Great Teachers

 

We read and listen...

•  "Maestro es quien fomenta en sus discípulos la curiosidad por conocer" (Miguel Albione, head of UTN Buenos Aires, in an interview to "Clarín - Guía de la Enseñanza", on Feb 17, 2008)

APIBA Seminar Thoughts

The APIBA seminar "Career Paths for Teachers of English" took place on May 6th, 2006. This section collects some notes taken by LCB teacher trainees during the event:

• “Take Teaching as a platform, to keep the things real” - Pablo Toledo (Head of Educational Services of the Buenos Aires Herald)

• “To be ready to jump at a challenge” - Silvia Ferrante (Publishing Director of Pearson Education)

• “To be passionate” - Paula Coudannes Landa (Area Manager of Oxford University Press)

• “To be self-confident and patient” - Maria Marcela Marianelli (Academic Representative of Macmillan Publisher)

• “We have to open our own path” - Daniel Fernandez (Textbook writer)

• “Become what you are thought your history” - Litty Mora (Cambridge International Examinations Representative for Argentina)

• “Adapt our vision of excellence to the school culture” - Ines Cambiasso (Coordinator K12)

• “Teaching is helping to grow everyone up into an autonomous sensitive person” & “Variety is a challenge” - Silvia Ester Ronchetti (Lecturer in Methodology III – Teachers’ Training College Lenguas Vivas)

• And the most important one, said by almost all of the speakers: “Don’t give up”

• "Teaching is the profession that creates all other professions"

In Learning Teaching(1994:8-9), Jim Scrivener writes: The Effective Teacher.......

• "reallylistens to his students;
• shows respect;
• gives clear, positive feedback;
• has a good sense of humour;
• is patient;
• knows his subject;
• inspires confidence;
• trusts people;
• empathizes with students' problems;
• is well-organized;
• paces lessons well;
• does not complicate things unnecessarily;
• is enthusiastic and inspires enthusiasm;
• can be authoritative without being distant;
• is honest;
• is approachable."

"The man who can make hard things easy is the educator." ~ Ralph Emerson (1803 - 1882)

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." "~ William Arthur Ward (1921 - 1994)

"The most dificult art but at the same time the most useful one is to know how to educate" "~ Galileo Galilei

"The most socially useful learning in the modern world is the learning of the process of learning, a continuing openness to experience and incorporation into oneself of the process of change" "~ Carl Rogers

"I think what is most important for us as language teachers is to keep learning while we are teaching. We constantly need to reflect on our teaching, reflect on what goes well, for example. Find out more about why it goes well. Also look into things when we get a bit stuck, where things do not go so well and what we can do to improve on them. And what is probably most important of all – and will be very appreciated by our students – let’s keep a good sense of humour!" ~ Herbert Puchta (Ph.D. in ELT Pedagogy)

"As teachers I think we should, above all, genuinely be ourselves." ~ Nick Peachey (teacher, trainer and materials writer, British Council) discussing humour in ELT