Activity Two-What kind of teacher do I want to be?

Think back to your primary school days. Think about a teacher that you admired. Write down the qualities that made her/him admirable.

The teacher that I admired from my primary school was my class teacher when I was in Primary 3 and 4. He was my class teacher as well as my Chinese and Mathematics teacher. His lesson was enjoyable and interactive. He sometimes invited students to perform a drama about the textbook passage. This increased my interest towards Chinese subject. He was also a patient teacher, as my mathematics academic performance was not satisfactory, he spent time to have tutorials with me and other weaker students two times a week. I appreciated his attitudes towards his professions and he never blamed me or scolded me for my poor performance in his subjects. He would also praise students if students had improvements. He acted as a friend of the students as he would join students’ Xmas party and played with us. To conclude, he was a professional, patient and friendly teacher. These criterions made him an admirable teacher.

Think about a teacher that you didn’t admire. Note the qualities that caused you not to admire that teacher.

One of the teachers who I did not admire was my P1 Chinese teacher. I remembered when I had the first Chinese dictation in P.1, my private-tutor helped me with the revision and she put some Chinese characters there in the English book in order to help me memorizing the meaning of the English words. Before we started the dictation, my Chinese teacher asked the class to bring out the English textbook to cover our dictation book. She told us to turn to a certain chapter. While she walked pass me, she found that there were some Chinese characters in the English textbook and she blamed me for cheating in the dictation. I felt so bad because I did not intend to do so and it was just an accident! I tried to explain to her but she refused to listen to my explanation. I did not admire her because of her dominance. Frankly speaking, up until now I am still angry about this issue because I was innocent. I believe the way she treated me was because of the high hierarchy she had as a teacher. I keep reminding myself I have to be a good listener to students because teacher and students are equal. 

Now think about the kind of teacher that you would like to be.

Make notes and/or create a web and/or draw a visual representation of the kind of teacher that you would like to become.

Later on, scan this work and put it in your e-portfolio.

I wish I could be friendly and supportive teacher like the cartoon character Anapanman from Japan. The Anapanman is a superman from Japan and he is always helpful and supportive. He is also friendly to the others. More importantly, he is a person willing to sacrifice for the others. While he was doing his mission rescuing people who suffered, if the person is starving, because of his nature as bread, he will give part of his body for people to eat in order to save the others’ lives.

As a teacher in the future, I understand that there might be many challenges that we may have to cope with. Possible challenges may include school policies, students’ behavior problems, heavy workload etc. We have to be mentally well-prepared to cope with all these challenges. Teachers are people who sacrifice because they will have to sacrifice their personal time for preparing lesson and other administrative work. They also need to sacrifice because they are no longer on the top of students but at the same level with students, to be friendly with them.

Teachers who are willing to sacrifice can gain students’ appreciation and can maintain his or her professionalism even he or she has difficulty in the education field.