Week 4.1 - Meth - Johnston answers 3,5,6

3) The first school I ever worked in had a very strict no fraternising policy. Anyone who was caught socialising with students would be immediately fired - no exceptions. I kept the rule however some of the other teachers did go drinking with the students. However I noticed that the dynamic of their classes was changing. We all taught in a big open room so I could hear their classes. When those teachers and students were in class, they seemed less structured than before, more like chatting. It seemed like the teacher-student boundary had become free talking because of their friendship. The identity of Teacher had been removed and replaced with Drinking Buddy. For this reason I decided that it was a bad idea to cross the boundary of the classroom. Since then (2001), I've deliberately turned down any requests from students to socialise. I valued the structural integrity of the class more than the bonding of socialising. It's different with work colleagues, but with students I prefer to keep a distance.

At the moment, I teach two people who I also work with in the same department. The longer we work together, the more difficult the classes are becoming. They chat to me in English in the office and it makes it more awkward when they chat to me at the beginning of class. I get the distinct feeling that they're thinking "why are we paying for this? We were getting it for free 10 minutes ago". Also the Teacher identity clashes with the Friend identity they're familiar with.




5) I believe myself to be professional. Professional, to me, means continuing self-improvement in the art/discipline of teaching, to be focused on the needs of the students, and that the student(s) should always leave the class with the feeling that they know something that they didn't know before or are more proficient.

I think I am perceived by my current students as experienced and knowledgable. The most consistent feedback I get is about clear explanations and examples. When working at a university in Korea, I was perceived as strict (perhaps overly so). This was the result of teaching Freshman who were still working from a High School kid mentality. If I was too flexible with deadlines, it allowed massive amounts of marking to pile up for me. I gave an inch, they took a mile (it's amazing how many people in a class can be ill on an essay deadline day!). So, I had to clamp down. I explained to them that it was also the way of the world - in the companies they would work in, a deadline is a deadline, "illness" or otherwise. I felt that, having tried to be the friendly liberal teacher, my professionalism had slipped somewhat.

I can understand Joanna's opinion, and have been guilty of it myself. I think there's a difference between commitment to teaching and commitment to a company. When a company starts exploiting your helpfulness, there's a natural reaction to refuse. In a company, I have done extra work that students have asked for help on, but refused to plan an intensive course for management that I wasn't being paid for. As for Bea, I'm not sure what "militantly professional" really means. Seems contradictory. In the Hagwon I worked at for the longest, I was definitely regarded as a better teacher than I was manager by the other teachers (and I can't really disagree). The upper management based their opinions of professionalism purely on the complaints received. This is not an accurate measurement of professionalism. There were frequent occasions where good teachers got (ridiculous) complaints and bad teachers somehow got few.


6) Religious beliefs do not affect my teaching at all. I'm hard-pressed to think of any class I've taught where there could have been any religious beliefs/values affecting it. I think a teacher doesn't have the right to explicitly share their religious beliefs (as in the example of reading from the bible every morning) as it could clash with a student's own beliefs, or just be unwelcome in the classroom environment. The students are there to learn language, not be lectured on whatever the religion of the teacher. Teaching abroad or teaching exchange students who've come to your country, it shows a lack of cultural sensitivity to bring religion into the classroom. It would be making your own religious values the dominent values of a class. If it's a religious institution, then that's a different matter, but except for that religion should be kept out of the classroom.