Practical Teacher Training Session: Exploring Roles as a Teacher
Sezgi Yalın, North Cyprus
Sezgi Yalin earned her M.A. as a Fulbright scholar in teaching English as a foreign language at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She worked as an English teacher, teacher trainer and director of studies in the USA and Poland, and gained additional experience in the field in various countries such as the UK, Spain, Egypt, China, Nepal, Tibet, Vietnam, Cyprus and Turkey. A freelance Pilgrims and CELTA trainer, Sezgi currently spends half of her year training teachers at St. Giles International Language Learning and Teacher Training Center in San Francisco. In the rest of the year, when she is not traveling to teach or train, she is a stay-at-home mother. Visit www.sezgiyalinteachingntravelling to read more about Sezgi’s work in ELT and her travel experiences around the world. E-mail: sezgiriza@yahoo.com
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Introduction
Stage 1 Brainstorming on different disguised teacher roles
Stage 2 Trainer’s reflections on stage 1
Stage 3 What are our roles?
Stage 4 Teachers’ version of the ‘Hippocratic Oath’
As I move beyond 17 years' experience in EFL teaching, I feel the right to protest! The various schools that hired me as a teacher in the past as well as the teachers in my MA program cheated me! No one warned me about what I was getting into! None of my teaching contracts have been 100 % accurate or inclusive! None of the several roles I have taken on as a teacher have been in my job description! And therefore, I warn you, teachers: be aware of the roles you are expected to take on when you are hired! You are expected not only to teach but to be reborn into several other occupations!
Topic: Better preparing teachers for disguised roles expected of them in their jobs
Participant type (Ps):
Pre-service teacher trainees and experienced teachers
Length of session:
Three hours – one hour given to research time
Resources necessary:
Related ELT books and the Internet
Encourage the participants to think about and discuss the following questions in groups: When you first became an EFL/ESL teacher or later on in your career, have you ever felt you were taking on different roles than the traditional ones expected of a teacher? (or When you start working as an EFL/ESL teacher, do you think there would be any similarities between your roles as a teacher and roles assumed in other occupations?) If so, what are these occupations? If not, what kind of occupations might you find/have you found yourself born into when working as a teacher? Give examples.
Explain that, in a sense, being a teacher might reinvent one as a professional/person without their control and conscious effort to stop being a person with more than one job title. Discuss how I naively thought that when a person becomes an architect, for example, s/he is an architect working for a company and not her/his own boss. Expand on how I further thought about other examples such as a musician always playing an instrument throughout his/her career and not moving into composing music. My inability to realize that a professional, just like in her/his private life, can fill in different roles has thankfully been shattered as I found myself formulating and reformulating my profession as a teacher in and out of class as analogies to different occupations, especially during observations of my trainees and post-observation meetings with them.
Awareness, self-reflection, inspiration and loving what I do have always pushed me to see ‘the angel in the marble’ and to carve it ‘until I set him free,’ as Michelangelo beautifully expressed. The fact that I was going to do the same in my career as a teacher had not occurred to me; having discovered it, however, has enabled me to dig deeper into myself as a teacher and hopefully share my discoveries with not only trainees but with colleagues and students.
If I were to compare a one-hour lesson with adults studying EFL to the life of a professional teacher, in this lesson (= life), a teacher would move from one occupation to another, and perhaps more than once. Being a teacher would only be a general umbrella hiding very cleverly several other occupations we might never think about. Perhaps it hides the other occupations so well that its role as umbrella dangerously hides its multitasking function and therefore, giving a message to many that a teacher merely teaches and thus the word ‘teach-er’ itself: n. One who teaches, especially one hired to teach
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/teacher).
We do teach and live up to the suffix –er in the word ‘teacher’ “used in forming nouns designating persons from the object of their occupation or labor” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/er). We also, however, drive, fly, and perform many other action verbs I could not possibly begin to list here.
Participants are asked to work in groups of 3 or 4 and decide on (one) particular role(s) a teacher might take as an analogy to a different job. They are then asked to clearly define what this/these role(s) is/are and how the role(s) is/are taken on by making direct comparisons to actual teaching in the classroom and/or interaction with students in or out of class. They are also instructed, if willing, to imagine dialogues with their students which make them feel like they are wrapped up in a particular job. The participants are also encouraged to take advantage of related ELT books about expected teacher roles and also the Internet to read more about the occupations they think they take on as teachers so that they can use concrete evidence when comparing their roles to these occupations. The participants are then to present their comparisons to the rest of group.
Below
are a few examples of comparisons made by participants I worked with, explained in detail:
Example 1
We, for example, drive, as if we were bus drivers during an hour EFL lesson. Observing the driver of a bus traveling each day for about an hour, it is clear that there are several passengers on board with different time limitations. Some of them want to arrive at their destination in about one hour while others are happy if they arrive a bit later. For the driver, however, it is crucial that s/he takes all the passengers to their destination in the time given. S/he tries his/her best not to be delayed when picking passengers up on the way, and s/he also hopes there won’t be any other unavoidable delays. If there are any, however, it does not surprise her/him as s/he now knows that this is a part of a bus journey, and also explains to the passengers that they might be a bit late but assures them that they will still arrive at their destination. Meanwhile, the driver looks at ease and relaxed throughout the whole journey, making sure all the passengers feel comfortable and secure, not having to worry whether they will arrive at the final stop on time.
When we walk into class, we are a bus driver with a lesson aim in mind. We want to reach that aim within the time given to us. Even though we have our lesson plan in our mind, as clear as the directions for a destination are for a driver, we know that there might be some unanticipated delays during our lesson, e.g., students might not finish a task in the allowed time or language related problems might appear that we have not anticipated while planning. We try our best to overcome these problems by being flexible and still reach our aim, making sure that students also feel satisfied, having had a good journey with no bumps and having reached a plus one in their learning curve. During the whole lesson, we also need to feel relaxed and at ease, giving our students a sense of security as to where we are taking them in their language-learning journey while we make sure they also feel relaxed and at ease with the way we drive our lesson. The main aim of the whole lesson is certainly accomplished through the completion of each stage aim of the lesson, and while driving each stage aim to its realization, we need to adjust our speed accordingly. Some of the stages might be more challenging, as are some curves for a driver, and in such stages, we need to perhaps slow down and be more cautious.
Example 2
During our lessons, we fly a plane full of students, as if we were a pilot. The consequences of a plane accident are certainly more serious; nevertheless, a teacher is as responsible for making sure that how s/he teaches does not cause any serious damage in the students’ learning process or worse, bringing it to a fatal end. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_error), a pilot might not exercise due diligence even though s/he could reasonably know of, for example, adverse weather conditions such a hurricane and take steps to avoid it. This error would certainly be considered the pilot’s, and s/he would be held responsible for the consequences. A real-life example is when a senior KLM pilot failed to hear, understand or follow tower instructions, causing two Boeing 747s to collide on the runway in Tenerife on 27 March 1977 and caused the death of 583 people.
Our students are like flight controllers, constantly there to inform us, the pilots, about what goes well and what does not during the lesson. If we fail to hear, understand or follow our students' signals, we may very well bring an end to their willingness to learn a new language which is usually quite challenging for many, if not all. One of the signs sent to us by our students is their facial expressions as to whether they are clear about a language point. If we cannot read facial expressions and act like everything is fine and stick to our lesson plan as it were the Bible, we then cause our students to lose faith in us and possibly lessen or even kill their willingness and enthusiasm to improve themselves in the new language. Another sign is our students’ reaction to our way of teaching. If we are insistent on teaching in the way that is more comfortable for us and not necessarily suitable to students' learning styles or needs, we would then cause some students to turn off their antennae and lose them. If we do not exercise due diligence to tune into the signs (instructions) sent to us by students and fly them into a hurricane, we would most probably cause them lose motivation, which is one of the most important factors when learning something new.
Example 3
Learning something new related to language is not only central to students’ needs but to teachers as well, and this need especially reminds us of a teacher’s role as a journalist, someone who always needs to update her/himself with new information to be able to stay on top of recent happenings. As a journalist, we have to read, for example, both local and international newspapers as well as listen to and watch various news stations in order to be able to inform our readers on current events, so we need to be informed ourselves first. Our endless thirst for learning and research through different means of information would set us apart from many other journalists. We would become a source of knowledge and updated information for others.
Not being exposed to English regularly in our country and/or not being surrounded by an ongoing array of seminars/conferences may cause us to feel an urgent need to find ways of being able to stay on top of all that is recent in our field and in the English language. In addition, teachers may have the kind of students who are avid language learners and often provide the teacher with ‘something’ they have heard on the radio or read on the Internet, and this ‘something’ may be a thing that we are not familiar with ourselves. We certainly want to be as prepared as we possibly can, finding out as much as we can about the language we teach and all that there is in the field that can be useful for us to be better teachers. After all, our students are our audience and the better we renew and polish our bank of knowledge, the safer our students will feel with a teacher they can look up to as an authority in the field of language learning. Or as Warren Buffett, an American investor, industrialist and philanthropist, states, people read what is provided to them by journalists “… to a degree, … to inform themselves – and the better the teacher, the better the student body.”
Example 4
Being available to their students with updated information/knowledge when interacting with them in or out of class, teachers often find that their journalist mask has a second face to it: They feel they have to become a coach/counselor/mind trainer for their students. A typical wordless dialogue that typically occurs between the eyes of the coach/counselor/mind trainer and of the eyes of their students about a student’s ability to learn a language is as follows:
Teacher : Are you ready to jump? (students being compared to parachutists, getting ready to use language freely) Jump, just take my hand and get ready to jump. Don’t look back. There are no limits to what you can do.
Student: Can I, really?!
Teacher: Yes, you can! You are infected with the ‘I can’ bug (originally used by Kiran Bir Sethi, an educator who launched an initiative called ‘Infect the mind with the “I can” bug’ to help children in India to take charge of their lives).
Student: Hmmmm – not sure….
Teacher: Yes, you can! Repeat after me – I can! I can!
Student: I can? Can I? Hmmm... I can?! I can?!! I can!
The participants who label themselves as coach/counselor/mind trainer list some other problems they sometimes have to listen to: troubled relationships with a partner, with parents, lack of self-esteem, inability to handle failure, panic attacks during exams, feeling lonely, difficulties adapting to the new culture (if they are in a country different than their own), not knowing how to study effectively, sleeping disorders, as well as a host of other life challenges.
As coaches/counselors/mind trainers, teachers remind their students of the need for patience and time when learning a language, at the same time nourishing belief in themselves and their creativity, in for example, developing ideas for writing. They point out the importance of having a goal worth pursuing, and that they should never give up on their dreams and that they can do it (i.e. learn a language) by telling themselves that they can. They ask students to observe three points, as if they were implementing Lojong, a Tibetan Buddhist tradition which involves practice in refining one’s motivations and attitudes: 1/ Practice regularly 2/ Do not waste time on the inessential (i.e., worrying that you will never master the English language) 3/ Do not always rationalize your mistakes (i.e., mistakes are good and they help you learn).
Example 5
Some of the participants considered themselves to be photographers. Their job, they believe, is to form memories for students through memorable teaching strategies and fun activities. To do this, they feel they need to be experts, just like a photographer, in using specialist equipment (e.g., teaching methods, visual aids, vs. zoom, stand) necessary to bring the language and its use (or images) to life. Even more interestingly, they feel that they have to take each student’s photograph as to identify their individual needs. Once these specific needs have been photographed, the teacher is responsible for dealing with them (e.g., developing the film, reviewing the photos and possibly discussing the quality of the images and how they can be further improved with the artistic director). In other words, while photographers need to be experts in professional image processing and editing, teachers need to know how to deal with students’ individual needs and guide them in working on these special needs. The same teachers also discuss how teachers are particularly like photographers specialized in human portraits. You need to love human beings to be a successful portrait photographer, just as teachers would have to love the students they work with.
Example 6
Some participants feel they are ambassadors of a brand they believe in, that is, their school. They are in a position to recruit more students through high quality lessons. As the word goes around about themselves as teachers and their school, they have to remain motivated and enthusiastic just like an ambassador, promoting interest in it and encouraging its rise in popularity. By meeting new students each semester, for example, and teaching to the best of their ability, they feel they are helping to maintain the success of their program and thus their school. In other words, teachers are walking, talking advertisements for their schools. They need to be available to assist their school through various promotional activities including presentations, information meetings, career exhibitions, contributing to newspaper articles and appearing on TV or radio interviews. Teachers do not necessarily do all this but how they teach their lessons, they way they treat their students in and out of class, the materials they provide for their students, the way they present themselves as professionals are just as vital as students will talk about all these to prospective applicants to the school.
Example 7
Some participants consider themselves to be dancers. Six elements are suggested to become a successful dancer, three of which are very similar to those teachers need to run successful lessons. The first is balance. Dancers need all parts of their body to provide support for the rest in order to bring a dance together in a stable way. This balance should remain constant whether they are dancing or standing still. In a lesson, a teacher needs to strike a balance among many elements, too. While it is a good idea to have balance among the language skills to be covered, there also needs to be balance among the activities, from controlled to freer ones. A teacher also needs to keep in mind the types of learners, visual, auditory and kinesthetic, and try to incorporate the balance of activities that would appeal to all of them. Balance is also needed when it comes to the pace of activities and stages in the lesson. Once all these elements requiring balance are put together, a teacher would present a successful performance, just like a dancer.
Dancers need gravity, the force that brings them back to the earth. They need to try to become aware of the pull in their body. What points weigh the most and when they push on these points, can they feel tension in them? If so, they should be holding themselves better. When they dance, they should direct the energy from these heavy points up through their chest. In multi-level classes and in those with difficult students, teachers might sometimes feel tense, as if they were dancers being pulled down by gravity, preventing them from having a successful lesson, perhaps questioning whether they are doing the right thing and enough of it to help those below the ‘expected’ level. Some use the difficulties instead and turn them into opportunities while trying to assist the difficult students and those whose level is lower than the others', becoming more creative in their ways to handle challenges, counting them as blessings which help them in the way they dance or teach, placing one more brick in the path toward their professional growth and taking those extra steps to help one more individual to cope with difficulties.
Third, centering is fundamental to one’s ability to dance or to teach well. For dancers, it is the ability to hold, move and organize themselves around their body. If not centered, a dancer will never be able to move well. Centering in class, in other words, leaving everything personal or irrelevant to the needs of the class outside the closed doors of a classroom is a must. Class time is for students only, and every second of it needs to be used to teach a piece of language or to build confidence in students’ journey towards becoming better users of the language. If this is not in the center of a teacher’s aim and is wrapped in unresolved personal issues or being in class for the sake of holding onto a job to pay the bills, this will be reflected in the lack of concentration or centeredness on the students' part. Imagine a dancer with no center – how effective would they be in holding their audience’s attention? A teacher uncentered will not be able to show students his/her ability to focus on his/her job either, thereby losing students’ trust in their expectations of a high standard learning time: “Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will be judged by only one thing: the result” (Vince T. Lombardi, a football coach and motivational teacher).
After participants present their roles to the whole group, they are encouraged to produce a teacher’s version of the Hippocratic Oath by including some of the roles of a teacher they listened to during the presentations. This oath can then serve them in their teaching career as a guide to be consulted and/or revised as they gain experience and add more roles. Below is an example of a teachers’ version of the Hippocratic Oath produced by a group of participants (the Oath was adapted from the modern version of the Hippocratic Oath itself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath#Original):
Teachers’ oath
I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
I will respect the hard-won research of those linguists in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for the benefit of my students, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of negligence of their needs and learning styles.
I will remember that there is art to teaching EFL/ESL as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the teacher’s chalk or knowledge.
I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to learn continuously or call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for my students’ benefits.
I will respect the problems of my students, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of learning and developing themselves as students and human beings. If it is given to me to help my students with their problems, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to help solve their problems; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.
I will remember to stay centered during lessons, leaving all personal matters behind and to strike a balance among the variety of skills, stages and activities to be presented in class. My responsibility includes to bring all these elements into my lessons, if I am to care adequately for my students’ learning.
I will be flexible when teaching whenever I can, for flexibility is preferable to students not learning anything.
I will remember that I remain a member of my school, with special obligations to all my students, colleagues and administrators, representing them to the best of my ability as a professional teacher.
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and the art of teaching, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of teaching and guiding those who seek my help.
Please check the How to be a Teacher Trainer course at Pilgrims website.
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