I wanted to try a new thing for my blog, a near-daily posts in the name ‘My Random Thought of the Day.’ Whenever my mind wonders around, my mind often makes up random thoughts which leads to some complicated thought processes. I just randomly decided to share my… well, random thoughts on my blog.
I’ve passed through many classes with many different teachers in my school life. All the teachers have their distinct personalities, and their teachings, while similar to some others, stayed to their own methods. However, not all teachers were, in my point of view, good teachers, and some teachers were so bad that I basically passed through an entire year without pretty much not learning anything.
So, what makes a good teacher?
First of all, who are good teachers? Are they the teachers who teaches well so that the students learn thoroughly that they remember the contents of what they learned? Are they the teachers who tend to get close and friendly to their students, letting the classes go in their ways? Are they the teachers who believe in self-study, where the students learn for themselves and teachers to only provide the materials and guide them? Or how about the teachers who cram as much knowledge into students’ brains, only to let them catch up in later times if they could not keep up?
I’ve had plenty of teachers in above categories over the years. Still being a student, I can safely say that some of the above mentioned categories of teachers were not at all good teachers, either by not providing adequate education, or by providing causes leading to rebellious thoughts. Let’s slowly dissect the groups of teachers that were not at all great teachers. In my experience, they were largely divided into these categories:
1. Overly strict teachers
- I’ve had plenty of teachers in this category. This category includes teachers with short tempers toward talking students, those with too much regulations, those who do not provide leeway for any kinds of mistakes, etc. They are generally teachers who believe that a tight control of the students would lead to students focusing on the study subjects instead of socializing and playing with the others. After learning under plenty of these teachers, I learned that this surely was not a good way of teaching as some teachers might think. Too much regulations would pressure the students too much, which would lead some to collapse (both figuratively and literally) under the pressure. The class under these teachers are dull, with its students becoming zombies inside the boring classroom. Since the students find the class to be boring, fearing for whatever regulations they could break, instead of focusing on the study subjects more, as the teachers would wanted them to, they-we find ourselves do what we do when we find the situation boring-letting our minds wonder around. Instead of, let’s say, French Indian War (“Oh! What an exciting subject!”), they would instead think, “Oh my god, when does this class over?”
2. Teachers who let the students have their way
Yay, fun class, fun teacher! I’ve had several of these teachers. But the result at the end of the semester/year? Not able to remember much of the subjects that the teacher taught. In worst case scenario, the next level subject is not comprehensible as you did not receive proper education, although this is rare. One example of this is my eighth grade Language Arts-Social Studies-Science teacher (the ‘advanced class’ teacher who taught three subjects), who let her students wonder around and play as much as they want under the name of ‘making a documentary film.’ Although I do not know how she fares after I graduated, it is highly likely that she had either been removed from teaching advanced classes, transferred, or even fired.
3. Teachers who believe that students can keep up whatever they give
This goes hand in hand with the first category, but in my opinion, this is the worst way of teaching in terms of education. My sophomore year math teacher fits perfectly into this category. It seemed as if she firmly believed-or forced herself to believe-that everyone can understand and keep up with her class without stopping. Along with her probable I-hate-dumb-students™, which would not allow other students to ask for help during class and did not really help grasp the subject properly even during out-of-class tutoring, caused many students to receive lower grades than they could’ve had, with several failing.
These are major three categories of teachers that I came across over the years, with number 1 being most common.
EDIT: It’s been a while since I’ve visited this blog and I’ve long lost my train of thought. Therefore, there will be no part 2.
