Task 4. Submit a composition «What is your ideal of a good teacher?»/ «What makes a good teacher?».

For doing this look through the sample composition.

 

My ideal of a good teacher

I've never supposed that I'11 study at the Pedagogical College. It is interesting for me that I am engaged in pedagogical process. I couldn't guess that problems of pedagogics and teaching generally will be so actual nowadays.

Teaching is the bilateral pedagogical process of communication of

teachers and pupils.And it is a great responsibility for teachers to grow up each child as a person, to bring them up in the spirit of high moral ideals. It is the main purpose of education and simultaneously the most difficult task for pedagogues. So, to be a teacher isn't so easy as it may seem at first. Even if you want to be a teacher you can't become a good one. You must be born one. To my mind, a teacher is like a sculptor: he moulds a personality out of a child like a sculptor creates a beautiful statue out of clay.

I can say that teacher's profession is very interesting and creative. That is why true genuine pedagogues, besides academic competence, should master broad knowledge. In my point of view a real teacher is agood actor, artist and scientist at the same time.

I guess the most inportant qualities in a teacher are:

 

l Industry

l Patience

l Honesty

 

Industrious and patient pedagogues loving their children will be successful in work.

Also it will be helpful for teachers to have such qualities as fairness, a sense of humor, and, finally, objectivity. It is really very important treating pupils as anyone of us would like to be treated.

As for me, I assume that all relationships between teachers and pupils should be based on cooperation and respect for a person.

In conclusion l'd like to say that in our modern hectic life such a significant person as a teacher should be swift and mobile, adopting changes. Pedagogues are learning as well as teaching all their life. So a teacher must be willing to continue his education, to perfect his knowledge not to fall behind. Because material wealth can be lost or stolen or can wear away to dust, but the wealth of the knowledgeable mind is with us throughout our lives.

 

 

Supplementary Reading.

 

Task1. Read the text «A Good Teacher: What is he like?» and do the assignments.

 

A Good Teacher: What is he like?

A good teacher:

keeps in contact with the parents of his or her pupils and lets them participate in the life of the school;

is able to maintain discipline and order;

lets the students share his or her own life with all its ups and downs;

works hard to remain up-to-date in his or her subject;

openly admits when he or she has made a mistake or does not know something;

is interested in his or her students, asks them about their homes and tries to help where possible;:

makes the students work hard and sets high standards;

is friendly and helpful to his or her colleagues;

uses a lot of different materials, equipment and teaching methods and attempts to make his or her lessons interesting;

helps the students become independent and organize their own learning.

A good teacher is the one who keeps his mind open to new ideas and new impressions. He is one who seizes on the realities of the world around him today and incorporates them in the lesson of tomorrow. He is one who comes fresh to even routine stuff - tables in Arithmetic - verbs in Languages - dates in History - dull old stuff, but given a new look by the alive, alert teacher.

Now comes the all-important matter of the teaching manner. He should be alert and dynamic in voice and gesture. He should not have the desk as perpetual barrier between himself and his children. He should stand for his teaching and not lounge or sprawl in a chair. And finally, and of supreme importance, his voice should have variety in pitch, speed and volume. After all, the voice of the teacher is his supreme teaching aid.

 

ASSIGNMENTS:

1. Look through the text and arrange the listed teachers' qualities in the order you think most proper. Try to explain why you have done it. Agree or disagree with your groupmates.

2. Read the following quotations and comment on them.

1) Every teacher continues to be a student.

2) Teaching is a two - way traffic.

3) Experience is the best teacher.

 

 

Task2. Read the text «Teaching Practice» and discuss the problems:

l Is teaching an art or a science?

l Must a teacher be a good actor?

(Give your reason!)

 

Teaching Practice

Teaching is an activity which you can read about, think about, and be tutored in, but in the end it is something which you do. It is an action which is a consequence of thought. And you must do it for yourself in the only place where it can be done — in class-rooms.

Another way of saying this is to say that teaching is an art, not a science. How is this difficult art to be mastered? The mastering can occur only with children in class-rooms. It is this fact which makes the provision of teaching practice an in­dispensable part of the work of any institution whose duty it is to educate students to work as teachers in schools. Without training the concept of a profession is impossible. Without practice in schools, any system of training is impossible.

Teaching practice means an opportunity to prepare the material of one's subject more thoroughly then was necessary to pass one's examinations. The second opportunity which teaching practice presents to the students in training is the opportunity to discover how well he or she likes a subject, or indeed whether he likes it or not.

There are people who do not have power of clear communication, and clear communication means understanding one's pupils, sympathizing with them, being aware of their individual differences and special aptitudes. The good teacher is a psychologist, capable of understanding children in the complex, changing situation of the class-room.

Among other opportunities of teaching practice is the opportunity to understand the social significance of the school. What is done in class-rooms influences tne quality of our society.

Briefly, teaching practice gives the student in training an opportunity to recognize his profession as the highly complex activity and the vital influence which it has.

 

Supplementary Reading

 

Translate the text with the help of a dictionary.

 

Think of three historical figures. What do you know about them? Where did you get your information from? The chances are that you either read it somewhere or someone who read it somewhere told you about it. Did you ever think about who wrote down these facts? How can you be sure that they are true? The thing is, many historical "truths" are historical myths.

Let's take some examples. In America, 4th July is Independence Day, the most important holiday in the American calendar, which the Americans celebrate with parades and fireworks. It was on 4th July, 1776 that Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. It was a good start. However, the struggle continued for another seven years after this, with some of the most brutal fighting in the whole war, as King George III was not willing to grant America total independence, which was the only arrangement that the American leaders would accept. So the fighting continued. The first draft of a Treaty of Peace was signed in November 1782 and in February 1783 the King officially announced that the war would soon be over. This led to the signing of the Treaty of Paris on 3rd September that same year.

Think about the discovery of America. What's the first name that comes to mind? More than likely it's Christopher Columbus. Was America really discovered by him? He had set out to reach Asia and that's where he thought he was when he came to America. But there were many people there before him. The first ones were certainly the Native Americans, thousands of years before 1492. Where had they come from? Even the Vikings had made a number of expeditions, with Leif Eriksson landing there in around 1000 AD. Perhaps Amerigo Vespucci was the discoverer of America. After all, unlike Columbus before him, he was the first fifteenth-century explorer to realise where he was, or rather, where he definitely wasn't. So, maybe the word "re-discover" is more accurate when it comes to Columbus, if history is to give him any credit at all.

Everyone believes such historical "facts" because, like you, they got them from what they thought was a reliable source. But how can such things be written down in the first place? One of the reasons must be that history is seldom "cut and dried". The events are often complicated and messy. The achieving of American independence was a lengthy affair. Presumably 4th July was chosen as the date to celebrate because it was seen as more significant than the date of the actual end of the war. Another reason is that such myths always contain a grain of truth. Columbus was not the first person to travel to America, but he was the first fifteenth-century explorer to go there. His "re-discovery" was, from a historical point of view, extremely significant for Europe since his voyages opened up large-scale commerce between Europe and America.

History has traditionally been written by the winners. If the conquered indigenous peoples had written the history of the discovery of the New World, it would most probably have been very different, but not necessarily objective: the point of view of the conquered can be just as biased as the point of view of the conqueror. But that is not the whole story. The writing of history depends not only on the "side" the writer is on, but also on the culture and attitudes of the era it is written in.

History is always subjective. So, remember: when you read history, take it with a pinch of salt.