A good teacher is one who is patient and kind, who uses all resources available to make impact on the learners. Although we have different teaching methodologies, the overall aim of any method is to help students learn and become better.
This objective or aim unfortunately is not met by many teachers today. Some are trained and qualified to teach in class, some are not but pick up the teaching job because there is no alternative in the meantime. As such, many do not deliver well to the students. Even some trained teachers have lost or forgotten what they learnt on how to teach.
I left my primary School 33years ago. I have met many teachers all my life.
Thank you @hivelearners for this topic. I have been asked to grade my teachers. Although I am a trained teacher now, but I am going to be fair in my grading. Hahaha. Let me just talk about a few.
Let me start with my Secondary School days. The teacher I would give the poorest grade is my Home Economics teacher. I am giving her 2/10. She is good.
I don't know if it's because she is too fat to stand and teach. She fights her body to move. Could it be all the cakes and cookies she makes as a home Economics teacher?
She comes into the classroom everyday and request for a seat to sit down.Why sit down to teach a large class? The way she talks, it looks as if the School management was forcing her to come to class and teach us. Words are heavy in her mouth and as such, she doesn't talk loudly. A good teacher should be audible and carry the whole students along.
I attended a Catholic Secondary School, it was one of the best schools around and as such, many parents registered their children in my School. The population of my class was more than 60 students. Many students especially those at the back could hardly hear her, yet she continues to talk. Some even take her period to be the time for siesta, yet she doesn't move round to wake them up to listen and learn. A good teacher should be able to ensure that all are attentive and then find ways to make the class interesting.
Many students hardly do well in her subject except when we organize tutorials for ourselves.
Another teacher I would give a poor grade is my Geography teacher. I am scoring him 3/10. Naturally I am not good at drawing. He makes us draw maps all the time and the worse is when he tells us to find the rivers, the trees, dry land and all that in the map. I was always confused in Geography class and everytime I ask for more explanations, he calls me names. I would look at the map and ask myself, 'where on earth can I ever see Sahel savanna, Sudan savannah and many more?'.
A good teacher should isolate the weak ones and personalize their teaching, even if giving them more tasks to help them catch up with the rest. But I was scolded for always asking questions and "pulling the class backwards"
At a point, my elder brother drew a map of Nigeria on a carton, cut it out and gave me. That was what I used in class to trace the drawing of map in my notebook. But I can't use that in exams. To tell you the truth, I didn't pass Geography in my final exams and I know I wouldn't. Map reading was another problem I had in the subject. No one to explain more how to read it.Some students would use a rope and even a broom stick on the map, I wonder what they were using it for. Hahahaha.
In the University, I would score one lecturer poor grade also. Let me give him 3/10. As far as I am concerned, he doesn't know how to teach. When he comes to class, he asks a student near where he ought to stand to leave there. He sits on a table and put his legs on a seat. I don't know about you, but the moment a teacher sits down to teach, it is already a distraction to me. Except if the students are few. He should stand and move round once in a while. But this one sits and begins to read his course material for us which he has made compulsory for us to buy. As he reads page 1 of the material, he asks us to move to page 6, then to page 15, then page 24, etc. He skips many pages and tells us to go and read it because "there is nothing hard there". After all the jumps, he tells us that the course is over. He then gives an assignment which is like a mini project, to be typed and spiral bound. The worse is that he doesn't mark our scripts by himself. He has boys who are "loyal" to him, whom he uses to mark. Meanwhile those boys can not be trusted; as such they use the opportunity to change scores for anyone who failed, provided they are "sorted".
But I would give good kudos to my English teacher in Secondary School. I am giving him 9/10. Up till now, I hardly read English but I can boost that if I write IELTS exams I would pass it in one sitting, hahaha. English Language is a course we view as Abstract. We can't see what we are learning but it is impactful and improving us. The teacher was patient and kind. He makes sure everyone is carried along and he gives exercises which he marks and corrects. He made the whole class love English Language and we were always passing the subject. The corner handling the diction part almost confused us though by twisting tongue and telling us that cup is cap and cap is cape hahahaha. But we would always go and get more clarification from the main English teacher and he explained how to transcribe properly without any help.
Lastly, I am giving great Kudos to my course adviser in the University.
Source
I am scoring him 8/10. Although he is dead now, but he will always be remembered for his hardwork. He teaches so well. First, his classes are for 7 O'clock. If he enters the class before any one of us, we would be disallowed. He takes his time to explain his course and makes it very interactive. What baffles me is that the students in the department offering his course are about 80, yet he calls everyone by their matriculation numbers. He hardly uses our names, He prefers to call our numbers.
One time, we were to write exams and the department insisted that it would only be written by those who had paid their tuition fees. One of the lecturers including him was there at the entrance of the exam hall. The lecturer would call us in by our numbers. But when he calls and no one answers ( because some are waiting to go in with their friends or whom they plan to copy from), that my course adviser would just drag the real student with the number called to go in. We were shocked. Even those running to the back, when the lecturer calls 42145 for example, my course adviser would say " where is Jane? That's her number, she was standing here now". He is a smart guy. We miss him when he died. I wonder if the department has another person who made such an impression on all of us. He knows his job and does it well.
I am a trained teacher now and I know what it takes to be a good teacher. If I am to grade all teachers I have seen but the ones that taught me all my life and the ones I have worked with, this piece would be too long to read.
However, thanks for the visit, I appreciate your coming. How about you, did you have great teachers? Tell us about it.
I remain yours,
@adoore-eu