TESOL Course – Is the Great American Teacher Dead?-

24/09/2021; Week 02: Response to “Is the Great American Teacher Dead?”

Professor John J. Ivers from the Brigham Young University ID delighted us this time with this simple but important meaningful thought about teaching, “are the Great American Teacher Dead”? His instruction around this single question let me think a lot as I am an English student, L2 learner and future TESOL teacher.

Sometimes we can have misconceptions about what happens with students, why we do not get better results on them and how to change that reality. Throughout this article, I learned and reflected on so many new things, for my future position, as a referent of the class, a teacher.

Ivers shared that the “delivery” will be something that marks the difference, How we deliver a message or what we want to communicate to students change everything “education is more than just exposing people to the facts. It is an acquisitional process that without the proper delivery system, tends to fall…”. When teaching we need to put all our love and energy in, I know students will feel and see that because I was a student and when a teacher loved what he/she was doing then everything change and how I received the information changed as well.

Passionate teaching is needed, always. Instead of learning so much content in a day, pretending to accomplish more other kinds of goals, for example, participation, communication or understanding of students, should be needed and that will increase their self-esteem and feel motivated to move forward. A high number of students don´t feel comfortable when learning in the classroom and their shame affects them in many ways.

We will love this special mission if we love what we do, we need to change the reality and let students learn through meaningful lessons. Professor Ivers inspired me to be a passionate teacher, doing a little better and there are so many bits of advice to keep in mind that he shared with us. We teachers “shouldn’t fear to be a little more exciting, a little more courageous, a little more entertaining(…) a little more inspiring…“I want to be that kind of teacher who goes out and not only learn sitting on a chair in the class all time, I want movement, dancing, communication, go out to places and give out there the lesson, with authentic material, all that could help students a lot, especially when we know them and know how they learn because all of them will be different and with different capacities, inclusion is so important. As Ivers stated: “new ways of exploring the world”.

For Jhon Ivers, Transformative Education is a mode of learning that requires “deep and personal reflection”. We need to reflect on how we are doing, what works better and what aspects we can change. Ponder about our performance is so important because we can get a closer relationship with students and ask them through participation, letters or surveys how do they feel or if they like for example some aid utilized in class. 

One of the aspects to keep in mind is the attention in the class from students, it is common that students don’t pay attention to what is saying and we don’t want that. In many videos, I had the pleasure to watch Ivers’s lessons, and he did that perfectly. He caught the students attention through engaging activities, mysteries, great questions, etc. “After attention is required, one needs to maintain it by following what is known as the Ten minute Rule”. The environment of teaching needs to be welcoming, where students come and feel safe and comfortable., with a positive teacher-student relationship. It is important to get to know our students and help them to believe in their potential and get better performance feeling emotionally safe. 

Rainy days are present, why not? If we love this, we will always want to improve and get good results, so if we put all effort we can get higher job satisfaction, which will be reflected in our students as well. An educational environment needs to be full of “trust, optimism, respect, intentionality, and caring”, students need people who believe in them.

Let me share with you something else that caught my attention seriously: “It is obvious to consider teaching to be a science, but I think it is also an art form. Every time a teacher walks into a classroom he or she should take their craft as seriously as a Shakespearean actor entering the stage”. Teaching is an art, what a beautiful concept, we can make magic with it, it is flexible and when accomplishments are near you know that you are doing the best work ever, and doing what is needed: teach and learn with passion.

Finally, I’d love to share the Ten most important elements in good teaching:

• 
  
• -Positive teacher-student relationship
• -A good “delivery”
• -Edifies rather than damages a student’s self-concept
• -Clarity (through the use of many examples and stories)
• -Encourages deep and critical thinking
• -Variety instead of monotony
• -Grading and workload is generally perceived to be fair
• -Enthusiasm and zest for the topic
• -Meaningful to real-world problems
• -Potentially transforms one’s worldview from one of uncritical acceptance of cultural dictates to one of deep, reflective, and compassionate thinking.

All Ivers instruction prepare me more for a close future in Teaching. Professor Ivers said that we “need to take care of the troops” referring to the students and their learning. I think we have all to improve our performance as teachers and make a change in the world starting from this point: us, doing our best always.