What makes a good teacher?

This entry is the separate entry that I talked about in the entry I just posted 30 seconds ago. It's about what, in my opinion, makes a good teacher. Wish me luck.

So, as promised, I shall now talk about the specific incident that happened today in Spanish class. Señor Cañuelas, my teacher, he is a weird one. He's hilarious, and has his moments of niceness. But, the problem is, he isn't really a good teacher, in my opinion. I qualify a teacher as "good" if they are nice, they get their students to understand the material that they are learning, they grade fairly, and, most of all, do not punish students for not understanding. Today, in Spanish class, we were reviewing some verb tenses and stuff. Most of the class was doing not too well on it, including myself and my one friend in the class. So, naturally, Señor decided that, because we all didn't understand it, he should give us a pop quiz. Thankfully that didn't end up happening, but the mere fact that he was thinking about it is a problem to me. Any teacher who thinks "Well, my students don't seem to understand the material that I'm trying to teach them. Since it obviously can't be my fault, it must be that they just don't care. I should give them a quiz to make them care." No, that's just wrong. While that MAY be true if only a small fraction of the class isn't doing too well, if the whole class is lost, it's time to start considering that "Hey, I may not be teaching this in the best way, let's try something else." Instead of just assuming they all don't care enough and then proceeding to lower their grades in your class by giving them a quiz on something they don't fully understand yet. I used to really like Señor last year (at least at the beginning), but by the end of last year, I started to realize that he doesn't teach very well and expects far too much in return. For example, for part of the final last year we had to read a story and answer very detailed questions about it. We had NEVER practiced reading a story like that, or anything even close to that, so that was incredibly hard for many people. Another part was us having to write a real essay in Spanish, another thing that he had never given us any practice with. Then, he was angry when everyone didn't do as well as he wanted them to do. If you never give us practice with what you expect us to be able to do, we obviously won't do as well.

Another teacher I have this year that doesn't qualify as a "good teacher" is my history teacher, Dr. Andy. He's not as bad as Señor, but he still isn't a very good teacher. He just basically talks at you for the whole class, and doesn't really write much on the board, so I am stuck wondering what's important to write down or not. Some days my notes are incredibly detailed to the point of ridiculousness, and some days they are barely even there. I'm really worried about this, because I don't know what's going to be on the tests and stuff. I had a GREAT history teacher last year (and the year before, though they were different people). Last year, I had a teacher named Mr. Bouchard. He was probably the best history teacher, if not the best teacher, I've ever had. We always knew what to write down and what not to. He used powerpoints to give us notes, and unless he said not to, you would just write down the basics of what's in the powerpoint. He was also an incredibly interesting person to listen to. He loved what he was teaching, and knew how to get us to be interested too. There were some great discussions, and we all learned A LOT, and had fun learning it! We barely got work, there was only one quiz per trimester, the two finals, and the (very) rare essay. Even though we barely had to do work, I still learned more in that class than I have in any other history class I've ever been in. This year, it's very hard to adjust to this new teacher. He's very different from Mr. Bouchard. He is not very enthusiastic or passionate about what he's teaching, and he the notes are very chaotic. He jumps around through history. He will mention this one guy, say he's very important, then go to talk about someone completely different, and then later come back to that guy and start giving a bunch of details and not writing them down. He'll also mention random people, write them on the board and tell us a bunch about them, then say "you don't really need to know that." I just can't really handle the way he teaches. It's chaotic, messy, unsure, and very unfocused. Another thing I can't really handle about him, and many other teachers do this too and it's stupid, is that part of your grade is based on how much you participate in class. I mean I kind of understand why they do that, but I also find it incredibly unfair. Some people just don't talk as much, and I'm one of those people, but it doesn't mean they aren't paying attention, it means they're quiet people. You shouldn't lower their grade because of their personality, because that does not reflect their understanding of the material, and then defeats the whole purpose of grades in the first place.

Now to conclude I'll talk a bit about some good teachers I have this year. Well, how about I just talk about one. Mr. Marx, my chemistry teacher, is a great teacher. He teaches the way I think teaching should be done. He doesn't give homework, he gives practice problems, and says if you understand it you don't have to do it, but if you don't, he suggests you do them, and then come and talk to him if you're still stuck. He doesn't grade based on how much you talk in class, which is great. He basically just makes you have to work to earn the best grade you can get, and if you don't he just says it's because you don't care, which is true. I wish all teachers taught like him, school would be a better place if that were true.