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ESL forum >
Teaching material > Just a thought
Just a thought
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Sharwong
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My two cents worth I agree with Mariethe Sometimes there are not enough prep hours in a day to teach X number of classes with X number of students. I myself have had to stay up in the wee hours of the night marking, creating, prepping neons of times. This site saves us the time to do so and gives us back time for ourselves. Let �s give teachers the benefit of the doubt...We �re all NOT "not doing our homework" Sharon
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5 Mar 2015
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ueslteacher
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@Lynne: paragons? never heard of them! I �ve heard of parrots in cages though:) FREEDOM TO PARROTS!!!! here �s from one of my fav toons (back then:) I hope you �ll get my non-English humour:)
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5 Mar 2015
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silvanija
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Dear, Peter, It was interesting to read your opinion. I do agree with some things you said. But I also believe that - in some places there are people who teach English without having teacher�s qualification. They do that just because they know some English and there�s no one who can do that better. - English of some teacher�s is so bad that they can�t even ask for help in a polite way. - when they search for information or materials they use ESLp as one of sources (not the only one). - the Internet connection is bad in some places to do a lot of browsing or a number of sites is restricted for some reasons. It �s just my humble opinion. Have a nice day/evening/night/morning :)
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5 Mar 2015
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cunliffe
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Hi Sophia, well, I do like your parrot in his cage! I was referring to those guys as �paragons of virtue �. Just having a laugh, as usual! There is a level at which Peter has a point , but I always remember when I first started on here and it took me ages to realise that once I had 30 points, I could have all of the new contributions. Sometimes, people need to have obvious things pointed out to them. Lynne |
5 Mar 2015
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yanogator
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I �m glad Peter brought this up, just because it allowed him to vent, and others to demonstrate that what seems all negative to him at the moment, rally has a number of sides. The conversation gives us all something to think about.. Bruce |
5 Mar 2015
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redcamarocruiser
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Thank you for the excellent tutorial, Peter. We appreciate the time you took to create it and are thankful that you shared it with us. I try to help if I can when I see questions in the forum because I think that if people are asking, they must need help. Most of us are helpful by nature, but it does ruffle the feathers if we perceive that others are abusing our helpful nature by asking for "too much." What is "too much" may be viewed differently by each member. However, I think it is OK to ask for help. |
5 Mar 2015
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Minka
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I agree with every word of what Peter says, but also believe that some teachers indeed work in conditions that justify such requests, obviously. I also find it very annoying when I go through new contributions and the descriptions are something like: - A test. - An exam. - Exam for 2nd term of ... - Test for 7th grade. - Hope you like it. - Thank you. I think you agree each of these examples tells too little about the content of the worksheet. So now I have to download and give a point to the person who put so much effort into describing it? Yeah right! |
5 Mar 2015
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spinney
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Hmm? I �m not so sure I agree. I �ve had to try and persuade my boss a couple of times not to fire people simply because they don �t have the experience and clearly don �t give as good a class as those that have been doing it longer and we, as colleagues, just aren �t around enough to offer the guidence and support we should be able to in a perfect world as a result of our awful timetables. As such, I �m more than happy to help anybody here when they want a leg up. Also, the country I live in, Spain, has terribly high unemployment and the English teachers in state schools tend to be Spanish because the beaurocracy involved in getting a place in one of these institutions is staggering. I won �t even mention the timetables that people (myself for one) in other countires have to try and cope with. Now these people may not be native speakers but their knowledge of grammar puts most native speakers to shame. However, there are things that come naturally to native English speakers, in particular collocations, phrasal verbs, idioms etc. which a non-native cannot take for granted and needs constant reasurance. Consequently, this site is a very useful lifeline. Also, as a native, I sometimes come on here to pick people �s brains because the questions I want anwers to are not adequately resolved on google or in the supposedly great books that everybody seems to think of as the answer to everything. In fact, I need to check things a good 4 or 5 times before I am satisfied which is why I am interested in what people think about certain vocabulary questions. And many of us still make mistakes. That is because we are not not perfect. Just like everybody else. True that some of the questions and requests here are a little on the cheeky side but then again, rules and regulations aside, what �s the point of this site if we can �t help each other?
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5 Mar 2015
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kwsp
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Reading everyone’s posts brings back many memories for me. I taught
English in China for several years. Consistently they would refuse to tell me which classes I would be teaching for the coming semester until three days
before it started. They would say, “You are a native English speaker. Teaching
and preparation should be easy for you!” The Internet would go down for
extended periods of time so I couldn �t search for anything nor communicate with family members back home. There were also
electrical blackouts. I always had to have extra lessons in my bag in case
we were without power and unable to use the overhead
projector, cds, or video player. Planned lessons go over differently with different
groups. Sometimes what worked in one group bombed in another and then I had to
scramble and come up with a new tactic for that specific group. As for the book
issue, one time the students got their books, but I didn’t! The school was out
in the sticks, I was in a foreign country trying to learn the language and navigate
the new environment, and I had to go to a copy shop and have them copy the
whole book for me so I could have my own copy! During that time I came across
ESLPrintables and it was a life saver for me. Now I am back in the United States tutoring International students, visiting scholars, and their
family members. I visit this site often and enjoy reading the questions people
ask. J |
5 Mar 2015
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alien boy
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Good, useful & positive discussion everyone! Thank you for having it in an open & constructive manner. It �s one of many reasons why I like this site & recommend it to other teachers I come to know. Have a good day or night everybody!
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5 Mar 2015
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