“Best for students or convenient for us” this
is a good question. I think this question can be reduced to whether there is a uniform
criterion to justify a good teacher. Or in other word is there some point in
life a teacher can comfortably claim he is good enough to fulfill every aspect
of teaching. Over the years the definition of teacher has changed, especially
in the last decade. A teacher used to be a person who is a master in one
particular domain, now other than that, he/she has to be sophisticated enough
to deliver his/her wisdom with the latest technical instrument.
Apparently, everybody has noticed this
urgency of this problem. During my four years teaching in Shanghai China,
multimedia instruments were commonly used in every class. To name a few, PowerPoint
presentation, DVD/VCD, projector and computer, these may sound lame now, but
they were state of arts at the moment. This example shows exactly how fast the
technology progress. I am sure, given the current tendency, it will propagate
at a pace no one can ever anticipate. Also, the Department of Shanghai
Education Bureau has a standing budget to train all the teachers no less than
once per semester, to help them keep up with not only updated technology but
also teaching skills.
So the question comes down to this, is
there a trade off between these two options. Benefit for students urge the
teacher to engage a life-long “suffer” in keep learning, while convenience for
us excuses teacher from all the “suffer”, satisfied at one point. As I said
before, provided the current trend, this trade off point may not be easily
found if not possible, this is the reason we come to this class.
In summary, the difference between a good
teacher and student is that student will not be a student once he/she graduate,
however, a good teacher will always be a student, in some sense, in the rest of
his/her life.
"... the difference between a good teacher and student is that student will not be a student once he/she graduate, however, a good teacher will always be a student, in some sense, in the rest of his/her life."
ReplyDeleteThis is a profound statement, Yun.
Does it follow that in some sense one goal of every teacher should be to inspire her/his students to become teachers of a sort, regardless of their chosen careers?
I was intrigued by the facts you shared about teaching in Shanghai. I'm sure many teachers reading your posting are envious of guaranteed professional development each semester!
Hi Dr. Thompson,
DeleteThanks for your complement, I appreciate that.
I think you are right, a teacher is the one that carries whoever depend on him/her in whatever profession, and a very good one should be the few that can carry his/her students to a level he/she never achieved at the same age. Thanks to those good ones our society keeps evolving in the right direction.
Training teachers regularly may sound impossible to most schools, but I am sure It will come around sometime in the future, since unlike the good old days, technical and social advances do not allow teachers mature/refresh at a generation basis.
Have a nice Labor day weekend!
Yun
Hi Yun,
ReplyDeleteI like that you boiled this question down to what makes a good teacher. I can say that I very much agree with your point here. A good teacher will continue to learn and improve for the sake of their students no matter what. In terms of technology integration, this would then mean that teachers who truly wanted the best for their students would be jumping for joy to even get the chance to further develop their teaching skill set. It is unfortunate that most school environments only have a handful of these good teachers. Teachers like the kind you speak of, ones that will always be students, seem to be a rare breed. Too bad, since they make all the difference.
Allison
Hi Allison,
DeleteThanks for your comments, I am with you on this one. Yes, not every school can afford to train their teachers at a regular basis. Only the big/rich cities can. Yes, not every teacher is committed to be a good one. But, we certainly heading to the right direction. And I am sure, this will become common in the future.
Yun
Hi Yun,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Teachers must develop their self by engaging in free training programs offered by the educational institution.
If every teacher can get this training opportunity we will be on par with the technical development that is best for our students.
Muneer
Hi Muneer,
DeleteAs an educator, everyone needs training programs to develop ourselves for better accommodate technical trends, I believe we will have the training opportunity in the future. Thanks for your comment.
Yun
I love the statement "the difference between a good teacher and student is that student will not be a student once he/she graduate, however, a good teacher will always be a student, in some sense, in the rest of his/her life." This is the reason we are all in this class. We never stop learning or improving our minds. As teachers we must continue to learn in order to prepare our students for the futrue.
ReplyDeleteHi Araceli,
DeleteThe only way to improve our capacity is learning, as a teacher, in order to keep up with the pace of technology we must keep learning, no matter for our students or for our own development. I believe our effort will be pay off in the future.
Yun