Essay A Perfect Teacher [size=75]A teacher is a great actor and you know how few great actors there are in the world
J. Steinbeck[/size]
It would be proper to say at the beginning that under the current state of affairs there are no perfect people. Not only does it concern personality, level of education and behaviour, but it also refers to professions and occupations.
There is a massive tendency in society to claim that the word ‘perfect’ can be applied to a human. In my view only machines can be flawless, although even highly-qualified technology can make gross errors.
As far as I’m concerned, a perfect teacher is a beloved and respected one. It occurred to me just because of my teachers’ high efficiency both at school and college. Initially, I would like to note that teachers should be devoted to their job, to love teaching and people. Besides erudition and cultural background this job demands of the person great generosity of spirit. That is a key virtue for a teacher in my viewpoint since students have to feel how much you care. A good teacher lights up in students the burning desire to learn and know.
It goes without saying that teacher’s methodology plays the essential role. If a teacher is professional he will make a class as compelling as possible. The ability to be strict, honest and understanding at the same time, no fears to experiment and change approach when the situation requires and representing your own intelligence are factors that make good teachers. I wouldn’t agree we act while caring out the educational process, I would say it’s a born ability to adjust your knowledge and experience to the needs of others. When I was a student I preferred eccentric teachers who stand out in the crowd and couldn’t be predicted.
In conclusion, I’d like to say that every human should try to be perfect, which can be gained solely by hard work. Thriving for perfection is natural as it flatters me to believe we have divine origin.
One improvement would be clarifying this sentence:
I wouldn’t agree we act while caring out the educational process, I would say it’s a born ability to adjust your knowledge and experience to the needs of others.
First, it’s a run-on sentence. So, either e period or a semicolon instead of the comma would work.
Second, I don’t get the first part of the sentence:
I wouldn’t agree we act while caring out the educational process;
Don’t know what you mean here - sorry. Please clarify.
You’re right about that. Teaching shouldn’t be acting. Bscause a successful teacher makes his carrear a part of his life, and people don’t act in heir real lives.
Your essay reminds me of something happened to me; am a student studying to become a teacher. Once a teacher of mine adviced us to act while rehearsing at class, but I told her that am no actor, so she assumed that am not good enough. But when my turn come and I gave the lesson, she said that I was very good, so I replied that it was just me with no acting at all, my teacher replied:‘then you’re born to be a teacher’.
So I believe that the teacher should be himself, if he finds himself not good enough then he should work on making himself better, instead of acting.
The funny thing about grades is that they mean the world to students. Research has demonstrated that grades can actually be detrimental, as students tend to focus on that magic letter/number above all else, and ignore the comments (though I’m sure Baghee isn’t that sort of student).
Grades can be time-savers as far as teachers are concerned… it’s much quicker to give an indication of success using such a scale rather than provide constructive comments. I know that the only reason Kitos gives ‘grades’ to essays alongside his helpful comments is because of the numerous requests from students that their work be graded. He freely admits that he adjusts his grading depending on his knowledge of the capabilities of the individual concerned, which seems a very sensible approach given the constraints of the media we are using here, and which can’t be an easy process. Tutorphil obviously hasn’t been caught up in the ‘please grade me’ issue (not yet, anyway!) or has decided not to encroach on Kitosdad’s work in that way.
I also dislike giving grades when I mark. I am used to a system of commenting on how well the purposes have been achieved and what can be done to make further progress.
This is a dilemma, but it seems unfair to Baghee that she isn’t given the same treatment as other students on this site, because Tutorphil happened to see and comment on her work first, so I’m going to stick my neck on the line and hope I don’t offend either gentleman in the process:
Others are welcome to disagree, but personally I’d give this a very strict 9 or an almost as strict 9.5 for the following reasons:
Well reasoned argument with very few errors. Points are made eruditely and sequenced appropriately. As Phil says, the argument is ‘clever’ in its approach and shows good depth of thought.
As a short essay I feel that this has covered all necessary points. If it were a longer essay then there is provision for extension of the argument, for example, are there times when good teachers act in a less-than-perfect manner (‘hot-seating’ techniques or ‘playing the devil’s advocate’ to draw out discussion from pupils etc.) and what is the outcome?
There are some very minor errors and one has occurred more than once so my suggestion for further progress would be to note this in future writing:
It isn’t always clear to what noun the pronoun ‘it’ belongs.
What exactly does ‘it’ refer to in the second sentence? I presume ‘perfection’ but it isn’t indicated.
The same happens in the 2nd sentence of the third paragraph. ‘It occurred to me…’ > ‘This thought/concept occurred to me…’
I will take the constructive criticism into consideration, Beverley. Thank you for such thorough analysis of my essay. I appreciate your help… I’m on cloud nine! I guess being my friend, you’re too generous, anyway thanks.
I’m very curious what is the ‘playing the devil’s advocate’ technique, but I don’t dare to bother you any more. I’ll find it out by myself.
Thanks again.
I simply meant that during debate or discussion it is sometimes useful to pretend to take an unpopular viewpoint in order to generate discussion. This is particularly the case if the more verbose people in the class all share the same viewpoint. A discussion might die very quickly unless someone (the teacher) plays ‘the devil’s advocate’ and speaks from an opposing point of view. If they actually disagree with what they are saying, then there’s definitely an element of acting required.
