What is a teacher? In the simplest words, a teacher is someone who shares their knowledge and skills with others. A professional teacher is someone who has, or develops, a formal system for that sharing, but the goal of teaching is to have students leave the class with a higher level of competency and confidence than when they came into it. The question here is what makes up my personal ideas of teaching? In my philosophy, teaching is a complex blending of information sharing, skillset development, interpersonal interactions, societal context, and cultural and emotional perspectives. It is all these elements mixed with what I believe about learning, who I am, and how I balance them to make it work in the classroom.
My objective is to fulfill what I see as the three aspects of being an instructor of English as a second language: teacher, learner, scholar. As a teacher I share information and facilitate the development of skillsets, but at the same time I am learning. I learn more about English language use, about my students as individuals, about the cultures they come from, and about their languages. As my learning partners, the students are my source of information, and my interaction cycle is done within the classroom by using a variety of lesson plans and activities and getting feedback from the students on what is the most successful, then adapting my teaching to student needs. I also learn more about myself, both as an individual and as a teacher, in the ways that I react to, reflect on, and adapt to each class.
As a scholar, I see myself always stretching the limits of my knowledge with academic pursuits. It is an underlying knowledge of linguistics and teaching methodology that propels my skills as an instructor. Since this profession is in a constant state of growth and change, in terms of research, theories and methods, I will never be finished studying. I value the ongoing challenge to stay current that will require me to maintain connections with my fellow teachers and the leaders in the field. Recently, I watched a video of Dr. Christine Coombe when she spoke at the IAFOR International Conference in 2016. She was speaking, in general, about the habits of highly effective teachers, but she opened with ideas of what a “good teacher” was to people in different areas within the field of education. She spoke of a quote that she used as a personal gauge of her own performance, which also resonates with my professional beliefs. It came out of a 1984 survey by Seymour Erikson of education administrators. It says,
“an outstanding teacher should be an inspired instructor who is concerned about students, an active scholar who is respected by professional peers, and an efficient organized professional who is accessible to both students and teachers” (IAFOR Media).
This speaks to me of a high level of professional ethics, and dedication to students, self and the profession, which is exactly my commitment as a teacher.
In the end, teaching involves the balancing of many factors. I need to balance who I am with who my students are, recognizing that we have different cultural and emotional perspectives on the concept and process of learning. I need to balance the professional necessities of curriculum and lesson goals with the ability to adapt and change how and when the material is presented to give the greatest opportunity for student engagement and success. I need to balance the professional responsibility to provide assessment and feedback with the ability to encourage and motivate students to continue learning. All of these things serve the goal of teaching, to have my students leave the class with a higher level of competence and confidence than when they started.
References
IAFOR Media. Best Practice in ELT: 10 Traits of a Highly Effective Teacher by Dr. Christine Coombe. 2016. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=AqQ0j4gfRy4.