Being a good teacher is not easy. It is not just about imparting academic knowledge to students, but guiding and inspiring them to be a better man. To achieve this, teachers should engage in different types of work, both teaching and non-teaching related, and work hand in hand with other stakeholders. The workload of teachers is so heavy that they not only have to teach, but also have to plan the lesson, give feedback to their students, handle non-academic related issues, such as students disciplinary problems, and so on.
Regarding teaching-related issues, there are several stages in teaching and learning, namely planning, teaching, assessing and reflecting. These four stages is a through and through cycle that the stage of reflecting contributes to a better planning.
Before the lesson, it is the planning stage. Teachers may prepare the teaching plan and the teaching materials needed in the lesson at this stage. Teachers should address the learning outcomes and plan related activities in accordance with students’ ability. The content should not be too easy or too difficult. If it is too easy, though it can build students’ confidence, they may lose incentives to learn. If it is too difficult, students will be demotivated. Therefore, teachers may prepare a good lesson plan with the learning objectives which consider the needs of students of different level and the associate teaching materials clearly stated in it.
During the lesson, it comes to the teaching and assessing stage. At this stage, teachers have to be very flexible as they play different roles in the classroom. Harmer (2004) suggests that teachers act as controllers, prompters, participants, resources and tutors in the classroom. Teachers play these roles at different time. For example, the teacher may act as a controller while they are explaining the instruction of an activity, a participant when students are having group activities, like discussions and role-plays. Teachers may facilitate and provide scaffolding to the students during the activities. Adults’ support can help students achieve more than they can. According to the zone of proximal development (ZPD) by Vygotsky (1978), children can go beyond their current level with the help from adults. The difference between what a child can do under the guidance of other and what he can do without help from others is called the zone of proximal development. During the lesson, if teachers can give support to students, they can achieve more and in turn meet the learning objectives as planned. Besides teaching, assessing and giving feedback to students are what teachers have to do in class. The feedback is useful for students to know how they are doing and have corresponding improvements afterwards. It is perfect if the lesson can follow what is planned in the teaching plan but it is still satisfactory if the teachers are flexible enough.
After the lesson, teachers may reflect what they have done in the lesson. They may trace back what were effective in teaching the students and what hindered the progress of learning. They can make improvements in terms of adjusting the teaching plan, creating new teaching resources and so on. Also, when marking students’ work, they may locate students’ common errors and give feedback to the students in the following class. Therefore, the next teaching plan has to be adjusted. Reflection helps teachers to look back and see what need to be carried on and what need to be avoided in the following lessons.
Besides teaching-related issues, teachers may have to handle different non-teaching related stuff after school. It may include disciplining and counseling students, meeting parents, meeting with other teachers, on duty, participating in school picnic and sports day and so on. That is why teachers are not only to teach but tons of non-teaching stuff.
In the educational community, there are numerous stakeholders that the teachers have to meet, namely, students, parents, social worker, principal, other teachers, Education Bureau visitors and researchers. To achieve the top quality of teaching and learning, close collaboration between these stakeholders is needed.
Teachers meet students on every school day. Teachers are fathers and mothers of students at school. Besides transmission of knowledge, teachers should inculcate students the correct moral values. If teachers find students have some deviant behaviours, they can first talk to and counsel them after school. If the problems cannot be solved, the teachers may talk to the student’s parents on parents’ day or even contact his parents right away. Pang (2005) points out that parents’ involvement in school education poses a positive impact on creating a better learning environment. The mentor during my shadowing day told us if the student was naughty at school, they might first communicate with the parents in student handbook. Most of them improve a lot. However, if the problem could not be solved, they might meet the parents face-to-face. Teachers may even approach the school social worker to work out the solution together.
During the shadowing day, I found my mentor got along well with the principal and other teachers. She told me that their principal seldom stayed in her room. Instead, she likes staying in the staff room. In this way, the principal and the teachers can have more opportunities to communicate with one another. Also, our mentor had lunch with other teachers in the staff room every day. They usually have some casual talk during lunchtime. This is one of the most enjoyable moments in school.
For visitors from Education Bureau and researchers, our mentor told us they visited quite often, approximately once a month. They observe the lessons and give feedback so that the school can make some improvements regarding the comments.
The educational field involves many stakeholders from different area. If every stakeholder can cooperate, the one who benefits from the education might not be the students only, but also the society as youngsters are the pillars of the future society.
References
Harmer, J. (2004). The practice of English language teaching. UK:
Longman. Ch 6.
Pang, I. W. (2005) School–Family–Community Partnership in
Hong Kong – Perspectives and Challenges. Educational
Research for Policy and Practice 3, 109-125.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher
psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
