Teachers, students should be partners
There are five rules written on the blackboard in my class: 1. Arrive on time. 2. No cell phones permitted. 3. No food allowed. 4. No writing or carving on the desk. 5. Keep your desks clean.
My class starts every day with a smile and warm greetings. Nevertheless, I have to set up a few rules to make things clear in case some students are influenced by other students who would otherwise break them.
Everyone notices that middle school students are too sensitive to care. When I counsel students, I realize that each of them has their own story, but nevertheless it is hard to get to know their backgrounds, so sometimes I have no choice but to give them superficial advice.
Once or twice a year, I save some of my time and let students express themselves freely in my classroom. The topic should be related to the class and the material in textbooks, but the students choose what to do. The options are writing an acrostic poem, making a poster after reading texts or combining the two activities together.
Every time I announce this activity, some cheer and others are reticent. But once they get started, they gradually concentrate on their work. During this activity, they discuss a given topic, share and allot tasks and decide which ideas and words to choose.
Eventually, they produce outstanding work, with which I am pleased. The students are very creative, and their views and ways of expression are different from how we thought and expressed ourselves in my day.
Theoretically, there are several typical ways to teach students. In public schools, a teacher-oriented strategy is mostly used, with the intention of transmitting knowledge and concepts. In my opinion, sticking to one way is not very effective because students have very short attention spans. But I have to say, teachers, especially in public schools, don’t have many choices mainly because the semester is not long enough to convey all the information in textbooks.
Textbooks have lots of good information, but because of that, teachers have a tough time between classes and have to deal with vast amounts of paperwork. More clearly, they usually prepare supplementary materials, which they also discuss in class. Teachers are constantly moving, and so are students.
In addition, most of the student performance assessments are ineffective. There are many rea- sons to evaluate students, but standardized tests may not be the best way to do so. Some students perform very well on such tests, others are average and the rest do not even care about the tests.
Lastly, there are too many students in each class. They all show various interests and concerns, and have different backgrounds, aptitudes and specialties. All this diversity gets thrown together in one place, preventing students from demonstrating their true abilities.
They just listen to teachers and several assertive students’ opinions and do the same things most students in times past did without realizing the point. Of course, teachers do pay attention to meeker voices, but our students should also know how to express their opinions and emotions in proactive ways.
I would like to provide some suggestions for how to enhance students’ experiences in the classroom.
First of all, besides receiving knowledge and information, I want students to discuss topics in each subject. In physical education class, teachers explain and demonstrate before students actually practice exercises or games. Discussion is the same process. By discussing, students will gradually be able to know how to express thoughts logically and effectively. Once they get used to it, they will learn how to respect other ideas and opinions.
Second, teachers should not be burdened with too much administrative work. Teachers teach, evaluate, make up questions, consult and deal with student issues while they wrestle with a significant amount of paperwork. There is an online system on which teachers input students’ records, but the system still has a long way to go. As a result, it creates an increased and redundant workload for teachers, which wastes time and resources.
Third, if it is possible in 10 years, I dare to suggest team teaching. It will be the last thing to happen in schools, but students will probably be open to the concept of combined classes, which could encourage students’ voluntary participation. For instance, in physical education class, they can also learn physics through physical activities, not just through textbooks.
In music class, they can also deal with math. History class could be conducted in English, and after a few classes students could adapt the concepts into Korean or into art to evaluate their progress.
School systems should be trustworthy. To make that happen, teachers and students should team up. As long as an educational system exists, teachers and students should be partners.?