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One Student’s Voice

by Theodora Papapanagiotou

A few months ago, when and I saw that there was going to be a “Student Voices Issue” for the iTDi blog, I knew just whom I wanted to help me contribute to the issue.

I have known Helen since kindergarten. Now she is almost 15. We have grown together, year by year, influencing each other. Helen is a huge Harry Potter fan and she has read every Potter book there is, some in Greek and some in English. The impressive thing was that although her level back when she started them in English was not so high, she insisted on reading the book with a dictionary next to her. It took her a lot of time to finish, but she showed real determination to succeed and even gave me motivation to go on as a teacher. She is a very bright young lady, hard working, strict with herself, but also very sensitive. I imagine her in the future as a doctor or perhaps a very knowledgeable scientist like her favourite character from Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper, who is both a genius, and a funny person in his own way. I find myself wondering sometimes if she is actually the teacher and I am the student. I hope you enjoy what she has to say.

An Ideal Teacher

Throughout my years as a student I have come across many types of teachers but only a few have fulfilled my expectations. Some were very meticulous while others did perfunctory work. There was also a special category that possessed ”magic powers” like a spell that made everyone sleepy and a special potion, which made a subject indescribably strenuous. So all these thoughts made me wonder, what makes an adequate teacher?

To start with, the fundamental role of teachers is to zealously hammer interest for the subject and not vigorously prepare students for exams and certain types of exercises. And even if they are obliged to do so, they should avoid the obsolete and conventional teaching methods to curb intellectual stagnation and blandness. The use of digital means in class can trigger the interest of pupils citing from burnout in a vast spectrum. Because of students intimate relation with computers, they memorize information more easily even when you bombard them with an abundance of details.

As for the student-teacher relation and the teacher’s behaviour in class, things here become a bit more complicated. Teachers should be adept, noble and in general role models for their class. Being demanding, frigid and strict isn’t going to help create an assertive and respectable teaching figure. Instead, teachers should shape more profound relations with every student and should not be afraid to deviate from the regular subject. It is also intrinsic to be armed with gruelling endurance and patience because judging the weaknesses of pupils isn’t a characteristic of a seasoned and considerate teacher.

Overall, I believe that the teachers’ goal shouldn’t only be transmitting knowledge but motivating students to search for it on their own. I realize it sounds a bit cliché but only in this way will teaching be a gratifying process for both teachers and students. My advice for all the teachers out there is: be witty and creative, don’t be afraid of exposure and your class will undoubtedly love you!

Helen Gkoura

Now that you have read her article, I hope you realise why I feel she is so special. Her incredible use of expressions and vocabulary in general amazes me every single time I read her work.

Deep inside she is a “normal” teenage girl with all the worries and curiosity of her age. As I mentioned before, she is really strict with herself and even if she knows that she is one of the best students at her school, she always strives to exceed herself. This makes me admire her even more for her wits, her courage to express herself, and her willingness to share her opinions.

Being able to teach and learn from a student like Helen, is like being part of the future in the here and now. Reading Helen’s message to teachers I see that students don’t only care about their own learning. Our students care about us, their teachers, as well. Listening to what our students say creates a chance to keep walking into that future with them together.

Theodora

Coffee, a student’s voice, and inspiration

by Kevin Stein

It’s a cold early spring day. I’m having coffee with Sachi, one of my former students. She has chosen a traditional Japanese house which was recently converted into a cafe. The floors are Japanese style straw mats. The coffee is served in bone-china so thin the light actually shines through the sides of the cup. From the large front window, we can see deer grazing in the park across the road. Sachi is wearing a sweat suit. She is, as always, smiling and relaxed. I taught her for 6 years in my advanced learner class. When she first came to my class, she was a medical student. Now she is an attending physician at one of the largest hospitals in Osaka. She is an accomplished member of the Japanese calligraphy community, a pianist, and is currently studying the art of coffee roasting. The following interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Kevin: So what do you think of the coffee?

Sachi: It’s good. It’s a light roast, but it still manages to have a nice deep note of chocolate and a nutty quality. That’s quite difficult to get.

Kevin: You’ve had a lot of teachers over the years, can you think of three teachers who are memorable?

Sachi: Actually, I can think of many teachers who are memorable. But it’s not just the teachers. It’s the whole class. When I remember a teacher, I remember a student or two and a specific lesson as well. The teachers who I have a hard time remembering is more like a big blank in my English learning. I can’t remember the classes at all.

Kevin: That’s interesting. Do you think there is some kind of connection between good teaching and this kind of bigger picture you have of the whole class experience?

Sachi: I think so. I think a good teacher is able to make all kinds of things stand out. The best teachers I have had really give the students a chance to express themselves. So that is probably why I remember my classmates in those classes. Of course it just might be my tastes. Maybe I like a teacher who doesn’t have to have all the attention all the time.

Kevin: When you were one of my students, you always took time to ask other students what they thought in class. You were an excellent listener. What do you think about a teacher’s responsibility to teach and a teacher’s responsibility to listen.

Sachi: You know, I’m a medical doctor, and when I first started working, I thought a big part of my job was to tell patients what to do to get healthy. Which is a very typical novice doctor’s mistake. Now I know that the most important part of my job is to listen to my patients. They often know what is wrong with them. But I have to help them find the words to tell me about it. In the same way, I want my English teachers to let me speak and to let me find the words to say what I want to say. When I am a student in class, I also want to see and hear how other students express themselves. It is an important part of my learning. So I think it is a great thing when a teacher can be comfortable not talking. Of course, I love to talk, too. So sometimes I think a teacher needs to find a way to tell me to be quiet as well.

Kevin: I’m just wondering, do you think there are any other similarities between being a good doctor and being a good teacher?

Sachi: In Japanese, we use the same word for both teachers and doctors. The Chinese kanji means, “one who has lived in advance.” I take this to mean that a teacher is someone who has traveled a little further down the road that the student is on. If the student is willing, a teacher can help them take the next step a little more quickly or smoothly or enjoyably. But it is still the student who has to take that step. When you are treating a patient, it is often the same. I am an orthopaedic doctor and a lot of what I do involves patients taking special physical therapies. I might offer the treatment, but it is the patient who has to do the work.

Kevin: What happens when they just don’t do the work?

Sachi: (laughs) Are you talking about how our class never did their homework? Seriously, there is nothing I can do. But there are things I shouldn’t do. I can’t make the patient feel like a failure. If I do that, they will never go to therapy. And maybe they will just avoid the hospital. I can listen and make a different suggestion.

Kevin: Do you have any advice for teachers?

Sachi: In medicine, even in my field, which is orthopaedics, we are starting to realise that there is no such thing as illness or injury outside of a specific context. There are no living organisms which develop independently from their environment. We are focusing more and more on the environmental factors that impact our patient’s health. What is the patient’s diet at home? What is the noise condition of the neighbourhood? Is it keeping a child awake late at night, interfering with their development? Is there anything we can do to help the family mitigate these circumstances? I think learning and health are probably similar in this way.

Kevin: So you are saying that the teacher has to be aware of a student’s wider situation? That we have to understand all the factors that impact their learning?

Sachi: Not ALL the factors. But some of the factors. And more importantly, I have to help my patients learn to see the factors that impact their health even when I am not around. This is something I am just learning to do. My very best teachers helped me do this with my English learning.

Our coffee cups are empty. The sky is getting dark and the deer have all left the park across the way. Sachi looks out the window.

Sachi: Maybe I should start taking English classes again. You know any good teachers?

Who we work with (the Coworker Issue)

When we step into a classroom, we are often entirely alone with our students. This feeling of responsibility and even isolation can be one of the hardest parts of being a teacher. But before we enter the classroom, we have the chance to connect up with teachers inside and even outside of our work place. Our coworkers help us to carry and examine our teaching experiences outside of the four walls of the classroom. In this issue, Michael Griffin and first time iTDi bloggers Laura Adele Soracco and Angelos Bollas, share stories and thoughts on coworkers, the people we work with, the people who sometimes help us become the teachers we are meant to be.

HELPING TEACHING TO FIND ME	ON LEARNING WITH AND FROM COWORKERS
WHAT IS YOUR COLLEAGUE TYPE?

Helping Teaching to Find me

By Laura Soracco

I did not go to college thinking I would become a teacher – teaching found me, and it kept showing up at my doorstep until I fell in love with it. As a student, I began tutoring Spanish and Italian as a way to have a bit of additional income. I remember how uncomfortable I felt when I got grammar questions, since I couldn’t really answer much beyond a “because that’s how it is said”. Learning how to teach languages was not really on my agenda. I saw myself as a political science and international relations person. But a month before getting my bachelors degree, I was offered a job training teachers in public schools all over the United States in a remedial reading program for students with reading problems. After witnessing the impact of illiteracy on so many students from different backgrounds, I started to feel differently about teaching.

The turning point in my career came after I moved to Colombia to take what I thought was a temporary job teaching English at a university while I figured out where I would go to graduate school. I joined the Foreign Languages Department a few weeks into the semester, so I was asked to work at the computer lab at first. Teachers came in with their students for an hour or two, and this gave me the chance to interact with everyone during the week. At lunch time, we often sat together and chatted. Having time outside of class to socialize made it easier to feel comfortable around my coworkers. And the way my coworkers accepted me made me want to learn more about English language teaching in general. I remember during the first few months, I was always holding on dearly to my textbook and studying the teacher’s resource book for all the advice I could get before class; fortunately my coworkers were always willing to exchange teaching ideas, tips, materials, or just listen to some of my concerns. One time I was embarrassed to admit I did not know what a clause was. I could not understand it by looking it up online either. Knowing that my coworkers could help, I asked the teacher who was known for being really good in grammar to explain what a clause was. Her non-judgmental approach was key to making me feel like I could reach out to others when I needed help. What is more important, nobody ever behaved as if my age or experience made a difference in my ability to teach well. These coworkers were a fundamental part of my training as an English teacher, even though I’m not sure they realize it.

I also made friends in other departments and faculties. We would often sit around the university’s main square after lunch, have a cup of coffee, and chat for a few minutes before going to class. Once, I even admitted to a psychology teacher that I did not feel like I could teach. I had only been teaching my own class for a few weeks and I was worried I was not doing a good job. He helped me feel like these insecurities were the rite of passage of teaching, that “nothing was wrong” with me.

Fortunately, professional development for teachers was a big part of that university. All new faculty were invited to attend sessions arranged by the school’s resource centre. The sessions helped faculty evaluate their curriculum, teaching strategies, and even how we spoke in class. I found myself enjoying the thought-provoking discussions with my colleagues at these sessions, and I knew then that I had fallen in love with teaching. These professional development opportunities were open to all faculty members, and I got to connect and form ties not only with English teachers, but also with teachers of other languages and teachers in other areas. Learning about the teaching context of faculty in other departments, like math or economics, gave me a better understanding of the challenges my students faced in their other classes.

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if my coworkers had not been so open to exchanging thoughts about learning and teaching English. What would have happened if I had been surrounded by coworkers who disliked their jobs, and did not feel proud of teaching English? What if my coworkers had not been willing to collaborate? I may have turned away from teaching. Instead, I can say that teaching found a way to my heart thanks to the enthusiasm and trust of all those teachers around me. Their camaraderie, their mentorship, and the love for what they do were the final push I needed to finally realize that teaching English language learners is what I truly want to do in life, and I will be forever grateful to them. What seemed like a temporary job turned into a life-long passion which has led me to an MA in TESOL and unforgettable teacher friends.

On learning with and from coworkers

by Michael Griffin

In a recent blog post over on my blog I gave some advice to my younger teacher self. One area I mostly skipped and glossed over somehow was co-workers. I did write in the post, “on occasion you will meet people who grate on your very last nerve,” but I think this is relatively rare. In my fifteen years teaching EFL in Northeast Asia I can honestly say, with some notable exceptions, most of the people I have worked with have been helpful, kind, and easy enough to get along with. I can surely say there were lessons to be learned from all of them.

[“6-Pack-Chicken-Eggs” by Evan-Amos.]

In my current teaching situation at a university in Seoul there are only two people at the university I am in regular contact with about teaching and education related matters. Maybe this is not so surprising. After all, teaching is sometimes known as the egg crate profession. While my current teaching context is somewhat isolated, I am lucky enough to have colleagues all around the world beamed in through the internet(s). My teaching life would be far less rich, fulfilling, happy, and productive without such connections.

When thinking about my teaching career up to now, I sometimes wish I’d been more prepared or willing to seize the moment and learn all the lessons I could from every single co-worker I encountered in my previous teaching contexts. I feel a tinge of regret over not making the most of the opportunities I was presented with. I taught with people from all over with a huge range of experiences, attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and manner of teaching. Perhaps at times I was a bit too caught up in what I was doing and my own immediate concerns which caused me to miss out on the learning opportunities the cosmos placed right in front of me.

There are a few things I wish I’d done as a newer teacher when blessed with the opportunity to work with large groups of co-workers. The first is undoubtedly to observe other teachers as much as possible. I don’t necessarily mean observe in the official or formal sense (though I wish I did more of this as well), I mean simply seeing how other teachers did their jobs and watching teachers in class as much as possible. In one of my previous positions, all teachers were expected to observe other teachers 3-4 times when we first started teaching at the institution. But this expectation evaporated when we were no longer new teachers. There are still some teachers I wish I’d seen! I also wish I’d taken the requirement more seriously and had observed far more than the minimum required.

I spent lots of time chatting with co-workers in my previous jobs and lots of good times occurred. If I could do it all over again I’d probably exchange 10-15% of the conversations about sports, politics, the economy, the weather, and other topics not suitable for a family or professional blog for more talk about teaching. I feel like I learned so much just talking shop with other teachers after classes were finished for the day. It was incredibly helpful to learn about materials, methods and beliefs. Yet, I think I could have gotten even more out of the experience if I considered this to be professional development and not simply killing time and procrastinating and avoiding preparing for the next day’s lessons. Looking back, I wish I’d realized how valuable such conversations were and could be and took advantage of them.

I also wish I’d tried harder in staffroom conversations to focus more on what was actually happening in classes rather than simply superficial and immediate impressions. I wish I’d focused more on student learning and what made us as teachers believe this was happening rather than relying on our gut instincts or our previous years of experience as students. If my memory serves, a lot of the conversations were like, “That lesson sucked, and wow they are really not into it today” or “That lesson rocked, what a great topic choice for that group.” I also wish I’d been better about uncovering and articulating beliefs about teaching and learning rather than sticking with the obvious and simple. In short, I wish I’d done better to foster and participate in more productive and reflective conversations when the topic was recent lessons and teaching.

I will stop here with the nostalgic regrets and I will hope there is something you can take from these thoughts, regardless of the size of your staffroom. The good news, if for whatever reason your coworkers are unable to give you the support and learning you need, iTDi is here to fill a lot of these needs in a collegial way. We look forward to connecting with you.