If you could list 7 of the worst habits found in teachers and in teaching, what would they be?
1. Lust
One of the 7 deadly sins of teaching, is for the teacher not to show their feelings.
Image: Shutterstock
This is not about lust in the sense of having 'feelings' for a
A light hearted look at us teachers for sure. I would disagree though that the “greedy” teacher is a rare being. I have always had at least one of this type of teacher in the team. Having to remind them to hand out letters, having to get someone else to collect their letters for them from the pigeonhole, having to remind them that being on time after break is important- was getting the team leader down.These teachers sound awful but they can be the loveliest people but very frustrating to their tutor group and middle leader. But- they just do not seem to see the issue and believe their leader is “on their case” causing stress to everyone.
Coaching has been key to enable them to be able to start to see the potential consequences of their behaviour and what they could do to make sure they are pulling their weight. After three sessions the person I have in mind began to bring other peoples post on a regular basis for them. Yey! This was so much better than having to constantly nag and it ended up with a long term lasting effect. Interesting to see if the non greedy behaviours continue after a holiday!
Re the first point, I think one of my Year 9 (soon to be Year 10) students agrees! When I asked about good Maths teachers, she said:
“What makes a good Maths teacher is someone who is passionate about Maths and explains everything REALLY well. I think being passionate is really important as we students can tell if a teacher is enjoying a subject and sometimes the explanations of topics are better when a teacher loves a subject.
I think it is also important that the teacher can challenge the most able students whilst making sure that the least able are keeping up.”
I loved this lighthearted look at teaching traits. Unfortunately, I could think of specific examples of wrath and envy, and also greed…!
Thanks for the useful thoughts and interesting connection of the 7 deadly sins to teaching. I suppose the same holds for relationships generally. The world might be a better place if everyone thought this way as they interacted with anyone on our planet. Putting one’s self-interest after, or at least at par, with those fo others would be a great steps forward for humanity.
Maybe more secondary than primary? For example, wrath is one that many stricter teachers would be accused of but ‘the earful’ can be used sparingly and genuinely when behaviour or attitude was poor, it did the trick to be able to boom once in a while. However, we have them all day, every day for a year and know our pupils inside out in a way that is difficult for secondary teachers, who may only see the class once or twice a week!!
I can think of a lot of the very socially networked teachers who are “greedy” and use their students and experiences to get likes on social media! Did you follow this debate at all? https://twitter.com/ShellTerrell/status/630189750234710016
Very aware of Justin’s antics …
Missed maybe the worst one:
#8: CONTROL – Too many teachers cannot give up control, all the way from the layout of the classroom, to the huge number of rules, to the specific pedagogy used, … , to the vehicle choices for student work.
I think 2 is a little debatable as a fine line of encouraging students to find answer themselves to develop research. I agree there are some teachers who do it all the time and is a lack of subject knowledge.