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I've had entertaining teachers and I've had knowledgeable teachers and they usually didn't share the same body. Hence the dichotomy. One complaint I hear over and over is about teachers who know their material but cannot "teach" (usually meaning they are boring and it takes work to follow them) as if teaching is more important than content knowledge so I'm asking. Which is more important. Entertaining students or knowing and teaching your material? I have my own opinion as I believe learning is my job whether my teacher is entertaining or not and my experience doesn't support my learning more from entertaining teachers. I learned more from the boring ones who knew their material. They were the ones you could have deep conversations with about the material.
That's not to say I don't remember the entertaining teachers. I had one professor who was quite entertaining. Almost every demo he did went wrong. I remember him showing us diluting a sulfuric acid solution was an exothermic process. He used a metal thermometer and stood there wondering why it was smoking.... That was quite entertaining. That was also the class where he tried to accuse me of cheating because he had never seen anyone get the answer to a test question that was in his book. Turns out he'd been teaching how to do that problem type wrong for years. I was never able to follow his way so I used my own way that made sense to me. I was right, he was wrong. But he was entertaining.
I've also had professors that I thought were great lecturers that other people thought were boring. I could have listened to two of my professors all day long while others were falling asleep in class. Too bad they're both dead.
My experience is that the entertaining teacher who actually knows their material and teaches it well is a rare animal. I can't say I've ever had one. Some were easier than others to follow but the really good teachers just didn't fall into the entertaining category. It was the mediocre teachers like the chemistry professor who fried the digital thermometer in front of the class who were entertaining.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 04-05-2014 at 05:34 AM..
Bad poll. Learning, the vast majority of it, is fundamentally not boring.
We really do get it. You can stop beating the horse, it is clearly dead.
You think you're a good teacher, your students think you're boring. Therefore good teachers who are not boring must not exist. Now you made a poll to try to "prove" the point so you feel justified. Ok.
All teachers, even those who are wildly successful, constantly seek to improve all aspects of their teaching, not just content area. In all likelihood those who seek to constantly justify why they are weak in any area, even student engagement, are those who will never be great teachers.
Maybe, just maybe, you should spend just a tiny fraction of the time you spend justifying why your students are to blame, and why your admins are to blame, and why the parents are to blame, and just truly figure out what you can do better (and if you say nothing know you are lying to yourself) and you might become a better teacher.
Being boring is not the same as not being entertaining. There are excellent teachers who are entertaining while teaching all the material to a high level of competence. There are oodles and oodles and oodles of teachers who are not boring that teach all the material to a high level of competence. It is not an either/or scenario. Nor does it have to be a constant. There were times that we had a rocking good time in my class while quality learning was taking place, there were also times that to achieve that it was a snooze fest, and there was no way around it. I knew what topics required that and often warned the kids that it was going to be that way. I think they tolerated it well because it wasn't always that way.
Recent threads have me wondering what people think the real job of a teacher is. Please answer the poll.
Thanks
What does it matter what "people" think the real job of a teacher is? What matters (or should) is that YOU seem to not get it; or your admins don't think you do; or you do get it but don't like or agree so you purposely try to buck the system to make your point. Otherwise known as cutting off your nose to spite your face.
This poll, as others have indicated, is yet another example of you putting things in only "either-or" terms, and setting the stage for more examples of why you are powerless to improve your situation - because everyone else is just so wrong.
Effective teachers care about their students as well as their subjects. They care enough to WANT to make it interesting and they continually look for ways to reach their students. I have no doubt you are interested in and knowledgable about chemistry. I don't know that you are interested in people - including many of your students. Whether or not it's the case, you come across HERE as if you resent your students, their wealthy parents and the lives you perceive them living. And you want to make sure they get a "dose of reality" under the guise of helping them prepare for the hardships ahead. You even seem to resent other teachers, most of whom you believe have it "easier" than you for a multitude of reasons (their subject, their students, their schedules ...etc etc etc). It's difficult to have that much resentment toward others and be effective at pretty much anything that involves people. And like it or not, teaching is as much about dealing with people as it is about the subject matter. It doesn't make any difference how much you know if you can't effectively communicate with people - students as well as admin.
Last edited by maciesmom; 04-05-2014 at 12:01 PM..
Reason: sp and add'l thought
You are an amazing teacher regardless of...anything. Your students think you're boring, but it's not you, it's them. You are constantly at odds with them, but it's not you, it's them. Your principal thinks you're ineffective, but it's not you, it's him. You don't get along with parents, but it's not you, it's them. We get it.
Last edited by strawflower; 04-05-2014 at 11:47 AM..
Both are important... I don't see why these have to be mutually exclusive. Some of the best teachers I have had were both full of personality and energy an extremely knowledgeable in their subject area. Often times, in my experience, if a teacher cannot teach the students do poorly and I don't mean in terms of keeping attention, I know for me teacher who were "boring" were often the same teachers that I was afraid to ask for any help.
My classes now, focus on creating environments where students can both be engaged and learning....
The job of a teacher is to teach students how to learn.
I'm sorry that you apparently haven't had good teachers who know how to make the experience meaningful and enjoyable. The best teachers I have ever had are the teachers who are hands on, lots of demonstrations, explanations and letting students DO things. It's not the clowns who stand in front of the class trying to be amusing, nor the drones who put most of the class to sleep.
Math is a subject I don't care for. I've had teachers so dry and boring that I've literally fallen asleep in their class and learned absolutely nothing useful from them. I've had others that demonstrated the subject in a way that made it interesting. Learning geometry by simply memorizing formulas is boring, add a geoboard, go outside to measure the height of a flagpole, play with MC Escher drawings, and suddenly those same formulas become a lot more interesting! Doing those things is not 'entertaining' students, it demonstrates to them 'how' to use those formulas in a way that is fun and interesting and let's them 'do' things.
The job of a teacher is to teach students how to learn.
I'm sorry that you apparently haven't had good teachers who know how to make the experience meaningful and enjoyable. The best teachers I have ever had are the teachers who are hands on, lots of demonstrations, explanations and letting students DO things. It's not the clowns who stand in front of the class trying to be amusing, nor the drones who put most of the class to sleep.
Math is a subject I don't care for. I've had teachers so dry and boring that I've literally fallen asleep in their class and learned absolutely nothing useful from them. I've had others that demonstrated the subject in a way that made it interesting. Learning geometry by simply memorizing formulas is boring, add a geoboard, go outside to measure the height of a flagpole, play with MC Escher drawings, and suddenly those same formulas become a lot more interesting! Doing those things is not 'entertaining' students, it demonstrates to them 'how' to use those formulas in a way that is fun and interesting and let's them 'do' things.
I think the reason why you didn't learn anything is in your post. It's kinda hard to learn something if you are sleeping all the time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by maciesmom
What does it matter what "people" think the real job of a teacher is? What matters (or should) is that YOU seem to not get it; or your admins don't think you do; or you do get it but don't like or agree so you purposely try to buck the system to make your point. Otherwise known as cutting off your nose to spite your face.
This poll, as others have indicated, is yet another example of you putting things in only "either-or" terms, and setting the stage for more examples of why you are powerless to improve your situation - because everyone else is just so wrong.
Effective teachers care about their students as well as their subjects. They care enough to WANT to make it interesting and they continually look for ways to reach their students. I have no doubt you are interested in and knowledgable about chemistry. I don't know that you are interested in people - including many of your students. Whether or not it's the case, you come across HERE as if you resent your students, their wealthy parents and the lives you perceive them living. And you want to make sure they get a "dose of reality" under the guise of helping them prepare for the hardships ahead. You even seem to resent other teachers, most of whom you believe have it "easier" than you for a multitude of reasons (their subject, their students, their schedules ...etc etc etc). It's difficult to have that much resentment toward others and be effective at pretty much anything that involves people. And like it or not, teaching is as much about dealing with people as it is about the subject matter. It doesn't make any difference how much you know if you can't effectively communicate with people - students as well as admin.
I wish that I could say that it doesn't matter, but when you get online and see hundreds if not thousands of people (look at yahoo articles if you need proof), put down your profession, it's hard to not take it personally. I have taught at a school before and I did foreign language. It was VERY hard to make it interesting for students. I didn't have money for manipulatives and we also had no dictionaries or software such as rosetta stone. I did the best that I could with what I had, but even after explaining why foreign language was important and even giving extra credit options, I still had people fail. Some said I was boring, others just didn't care. To this day, I can still teach my subject with ease, but I was never taught how to make it "fun".
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That was quite entertaining. That was also the class where he tried to accuse me of cheating because he had never seen anyone get the answer to a test question that was in his book. Turns out he'd been teaching how to do that problem type wrong for years. I was never able to follow his way so I used my own way that made sense to me. I was right, he was wrong. But he was entertaining.
