Leaving Certs :What makes a good teacher?

lauralee28

As I am reading another thread (quality of school), I am suprised/bemused by some of the comments made about teachers in schools.

As a leaving cert student, what in your opinion makes a good teacher? Describe a good teacher vs a bad teacher?

pathway33

Good teachers: Physics, Maths

Bad teachers: Irish, English, French, Economics, Biology

Why?

Physics teacher is absolutely brilliant because he hammers the definitions into us. He is aged 60 plus and comes from the old school. We respect him and he respects us. He is the teacher most feared even though he rarely shouts. It's a combination of fear and respect. He consistently gets the best results in the school.

Maths: Age 40s. Again brilliant. Not feared like the physics teacher but has the ultimate respect of the class. Gives us exams every 2 weeks so we know exactly where we are. Cracks the odd joke. Can really get the message across. There is no them versus us attitude. Constantly gets excellent grades

Irish: Age 40s. Constantly goes on about how he has already passed his exams. No system. Constantly makes jokes at how thick some pupils are. Laughs at us. He has no respect for us. We have no respect for him. Gets very poor grades in the leaving cert year after year.

English. Age 40s. Hello. We are not doing a Masters in English here. Writes out pages and pages of notes that are so much above leaving cert honours english level that it's completely irrelevant. Lots of messing in class. Gets poor grades. Hardest working teacher we have but go get a job as a professor where you belong.

French. Age 40s. OMG!!! Constantly going on about his boat and his holidays in France and why France is so brilliant and Ireland is so crap. All in english! Will have a one-to-one conversation with a pupil from the top of the class for fifteen minutes about local burglaries or underage drinking. All in English! No messing in class. We just do our maths homework.

Btw all teachers are male.

Economics. Age 40s. Hard working teacher. No messing in class. Starts off explaining a concept well for 10 minutes but once he starts drawing graphs on the board he is finished. Poor grades over the years.

Biology. Late 30s. Just reads out of the book. Wouldn't know chalk if......

Sophsxxx

I think the teachers that are so obvious in their dislike for their subject that they're teaching are crap. I have a few of them in school and I find myself losing interest in whatever they're talking about.
I also used to have a maths teacher who hated to actually do more than give a quick explanation of qs. If you asked a question, she tended to make you feel like a total inconvenience.
But teachers that actually enjoy teaching are brilliant as they don't tend to teach it like it's the most boring thing they've ever done.

fkt

A good teacher keeps things as organised and simple as possible.

My business/econimics teacher: Explains concept of chapter, gives us her own defenitions(keeps them short and simple) and doesn't give us suprplus information(i.e. she doesn't do every piece of info in every chapter). As simple as that really. And she doesn't use books which bore students to death.

My geography teacher: Stands at the top of the class reading from the book. Absolutely no conscience of what's happening in front of her(we can do what we want, basically). We have no notes copy so it's pretty unorganised. She's a "know everything in the book" teacher. Nothing is kept simple.

She's absolutely awful and most students would agree.

It's pretty much the same in French. The most unorganised individual I've ever come across.

My English, business and economics teachers are pretty much as good as I could ask for. I'm doing pass maths and Irish so they're always gonna be pretty simple regardless of teacher.

BDR

Good Teacher: has the respect of the class and silence as soon as they walk through the door.
Teaches the course that needs to be taught, tries to teach exactly what needs to be known (not necessarily the whole book)

Bad Teacher: is totally spaced out during class, believes the class when they say 'we got no homework'. can't control the class etc

Cian92

A good teacher:

-Makes sure everything is concise, and tells you what you do not need to know.
-Is organized.
-Can control the class, yet never shouts.
-Uses humour.
-Makes the class interesting.
-Will tell you what you should be studying (at the start of the year my biology teacher handed us out a study plan, from then untill the pre's)
-Is not hypocritical ( I have a teacher who gives out to people for being late yet is constantly late herself, really you will not listen to somebody like this)
-Should care for your general well being aswell as your results.
-Shouldn't give you loads of homework, yet still get the work done.
-Smiles and laughs! (every year hDips come into the school, who never smile, they try to be as cold as ice, people see this and take advantage of them)
-Have no fear of breaking petty school rules if they see necessary. (Our principal has put in place alot of school rules which are plain out stupid, some teachers are afraid to break them)
-Don't waste anybody's time by giving out lines or detention for small things. (being late, forgetting a book etc)
-Doesn't give out. If somebody gets a bad result being disappointed is much more affective.

These are the traits of the best teachers in my school!

Lawliet

My biology teacher is very good: knows what she's talking about and knows how to explain it in simple language. She doesn't waste time making us write out notes or answer questions from the textbook, she hands out her own notes and spends the class making sure we understand them then asks us to learn them. If she does give us written homework it's nearly always in the form of exam questions, writing out experiments or practising diagrams. She doesn't waste time yelling at people for not doing the work, preferring to take the "It's your leaving cert, I'm not going to drag you through it" approach. An all round amazing teacher who's also very nice. Wish I'd had her since first year.

On the other hand my geography teacher is not great. Very disorganised, doesn't give great notes which is especially bad since the textbook we're using doesn't give enough information to answer exam questions properly. She can't control the class and spends a lot of time yelling at people for talking or not doing their homework. Gives us a lot of waste of time homework i.e. questions that would never appear on an exam paper. I'm glad that as a repeat I have all my geography notes from last year, I wouldn't like to have to rely on hers.

Respect and control is vital, alongside an obvious thorough knowledge and passion for their subject.

elaine93

Good teacher: English, science
Bad teacher: Irish, maths, business, history, physics/chemistry

Good:

English: Doesn't allow messing, really loves his subject, really enthusiastic. Encourages everyone to think for themselves and allows any answer as long as you can back it up. Doesn't give too much homework so you have time to study. Always corrects things on time and gives everyone back a constructive comment. never makes you feel stupid. Gets the course covered early.

Biology: Allows no messing,comes prepared to every class, really clear, gives great notes, loves her subject. Gets the course covered early

bad

Irish: Didn't get the course covered at all. Miles off the end of it. Sick a lot of days, late a lot of the time, never came prepared, spent too much time dealing with students who couldn't do the work because they insisted in moving up from ordinary level to honors. Did not give any notes, didn't work from the book.

Maths: again spends too much time on lesser able students, meaning we are way behind on the course. Teaches bad methods, not the fundamentals you can apply to everything. Does not give notes. Too much repetition.

Business: spends the whole class talking about his home life. Would be good if he ever stayed on topic.

History: rambled a lot, didn't give good notes, couldn't control the class, spent too long on each subject so we were nowhere near the end of the course.

Physics and Chemistry:
Arrives late every class, takes another 20 minute to set up, never comes with a class plan or notes. Last week we made boxes in class, nuff said.

I think the most important thing for a teacher to do, at least in an honors class is to love their subject, enjoy teaching and be able to control the class. The other thing is to realize I am here to learn, not for anything else. Teach the course and don't screw around. I also think they shouldn't give you too much homework, especially not stupid drill work or short answer questions which you don't learn much from but take up loads of time. They should just say give me as much as want to give me as extra homework, otherwise I'm assuming you're studying yourself

theowen

A good teacher doesn't just read the book, as opposed to a bad teacher who does.

Bhoy_

What I've found is teachers that try to earn respect of the students through fear and punishment usually get the opposite results. My favourite teachers are either in History or Art. In History he never really shouts or hands out punishment work, but everyone has a lot respect for him. He tends to be lenient about homework and the likes, but everyone has everything done to a high standard for him everyday. In Art she treats everyone as her equal, but keeps control of the class. Its a delicate balance, that seems to have mastered. In all I don't have any "bad" teachers, just some can't keep control of the class and others seem to be too smart to teach and go at a much faster rate than the students can handle.

Evan93

In my opinion a good teacher is one who treats everyone as equals. I have a mixture of strict and leniant teachers. If you get the respect of the students you can teach them whatever way they want and they will listen. Giving punishment work and detentions at Leaving Cert level is ridiculous, however for those imature students, its all that can be done.

K4t

I had an English teacher for 5th year who puts the majority of my college lecturers to shame. His enthuasiasm for and knowledge of the subject was quite remarkable. He didn't sit behind the desk once for the entire year. I kid you not! Definitely the most interesting teacher I've ever had.

Personally, I wasn't able to concentrate for the whole year in subjects where the teachers taught purely exam material and concentrated completely on the curriculum.
I found myself wavering in and out of the subject during the course of the year.

This never happened with the English teacher and this is why college pisses all over secondary school as a learning experience.

Mary007

Good Teacher :
Who is actually just over 65

• Gives work regularly, but not too much.
• Corrects essays etc quickly ie. within the space of 6/7 days
• Doesn't do the same thing everyday, alternates different parts of the syllabus.
• Doesn't take sh!te
• Is very fair
• Works with people who are working and helps people who aren't
• Actually cares about the students and what they want to do after the LC.

Bad Teacher :
Age - Late 30's

• Stubborn, will not listen to anything
• Does not care about students
• Will openly humiliate students infront of class
• Does not cover the whole syllabus
• Isn't bothering with exam papers
• Is frequently out of class
• Rarely gives work but when they do they take months (no exaggeration) to correct it and when asked where it is gets thick
• Patronising

Daragh101

Bad: english teacher.

• havent started paper one.
• doesnt listen to students.
• makes us feel stupid.
• gets thick with you if you ask questions!(no joke)..
• up her own hole.

all and all a complete and utter bitch!!!!!!!

jc2008

I know this sounds weird, but I love it when teachers have tests/essays/homework etc. corrected and handed back the next day. One of my teachers is always like this. Excellent teacher (geography, female, around 30yo) - really hammers the information into us by giving us constant tests, and even oral tests on the information we learned in class the day before.

However, my physics teacher stands in front of the class and teaches, but doesn't really test to see whether the people actually know anything. Although there is only 8 in the class (and that is HL and OL level mixed, even though there is only one OL student, out of a year of 170) he can often take days to get the tests back.

rebel girl 15

Very interesting to read - at the start of the course I'm doing now, we did a session about reflecting on the teachers that taught us. We pretty much came up with all the traits that were posted here about being a good teacher and bad teacher.

From my perspective

Good teacher

• Good content knowledge and will use other resources besides the book - make it interesting
• Care for the students - empathy - will give extra hours to help students
• Interest in the subject and enthuasism- some teachers get stale and thereby show a lack of interest
• Good classroom management and use of appropriate sanctions - safety a huge thing
• Giving responsibility (it was mention by a poster that the teacher didn't give out notes if they didn't have work etc, thereby giving the responsibility for the work to the student)
• Mutual respect
• Promptness in giving back work
• Organised and ready for class
• Work is exam orientated - very important for 6th year!
• Very important that they are fair and consistant - one of the traits most looked for
• Approachable and personable - doesn't give the students their life history, but tries to relate to them on a personal level (empathy)
  
  
  

I'll probably think of a few other things later; bad teacher is the opposite of the above!

rebel girl 15

Cian92 wrote: »

A good teacher:


-Should care for your general well being aswell as your results.
-Shouldn't give you loads of homework, yet still get the work done.
-Smiles and laughs! (every year hDips come into the school, who never smile, they try to be as cold as ice, people see this and take advantage of them)
-Have no fear of breaking petty school rules if they see necessary. (Our principal has put in place alot of school rules which are plain out stupid, some teachers are afraid to break them)
-Don't waste anybody's time by giving out lines or detention for small things. (being late, forgetting a book etc)
-Doesn't give out. If somebody gets a bad result being disappointed is much more affective.

These are the traits of the best teachers in my school!

there is a thing in teaching, that HDips are told that they shouldn't smile until Christmas - it doesn't work! It is a myth that is given to a load of student teachers - we were told not to do it!

ldxo15wus6fpgm

Bad teacher - Higher Level English - mid to late 30's.

Absolute spacer. Always on about the "negative energy" we give him. Have had classes with this guy with less than 100 words said, and no instructions to read/do anything. Class is 40 minutes long.

Constantly popping pills in front of the class for this that and the other.

Always on about something that was in the news last night or on Primetime/The Late Late etc. topics include the recession, the budget, the hse. Generally moans about the government and the problems in society.

On the rare occasion that he decides to do some work, he reads everything directly from the book. I can do that at home myself.

If someone asks a question, he tries his best to make them feel stupid so he can go back to whinging about brian cowen/reading the book/ mixing his daily cocktail of drugs+tea.

Any sign of working by yourself while he rants on about the state of the country causes him to lose the f*cking plot. Last year he fired a chair at the wall (i was not in the class so i'm not sure why exactly, but i know it was something trivial)

I had the guy for JC. Was not best pleased when i found out i was in his class for LC. Tried to get into the other HL class, only to learn that he's best buddies with our deputy head, who pretty much runs the school. Needless to say i got f*cked over with detentions and countless letters of apology. I missed 3 weeks of class because I wanted to better my education. Not that I missed much of course.

Oh and i completely forgot that he sometimes pulls out a keyboard and plays it for the remainder of the class, sometimes even trying to make us sing along.

zoom!

A good teacher is somebody who knows what he/she is talking about. This means that his explanation for something in the book is eaiser and more concise than whats actually in the book. He also has to prove his intelligence by showing the class interesting things about the subject that he has learned which is not in the LC syllabus.

Secondly, he has to be understanding. If you don't have your work done, they will let you off and give you some more time. But they also have the cop on to know when a student is being lazy and just not bothered. Also they have to be respected. If your a young teacher reading this, please take my advice. By shouting when ur looking for attention and silence makes you seem that your unworthy of students immediate attention. It will get you silence for about 1 minute but after it will continue.

Lastly, the teacher has to care about the students. If you became a teacher for the pay and the holidays I don't want to be in your classroom. Your a teacher because you care and understand the importance of education in a persons life, not because you wanna be able to go travelling over the summer.

Aoifums

The Good
Physics - I love this man! He is the most amazing teacher I have ever had. There are only seven of us in the class so he will go over something until we all get it. Has no problems redoing something if you don't understand it. He respects us, we respect him. Doesn't mind if you forget homework once you've done it (and trusts us to tell the truth on that). We don't use the book much, mainly for the diagrams and questions. He's been giving us exam questions since the third week of the year too, which really helps. He lets us take breaks because he's realised we drift during the double.

The Alrightish
English - She's ok but can get really, really boring. Doesn't allow the class to talk at all, which is bad because I find english is one of those subjects where you just need to confirm something with someone.

Irish - Gives us great notes but expects us to learn them off by rote. Gives constant tests.

Maths - Not too bad but treats us like we're still in primary school. As in, we still write in pencil in her class. She's had to go next door to the HL teacher to ask her about certain questions before.

The Terrible
Biology - Reads straight from the book, we underline and write our own notes that night. Does not realise how heavy the biology book + a note book is. Can't answer a question at all. She just gives a vague answer that confuses you enough to make you be quiet.

French - She comes late, corrects our homework, writes some stuff on the board, gives homework, end of class. The other HL class have been writing and speaking french all year. We learn at home, haven't learned anything all year.

Home Ec. - Angry, bitter nun. Doesn't like students. I have no idea why she became a teacher. Doesn't like us asking questions. Is condescending and just generally mean. Reads straight from the book and gives too many tests. She also gives out to us for not covering the course quick enough. She has spent full classes giving out to us. The amount of 20 - 35 minute rants she has gone on is insane!

Aoifums

Makenzie Chilly Sty wrote: »

Oh and i completely forgot that he sometimes pulls out a keyboard and plays it for the remainder of the class, sometimes even trying to make us sing along.

If I could give an award for the funniest thing I have read, this would get it

MultiUmm

Aoifums wrote: »

If I could give an award for the funniest thing I have read, this would get it

+1

sounds like a pure father ted moment to me lmao

partyatmygaff

English
Excellent teacher, she knows her stuff (Her spelling can be a bit off sometimes though =/), Forgiving with homework, Generally 3 days to correct 4 page essays which is great, Gives excellent notes.


Irish
Probably one of the best teachers I have ever had, He tells us what we need to do to study, gives excellent grammar notes and is probably one of the funniest teachers I have ever had, Intertwines humour with learning. Gives back homework after 1 day. Controls the class through respect.

Maths
Ok teacher, Never gives us notes but always gives solution sheets for homework which is pretty helpful. Theres not much a maths teacher can do wrong I suppose.

Chemistry
Absolutely excellent teacher, He never uses the book except for experiments. He explains everything by a mix of talking and powerpoint presentations and practical examples. Gives excellent concise notes on paper so we don't have to spend hours copying from a whiteboard. Gives regular homework and corrects it quickly.

Biology
Excellent teacher, almost the same as my chemistry teacher except she doesn't use powerpoint and she uses the book alot more.

French
Brilliant teacher, homework is back in 1 day (Or less sometimes:D), A bit late for some classes but during class she teaches excellently, I suppose the fact she is actually a french person helps too .

Engineering
Not that great, He knows what he teaches very well, but he just cannot control the class, the class of around 16 is mostly filled with immature kids who spend the entire class taking the piss out of him. He's always late for class and sometimes never even shows up. We do absolutely 0 theory, its all practical and the odd explanation of something. Gives homework but he never ever checks for it or even remembers he gave it.

dustintheturkey

Good teachers like students, care about them and their future.
Because of that, they are experts at their subject and know whats coming up in their exams more or less and can prepare the students almost perfectly for it.
Good teachers can get a grade for a student if that student wants it.
If the student wants an A, the teacher should have the patience to guide them to get it, since an A requires "x" amount of work, a B requires a little less work etc.
If a student only wants to pass, the teacher should show them how to get that without any trouble.
The work a teacher puts in is proportional to the regard they hold the students in.
A teacher should be a learning facilitator and never push anything negative on a student, should respect students and earn their respect and trust.
It's only natural.

rebel girl 15

dustintheturkey wrote: »

If the student wants an A, the teacher should have the patience to guide them to get it, since an A requires "x" amount of work, a B requires a little less work etc.
If a student only wants to pass, the teacher should show them how to get that without any trouble.

Guide being the operative word - teacher can only put in a little of the work to facilitate it, at the end of the day its up to the student to learn the material and do well in the exam.

I'd phrase your thing a little differently - there are many students out there that want an A in a subject, but don't have the potential to get it, despite a huge amount of effort on the part if the student & teacher. I don't think teachers should just let their students settle for a pass either. The thing I think you are trying to get across (agree or disagree, its only my opinion on your post) is that a teacher should be there and able to fulfill a students potential, no matter what it is. Apologies for being picky about it!!!

@ partyatmygaff & others who have mostly good teachers, be thankful for them! There is a lot of hard work that goes into being an effective teacher, that is not seen!!!

dustintheturkey

Good on ya rebelgirl!!!
up Cork!!

I agree totally, being a teacher capable of bringing out the best in a student and "increasing" their potential is incredibly challenging.
There is a school in russia where they have no teachers and the students write their own books and complete the 5 years in one year.
Students don't know their own potential.

lauralee28

Thanks for all the replies. As a teacher, it has made for some very interesting reading

partyatmygaff

dustintheturkey wrote: »

Good on ya rebelgirl!!!
up Cork!!

I agree totally, being a teacher capable of bringing out the best in a student and "increasing" their potential is incredibly challenging.
There is a school in russia where they have no teachers and the students write their own books and complete the 5 years in one year.
Students don't know their own potential.

In soviet russia..... books write you


lol I seriously doubt that exists, how is it a school if there are no teachers? Can't they write books from home.

rebel girl 15

lauralee28 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. As a teacher, it has made for some very interesting reading

+1 on that -good reading it from a students perspective, seeing that I'll be going out on teaching placement next month!:D:D