Taken from http://www.outreach.olemiss.edu/ProfDev/image/teacher.jpg
Teachers What it implies to be a teaching professional By María José Mesén-Molina Pre-Service Teacher, School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica Tuesday, March 8, 2016 Post 232
For this first chapter on Teachers from Harmer’s (2007) book, How to
Teach English, I had to analyze and define what a teacher is. According to Harmer (2007), a teaching professional can either be born or they can be made, and consequently, it can be stated that there are no set of rules that we have to follow to become a great teacher because instructors can be successful in many different ways. Teachers are very versatile individuals who must have a solid personality, be adaptable and also have the capability to manage different roles in the classroom. Having these traits makes being a teacher a little bit easier. However, besides those characteristics,
instructors
have
to
complete
tasks,
have
skills
and
be
knowledgeable. In other words, teachers are superheroes. In the classroom the number one client the teacher has is his/her students and to keep them happy, we
teaching professionals should be able to build healthy teacher/student relationships (rapport) by being fair with them, respecting them and -of course- recognizing each and every one of them. Before setting foot in the classroom though, teachers must first prepare their class, set up a record system and learn how to be reliable. Once they set foot in the classroom teachers must have a set of skills and have knowledge of certain tools to make the lesson flow easily. Amongst the skills they must know how to manage a class, successfully match tasks with its appropriate groups, have variety in the activities and understand clearly the destination the students have when it comes to learning English. Some of the tools that teachers must know how to use is the language system, normal day to day resources such as dictionaries, typical classroom equipment like the projector and pod-casts and -of course- being up-to-date on the latest teaching systems by going to conferences. Harmer’s (2007) chapter on Teachers -as a whole- was very informative and made me reflect on areas I have achieved and areas that still have room for improvement. Areas I need to improve on is my range and variety in activities and having a clear understanding of my students’ destination in the long run and not just in a short-term future. The part of Harmer’s (2007) chapter I did not fully understand that well was regarding the personality of the instructors. I understood the essence of the topic, but I was not able to take away a clearer message that left an impact on me in regards to an effective teacher personality. Besides this, the chapter is a great tool to reflect on and can be seen as a checklist to confirm areas of improvement for teachers that have years of experience but also new teachers that need to know areas they can work on before setting foot in the classroom. I am not sure if I would recommend it whole-heartily; however, as mentioned before, it could be used as a reference.
Bibliography Harmer, J. (2007). "Teachers." How to Teach English. Essex: Pearson.
Taken from http://p5cdn2static.sharpschool.com/common/resources/images/Cliparts/Teachers/Apple.png