What Makes A Good English Teacher?

What Makes A Good English Teacher? It is absolutely true that we are those who choose what we want to be. Sometimes we choose to be someone that we can not be. If we talk about professions, with no doubt we can say that teaching is like no other profession. In my opinion not every person who wants to be a teacher should be a teacher. Some people list teaching as one of easiest professions, they often thing to change their own professions with teaching profession. These people think that the process of teaching is very easy, with no difficulties and they think that teachers do not have a lot of things to do. But for sure its not true. Even as every other profession teaching has its specifics. Before I start speaking about process of teaching, I would like to mention some of essential (basic) qualities that teachers should have. First of all, they have to know their subject. Now is considered that good teachers should not only know the subject matter because nowdays the teacher is not considered the only source of information, I certainly agree with this theory, but I consider that you should not be a good teacher of English language if you dont know English, by this I mean that good teacher expect other specifics he/she should know the subject. Then other quality that the teacher must possess is the quality called knowing your students, by knowing our students we will know what do they need, what do they know and what they dont know. Of course by knowing our students we will use the appropriate method for them during the process of teaching. And the third quality which I wanted to mention is being prepared for the class. The last one is related with both the first and the second one. And by this we would not be possible to fail at, because we know the subject matter, we know our students, and we are prepare d well. In my opinion being prepared means that we know what we are going to lecture, which method we will use, then we know how long we will speak to students etc. When we talk about teaching, should be said that there are a multitude of elements that satisfy it. In my future as a teacher, I would like to be a teacher that inspires students to love learning, explore new fields of study, and miss the school, not the other one who does just the opposite. Of course I would like to be defined as a good teacher, and as a good teacher I would like let my students know that I am the one who pushes them to do their best and at the same time Ill try to make learning interesting as well as creative. I would like my students to be open with me, to discuss things with me. Ill be there to help them. I would like to encourage my students to be not just good students, but to be good people too. I dont want them to be good memorizers of texts. I want them to learn and be able to apply what they learned, not just to pass the tests. I dont want to stop teaching when the bell rings. I am going to hold extra sessions for them if it is necessary. Some students need extra attention. Ill take my job seriously because one day I would like to be proud with my students. Expect these things good teachers should know well how to talk to their students. From my experience I learned that teachers who talk loudly and teachers who usually knock with a chalk or a stick on a table or blackboard they usually disturb students then they get afraid of their teachers. So great importance as future teacher I will also dedicate this topic, I will try to eschew things that make students feel confused. It is important students to feel good during my communication with them. The truth is that every thing in schools should be made in favor of the students. In the beginning of this essay I said that it is important for teachers to know their subject, but expect this they should know how to interpret things they know to their students. As every good teacher in my future I will try to be simple and logical. Even more Ill try to give to my students all kinds of information that they need. Another interesting and important issue for which it was debated a lot, is the issue of who should talk more students or teacher. Its good to have a balance between S TT (Student Talking Time) and TTT (Teacher Talking Time). While we are talking about English teachers it is better to have the maximum of STT because students will practice words that they learn during debating and they will be more freely, but teachers assistance will be welcome. In this case as a future teacher I will organize the class and the time in that way that my role to be just as an assistant, Ill just give instructions to students in the beginning and then Ill let them work in groups or other methods, but Ill assist them every time they need my help. So by this I think they will be more independent. Another important point is the way we organize our lectures. We have to choose different styles of teaching. Teachers especially at elementary level, need to be very creative with their teaching style, because not every child learns the same way, nor are they interested in same things. Teachers should use variety lectures, because students need surprises, they get bored writing all the time or listening all the time. Despite this teachers need to be careful, they have to find a balance in which all students will feel good and satisfied. Some students like changes some not. Some of them feel unsafe in these changes and are afraid to speak or be part of classroom activities. Nowdays teachers use plans for each class, but in my opinion we should not use plans, because good teachers should be always prepared or better say they should be flexible. I decided to become a teacher, because for me being a teacher is a pleasure. It is good to know that there is a child that adores and loves you. And Ill be more satisfied when Ill know that they are learning things from me. I do not like to be adorable from my students just because Im their teacher, but I would like them to value my work. I thing that I have sufficient reasons to become a teacher. I hope one day to be the most successful teacher. Motion Sickness: Causes and Treatments Motion Sickness: Causes and Treatments Contents Introduction – Main Content – Reasons that cause motion sickness – Motion Sickness Symptoms – Ways of avoiding motion sickness – Treatment for Motion Sickness – Medications for Motion Sickness – Conclusion – Bibliography Introduction – Motion sickness is also known as kinetosis. This sickness occurs when there is discrepancy between person’s mind perceiving a movement and signal that person’s sense of balance sends to mind. This is also some time referred to as travel sickness. It is considered as a condition in which disagreement exist amongst senses of vestibular system of the movement and the visually perceived movement. In order to understand motion sickness, it is important to understand a few parts of the human body and how they affect the way a person feel the movement. The following are the important parts Inner ears: Liquid in semi circular Inner ear is responsible for telling person if he/she is in motion. The motion may be upward, downward, side to side, round and round, forward, or backward. Eyes: Eyes are also part of human body that tells the person if he/she is in motion. It also tells person in which direction he/she is moving. Skin receptors: These receptors are responsible for informing person’s brain as to which parts of his/ her body are touching the floor. Muscles and joint sensory receptors: These receptors are responsible for informing person’s brain about the motion of muscles and position of body. (KH, 2011) Main Content – Motion sickness is like a puzzle. Motion sickness can occur from various types of sickness such as – Roller coasters sickness Car sickness Air sickness Sea sickness And other Complex type of movement which involve slow movement or movement in two different directions (such as upward and downward plus forward and backward). When body is in any type of motion the brain receives signals immediately from different parts of a person’s body, which it tries to put together in order to get a total picture about what he/ she is doing at that particular moment. In case different parts of pictures, in form of signal that brain receives from different parts of body do not match, people suffer from motion sickness. There are no investigative tests that can determine motion sickness. It can only be determined from the typical symptoms that appear when person is travelling or is in any type of passive motion. (Marks, 2012) Example of motion sickness – Consider as case wherein person is travelling in a bus and reading book. Now, since person is sitting in moving bus his/her inner ear and skin receptors will sense forward motion. However, since persons eyes are focused on book which is stationary and also person is sitting so both eyes and muscle receptors informs brain that that there is no motion. As a result of these different signal received from different parts of body brain gets confused. Reasons that cause motion sickness – From above example it can be seen that cause of motion sickness is discrepancy in signals received from different parts of body. The inner ear and skin receptors tell person’s brain that person is moving while eyes and muscle receptors of person tells person’s brain that he/she is stationary. As a result of this inconsistency in signals received person’s brain comes to conclusion that he/she is hallucinating and that it is caused due to intake of poison or neurotoxin. The brain in order to drive poison or neurotoxin out of body will induce vomiting. (Mandal, 2014) Motion Sickness Symptoms – The following are the motion sickness symptoms – Nausea, Vomiting, and Dizziness are main signs of motion sickness. Increased salivation, Sweating, pale skin, and a feeling of uneasiness and not feeling fine are also some of the symptoms of motion sickness. Motion sickness’ severity may vary from person to person and even in same person on different days. In most of the cases signs of motion sickness go away after the motion comes to halt. However, there are cases in which people feels signs of motion sickness even after motion comes to halt. This feeling of motion sickness can last few days. Studies have highlighted fact that some people are more likely to experience motion sickness as compared to others and they are – Women are more likely to experience motion sickness in comparison to man and further pregnant women are more likely to experience motion sickness. Motion sickness can also occur because of genes, so if a person have relatives who experience motion sickness, he/ she are more likely to struggle with it as well. Motion Sickness can mostly prevail among children around the age of 12 years. Infants and Children below the age of two years generally don’t experience motion sickness. Motion sickness is common among people suffering from migraine headaches (Marks, 2012) (UoM, 2012) Ways of avoiding motion sickness – There are several ways in which motion sickness can be prevented. These are: Putting face forward – It is suitable to always sit facing forward and avoids facing backward on the seat or sit in a seat that faces backward. This is because sitting in direction of in which motion is taking place helps in keeping the motion sensed by the person’s eyes and ears the same. Get to the middle of things – In order to prevent motion sickness person should always try to sit in a place which experiences minimum amount of motion. For example if person is travelling through airplane he/she should try sitting near the middle of airplane instead of sitting at sides or front. Same is the case when travelling through ship. Examine the great outdoors – In order to avoid sickness while travelling person should try to look outside. For example when sitting in car or airplane or ship person should see out of windows. This will enable eyes of person to send proper signal to brain that he/she is motion. Avoid Smoking Limit the intake of the alcohol (UoM, 2012) Treatment for Motion Sickness – Following are the options for treatment of motion sickness Physical therapy: In this therapy recurrent head movements and visual cues are used in order to generate the environment that induces motion sickness in person. In this way person’s brain is trained to get habituated to this type of motion. This training of person’s mind leads to decrease in motion sickness over time. Some studies show that Manual pressure or pressure using a bracelet or wrist band can be effective for motion sickness. However, there are other studies don’t agree to this fact. Lemon cure: Lemon is also used to reduce symptoms of motion sickness. Sucking on a lemon helps in avoiding excess salivation thereby preventing nausea. There are studies which show that if person takes 1-2 grams of ginger before travelling, he /she may experience reduced symptoms of motion sickness. However, this impact of ginger is not because of suppression of sensory input but due to impact ginger on gastric mobility. (Lackner, 2013) Medications for Motion Sickness – The following are the mediations for motion sickness Antiemetic (anti-nausea) medications are used to control nausea and vomiting after motion sickness have developed. Examples of medications are: Zofran and Compazine. Antihistamine medications, such as Bonine, Aller-Chlor, Marezine, for children, and Dramamine are available for motion sickness. Antidopaminergics medications, such as Pentazine and Reglan. Scopolamine is also used. It is most commonly administered as a patch applied to the skin. All these medication have some or the other side effects such as sleepiness, distorted vision, dry mouth, movement disorders and retention of urine in elderly people. (UoM, 2012) (Tillman, 2014) Conclusion – From our study of Motion Sickness and its causes it can be seen that it is not any type of illness. Also it has no long standing complications. However, symptoms of motion sickness nausea and vomiting if last long can prove to be dangerous. It has been observed if symptoms such vomiting lasts long it can lead to dehydration and electrolyte abnormalities, which may further lead to more severe problems such as fainting, low blood pressure, or irregular heart beat. Thus, motion sickness can be prevented if proper care and precautions are taken. Bibliography KH. (2011). Whats Motion Sickness? Retrieved April 19, 2014, from KidsHealth: http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/motion_sickness.html Lackner, J. R. (2013). Motion sickness. Retrieved April 19, 2014, from http://www.brandeis.edu/graybiel/publications/docs/190_ms_encns.pdf Mandal, D. A. (2014, April 19). Causes of motion sickness. Retrieved April 19, 2014, from NEWS Medical: http://www.news-medical.net/health/Causes-of-motion-sickness.aspx Marks, J. W. (2012). Motion Sickness. Retrieved April 19, 2014, from http://www.onhealth.com/motion_sickness/article.html Tillman, L. (2014). Motion Sickness. Red Lemonade. UoM. (2012). Motion sickness. Retrieved April 19, 2014, from University of Maryland: http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/condition/motion-sickness