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How do teachers gain seniority When a band or orchestra plays together, the music they create collectively is much more beautiful than what any single musician makes. But there's one person who doesn't play at all- the conductor. The conductor performs a vital role in the group as a leader and must have great qualities to keep everybody in tune. He / she inspires the musicians to their ultimate level of performance. The job of a teacher is to educate pupils using a systematic presentation of ideas, facts, skills, and techniques.
As the human race has progressed into an intelligent, dominant species, the art of teaching had not emerged until relatively recently. (1) One aspect of school that no student can avoid is the teachers. Whether they act friendly, kind-hearted, and easy-going, or rude, homework-driven, and brutally mean, teachers are an integral part of every student's education. Teachers are the very foundation of society. They play an essential role to fostering students in the community. They are role models to many, close friends to others, foster parents to a few and nightmares to some.
Teachers are responsible in helping children find themselves, who and what they want to become so that they can become individuals who will in turn help others. This paper will look on many aspects of a teaching career. It will analyze the criteria used to separate teachers that work for passion and those with lackadaisical attitude. It will try to address what makes teachers eligible for tenure and how the process of obtaining seniority is gone about. From personal experience, the teachers I have had and the teachers whom I have encountered guide people differently, serve many different needs, and share knowledge to enhance the students understanding of ideas. I have also realized that there are four different varieties of teachers: Convenient teachers, Special Interest teachers, impressionable teachers and amazing teachers.
Convenience teachers are the teachers with whom, if we did not have a problem to a solution, then our paths would have never been crossed. These teachers are the ones that know how to deal with specific complications. Having gone through the same experiences or knowing a good deal about the subject, these teachers give advice on how to go about solving a problem so that the same mistake will not be made again. For example, when we are mentally stressed, psychologists are consulted to help solve the problem. Also, when students are having trouble with a particular area of study, they request a tutor for help. These teachers are good listeners, but rarely know the entire circumstances as well as the emotions that the student is experiencing at the time of the problem.
These students do not give them an explanation to every little detail of their lives, but rather the little information that is necessary to figure out the problem. Special-interest teachers give facts to the student in order to show them how to learn the special areas that the student is interested in. For instance, Spanish teachers allow a student to comprehend the Spanish language, enabling the student to convert from English to Spanish. The student has a desire to learn this language; therefore, these teachers can make this possible by teaching them the right techniques. The connection between the teacher and the student is primarily on this particular interest. There is no intimacy involved between them.
The teacher simply loves teaching Spanish, and the student wants a better understanding of the language. Impressionable teachers are those who make a major impression on our lives. As we went through the different levels of grade school, we cannot forget about Mrs. X, our third grade English teacher, who helped our lives in so many ways. She was the one that helped to relax the tensions that we felt when our parents were divorced and the bullies that were making fun of us at recess. We always remembered her even though our paths have taken separate roads.
Amazing teachers are those who not only helped out in the area that we were learning, but went further and became our friends. We could tell these teachers the little gossip that went around the playground and whom we liked, knowing that they would never tell a single person our true identity. We could share our emotions with these teachers, whether it was our laughs, cries, or even tears. These teachers have been through everything with us.
If we could not tell our parents about something, these teachers were the first to know and quick to give advice back to us. These amazing teachers ultimately became our true friends. All teachers are important in our lives to help solve problems and better our understanding of a specific area of study. The ones that take their teaching to the full measure become our best teachers, our friends. Qualities of a good teacher are intelligence, patients, and reliability. Amazing teachers exhibit all these criteria and have the potential to earning tenure because they take an extra step in their profession.
They not only look at their jobs as simply work but as passion. They have learned to become amazing through experience and consistent classroom performance. These teachers are at many times their classroom "leaders" elevating the students to new heights of learning. They look at situations from their students point of view. They also have great communication skills, meaning they discuss assignments, homework, class work, and correcting students of mistakes related to the class. Allow me to give a perfect example of what I mean by communication with the students.
To tell Justin age 13 and Lauren age 14 that they misspelled the words no (know), buy (by) and hi (high) is a good quality. Such teachers will use written communication to elaborate fine learning skill as this. Most qualities mentioned above are rarely seen in teachers teaching upper level classes. From talking to teachers, I have learned that elementary teachers spend an average of three to four hours planning for each school day, and about an hour for each lesson. I limit this statement to elementary teachers, because in talking with some high school teachers, they explained to me that they need only make up one lesson to get them through each day, and that lesson is taught five times over! A valuable tool that most teachers neglect to make use of is including extra materials alongside their lesson plan.
In doing so they know how many students are in the class, the physical and mental abilities of the students and how to present it to the class. In many schools, the teachers are made to hand in their lesson plans every so often to the school, for constant review by the schools board. Seniority is a privilege that comes over time when experience and talent have given the teacher the reputation to become a valuable asset to the school. Lesson plans and feedback of student surveys usually give way to seniority. When teachers get to choose what courses they want to teach, they must adhere to a basic set of guidelines as well as following along in the childrens Individualized Educational Plans (IEP). With this, they have to also teach at a scheduled rate; otherwise they will not be able to complete the recommended curriculum.
Standardized tests are very obscure cases that teachers find as obstacles. I base this fact mostly from my informal conversation with some teachers and they mostly concur that preparing children for standardized testing without reading them the test is a very difficult task and that it requires patience and extra time on the topics covered by the tests, allowing the students to better grasp the ideas. Experienced teachers know how to adjust to the class environment they are exposed to. Changing the style of teaching to suit the child is a difficult thing to do, but a necessary evil that only well crafted teachers know how to tackle.
Classes nowadays include all inclusive students meaning there are average children and also those with learning disabilities. This requires adaptation to each environment in order to cater to a diversified group. When teaching in such an environment, experienced teachers usually give a particular assignment to the class and walk around helping the children having problems. Dealing with kids having learning disabilities requires extreme patience and extra help outside of class so that they can go at the same rate with the other students.
Experienced teachers also know that homework is not supposed to be a punishment of any sort, rather a reinforcement of the learning activities in class that day. Class management is a finesse that comes with time. There are always kids who are intolerable or not obedient. Managing such students and their behavior can be a difficult task, especially those who like to get attention, such as being sent down to the principals office or having to stand in the corner for timeout. Most tenured teachers know that offering rewards programs for good behavior is an effective method for class management. A particular case was my junior-high English teacher, who had a scale setup such that when any student got so many stars, a free gift would await as a reward.
This proved to be very effective. Another method most experienced teachers practice that undoubtedly helps them in managing their classes is their first day impression. They will make sure they keep the students under control from day one by letting them know who is in charge. They will never show any weakness; an opportunity many students seek in their teachers Teachers with experience know how to deal with a range of situations.
They avoid being frustrated with either their students or the school administration and will usually avoid situations that will get the best of them. Tenured teachers also have many other skills on the side. They notify class assignments in advance showing fairness and non-bias towards any student. The following is the determination of seniority by the department of education and science. According to this department, seniority is important in determining teachers eligibility for an acting post of responsibility and in deciding the order in which teachers are eligible to be placed on the panel when the enrolment figures drop sufficiently to warrant the suppression of a post.
The criteria are listed below (4) 1. Service given previously in the same school as a substitute or temporary (qualified or unqualified) teacher does not count towards seniority. 2. A permanent teachers ranking for seniority purposes will only commence from the date that a teacher is fully qualified. 3. If two or more permanent teachers commence duty on the same day, the Board of Management should establish the order of seniority based on the order the teachers were listed as a result of an interview process i. e. the teacher who was ranked highest following the interview process should be given the higher seniority rating. 4.
If a permanent teacher leaves a school either voluntarily or is redeployed and is reappointed to the school in a permanent capacity at a later date then the teachers seniority will only commence from the date of reappointment. 5. Job sharing service is reckoned as full service for the purpose of seniority. Authorised absences eg. career break, maternity leave, adoptive leave, parental leave, paternity leave, sick leave do not affect a teachers seniority. Most schools, however use the following formula when evaluating teachers eligible for tenure. They base the teachers performance on the points detailed below.
Evaluating teachers on the basis of their passion for teaching is the key point. Good teachers are always willing to teach well. They try very hard and, if they let their students know they are trying hard, their students will respect them for that. These teachers will offer unlimited help based on how eager their students are. If they see that their students really want to learn well then they will be prepared to help all the way. They are intolerable to students that cause havoc in the class preventing the eager students from learning.
Good teachers are always risk takers. They set themselves impossible goals then scuttle to achieve them. Academic freedom allows university teachers to take chances and try different things in the classroom. It is exciting to try things that may fail; if they succeed, then the wager was worthwhile and they would have accomplished something and if not successful, then a valuable lesson is learned and the same errors will not be made again by making the necessary adjustments. Good teachers will always maintain a positive attitude at all times. It is an observable fact that teachers ought to enjoy, not complain about, the challenges students give them.
Good teachers try not to be cynical or negative about their students or else they will end up cast themselves as victims. Challenges are essential and if there is none and all students were smart, self-motivated, hard-working, wide-awake, then there really wont be any need for teachers It seems that most of the time, good teachers never seem to have time. Just about all good teachers are eternally busy, and this is not because of the volume of classes they have to teach. They prefer to be busy and know that the work of good teaching expands to fill every moment they can give it. They are in their office the most hours for students to visit and they get a lot of visits, they put the most effort into providing students with feedback on their assignments, they are most in demand for committee work, they put the most work into their class preparations.
They are always trying something different or else refining what they have previously tried. These teachers also consider teaching as a form of parenting. Good teachers tend to find that the caring that goes into their teaching feels a lot like the caring that goes into parenting. It means knowing when to stand firm on a deadline or a standard of excellence, and when to bend or apologize.
They know that their students, like their own children, have insecurities and problems galore. Good teachers try to give their students self-confidence. Students will likely get along fine without knowing much about the subject matter. However it is the process of them learning what is taught that will make a difference for them. The process taken to teach them through proper marshalling of evidence will give them confidence in their ability to take on tough assignments. Making the students speak up in class is a vital favor to them.
When teachers do this, they will find something positive to say about what is offered in their kids. Good teachers always try to keep students and themselves way off balance. Its a sociological phenomena thats human beings are more likely to learn when their comfort, complacency, and self-assurance are being threatened. Good teachers detest stagnation and look for fresh challenges for themselves. They also like to have their students take on challenges that they are not at all sure they can handle. They like to move their students beyond their comfort zone to challenge their confidence so they can earn a new confidence.
Good teachers try to motivate students by working within their incentive. Most undergraduates seem to be eager to make a lot of money (Lingnan). University teachers in the humanities areas may wonder how to use thats an incentive in their teaching. However the teachers can point out information such as that many business executives have majors in the liberal arts could foster their students to do well and learn in class efficiently. That background has given them the advantage of being able to synthesize things, how to explain things to others, how to persuade others to their point of view, and how to understand the people that make any business work.
Good teachers do not trust student evaluations. A pretty bold statement but there is a reason behind this statement. Good teachers do tend to get very good evaluations, but they focus on the one or two erratic evaluations that say something negative about them. They ask themselves what they did wrong for those one or two students. The not-so-good teachers tend to trust the positive evaluations they receive and dismiss the negative ones.
Last but not least, good teachers are good listeners. Those who have asked their students what makes a good teacher have been told that they are accessible, available, approachable, enthusiastic, energetic and excited. I concur with many of the key points discussed in this paper. All these abilities come with time and a consistent review by the school will be able to tell when the teacher has reached the point to asses the tools needed to gain seniority. Good teachers are most of the time the ones that end up getting tenure and usually loved by the students and the faculty at their work place.
In conclusion, teachers are vital and those that have stood the test of time by offering the quality service are given priority in obtaining seniority. Seniority is a well deserved feat in most cases and as teaching is a low income job, this feat will be a prize for teachers. Work Cited Page Bidder, PG 1997 What makes a good teacher? in JK Roth (ed. ) Inspiring Teaching, Anker, Bolton MA, pp. 2 - 12. "Teaching" Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 19, May 2002. Retrieved on December 11, 2005. < web >. "Teacher. Princeton Review, The. 20, May 2002.
Retrieved on Dec 10, 2005 < web > Seniority of Primary Teachers, Department of Education and Science. February 2004. Retrieved on December 11, 2005. < web >
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