relating to these critical subjects on every exam, thus rewarding students for learning, retaining, and, hopefully, applying this knowledge in a variety of contexts.

Rule 2: Provide students with a "visual aid" when possible to explain abstract concepts. A significant proportion of today's students are visual learners. For these students, a simple diagram or flowchart truly can be more valuable than a thousand words in a text or a lecture.

Rule 3: Rely on logic when applicable. Point out to students which information is merely "fact" that must be memorized and which course material is based upon "logic." Show students how to employ logical thinking to learn and retain new information. For example, in the double-entry bookkeeping system, "debits" equal "credits," and debit entries cause assets to increase. These are "facts" or features of the system; they are not based on logic. However, once the student accepts the system, logic can be used to operate within the system. Continuing the example, if debit entries increase assets, it is logical that credit entries will cause assets to decrease.

Rule 4: Use in-class activities to reinforce newly presented material. After a new concept or subject has been presented via text reading, lecture, or class discussion, allow the students to put the concept into action by completing an in-class assignment. These assignments can be short, but they must be developed to ensure that the students understand the critical concepts underlying the new material. Typically, the most learning takes place when the students are permitted to work in small groups, to refer to their text and notes, and to ask questions of the instructor while completing the assignment. If these in-class assignments are part of the course grading scheme, class attendance also improves.

Rule 5: Help students create a "link" when teaching something new. If the student can "link" the new material to something already learned, the odds of learning the new material are greatly increased. Examples of possible links include: prior material learned in this course (e.g., the critical concepts described in Rule 1), material learned in prerequisite courses, and "real-life" experiences of the students outside the classroom.

Rule 6: Recognize the importance of vocabulary in a course. Students often struggle with new vocabulary in many courses, especially introductory ones. To succeed in these courses, students must become comfortable with the new terminology. As subjects are presented, new and/or confusing terms should be identified and introduced to the students. Present "real-world" definitions and alternative terminology, in addition to textbook definitions. One way to help students assimilate the course vocabulary is to create a "living" glossary on the instructor's website where new terminology is added, explained, and illustrated throughout the course.

Rule 7: Treat students with respect. Patronizing behavior may be expected in primary school teachers, and :drill sergeant" strategies may be effective in military book camps. However, most college student will not respond well to these techniques. Give students their dignity, and they will give you their best efforts.

Rule 8: Hold students to a high standard. If students are not required to maintain a specified level of learning and performance, only the most highly motivated students will devote the time and effort necessary to learn. In contrast, maintaining high standards not only will motivate student learning, it will also be the source of student feelings of accomplishment when those standards are met.

Each of these rules can help motivate even the most lethargic student, but Rule 7 and 8 are the most important. If students are not treated with respect and held to a high standard, scrupulously following the first six rules will have much less impact and might end up being an exercise in futility.
Lana Becker and Kent N. Schneider, East Tennessee State University