Dudeson's, I have an example.
I had an interview where the employer had (unthoughfully) pitted me against another foreigner for the job. He taught 30 minutes, then I did the same. The students were 6 year old girls.
I had prepared a careful lesson based on the latest pedagogic techniques, and catered toward their gender and age. By the end of my lesson, they had learned to use some whole phrases, and to answer questions and respond with complete sentences.
But the other guy (a nice guy, nothing against him personally) simply leapt about the room making animal noises — cawing, barking, yipping, meowing, etc. — acting like animals and making the girls squeal with delight. At the end of his lesson, they had learned about two words, nothing more.
But the school and the parents watching chose him, because "he was more lively." They did not seem to care that my lesson was more sound, and taught more. And I was not deadpan either. I had them laughing too, just not shrieking in wild peals of bawling laughter as the foreigner pranced about like a clown.
Hi mmkunmingteacher
I am not doubting the truthfulness of your report although it sound quite one sided.
So this clown teacher leaped and screamed and made sounds for 30 minutes straight.
Short term he must be exhausted and losing his voice at the end of the class. But yeah that sucks. Since he most probably didn't say anything else or asked questions or corrected anything, I guess but I agree he sucked.
I hope they offer him annual Gatorade allowances.
And you managed in 30 minutes with 6 year old kids, including warm up, greeting and in the end [maybe] cool down and review to teach questions, corresponding answers, whole phrases, and answering in complete sentences, of course including comprehension of what they, asked and answered, in something roughly about 10-15 minutes including some kind of game or song and of course making sure that the majority of the class is covered.
Man you are an extremely good teacher. And you are lucky because the school most obviously doesn't deserve a teacher like you.
I dunno... again I don't want to doubt you. I like to keep my faith in honesty and humanity. I know the teachers you are talking about but even that sounds extreme for those guys.
May I asked you what phrases and sentences you taught. If you still recall?
Dudeson's, yes, it really happened. Obviously, the other teacher tried to teach them animal names, but they only remembered two out of ten because they were focusing on the antics.
As for me, one thing I got them to ask one another, and answer, was, "How many circles are on the board?" "There are three circles on the board."
I am sorry you tacitly doubt me, but yes, stuff like this happens alot.
I wouldn't say I don;t trust you I just think, it's a little over exaggeration. I have met teachers as mentioned here. But to that extreme that he is not able to engage kids with more than two words, seems wild.
And I stay to my word, that it is easier to teach a clown teacher than, trying to motivated a boring, self loathing, know it all teacher.
And that is why a lot of them get hired, that's why I hired them and they have been [so far] happy to learn, and not having heart attacks.
Loads of hard core going by the book teacher also have higher risk of frustration when they see what they believed in for their whole career doesn't work here, and too stubborn to adapt.
We can argue here for hours about what is better. I say both 'species' have their good's and bad's, and depending on what you want to invest and what you need, you can and have to choose. I made both choices a few times and it both worked out, in the end.
But in defense of "Captain Clownshoes" it sounds like your class was a review class, unless you taught them measurement, numbers and shapes in one class you had to somehow access their previous knowledge. Maybe the boss or person hiring wanted to see someone [very ridiculous] teaching something new, or looking for a raw [potential] diamond to work on.
That said, if you are the teacher that I think you are. then I know in fact that you are a very, very good teacher. So getting your services rejected by a school like that, is good riddance in my opinion. I think you can get better jobs and they will run out of business soon.
And their idiot teachers will die of exhaustion or as many clown teachers did, learn how to teach well with just enough entertainment, to keep the class interested.
happy kids = happy parents. if they kids is enjoying it, it must be good.
Dazzer so you say happy kids then the lesson must be good?
So how is this for a scenario? I walk into a class say "hello". Put on a cartoon which the kids love, because it is visually stimulating, and they get some idea of a story from the body language of the animation. The kids love it, they are happy. At the end I walk out. I say "goodbye". The whole class I say 2 words. The kids enjoyed it.
It must be a good lesson right?
To add on, that is something I saw happen in South Korea when I was teaching there. A prime example of a "clown". Here I don't mean an entertaining or exuberant teacher, here the "clown" is just a lazy fool. Sadly in Asia, there are just too many people like this that are given jobs as English teachers.
coz the parents want to see happy kids. happy parent = happy customer, good for business. remember most of these language schools/farms are businesses and education comes a poor second. ignoring that is naieve
Teaching is never either/or, 'clown' or 'boring, self-loathing know it all' (and as an aside, Dudeson,I read some of your posts and any loathing I feel is not directed toward myself, believe me). It is infinite shades of grey.
It's all about assessing the class needs, dynamic and personalities within, and adapting the lesson style to best serve them. There are many ways to teach a lesson, from the much used and abused PPP, to task based or communicative learning, and none of them is an educational holy grail. And yes, a happy parent is good for business until they realise they have spent ten years of fees and their kid will never get through the gaokao unless the questions are on parts of the body, or animals.
