::A Geek in Korea::

One of the teachers I work with got a nasty written note from his students indirectly. The students in question wrote to the office that manages us to complain about his class. They had complained and told the office that they liked their last teacher better. They’ve done this every time they’ve been given a new teacher. They are never satisfied. While I don’t know how one teacher might compare to another for this particular level, I do know that this teacher probably wasn’t doing a bad job.

The students I’ve had that have taken the teacher who had been criticized had nothing but glowing reviews about his teaching method. Many students talked about his class being high energy and very fun. This particular class he took over hates his style. The other teacher was a methodical, direct class that students with lower interest feel more comfortable being around. Sometimes it’s tough to live up to students expectations when being compared to others. This entire semester has been about me trying to fill the shoes of the professor before me. I sympathize entirely with a teacher having a hard time taking over for another.

This email was sitting on his desk, and it was really eating him alive. He started having those same doubts I had when I was being compared to him just last week in my class when we talked about my teaching style in a class discussion. Everything my students told me was positive and constructive, but it still rocked my confidence for the entire weekend. I told him that I knew my students in my class thought he was a good teacher, and that he shouldn’t take those whiners too seriously.

Anyway, we got talking about how you try to make classes happy, how much appeasement can you get away with before the student start trying to run the show, differences in class styles, exposure to different learning environments. That sort of thing. We both agreed that while you can listen to students to try to run a class more to their liking, never bow to what they want entirely and give them control over what happens in class. That way madness lies.

It’s always up to the teacher to call the shots and decide what is going on next, never the students. If you let students start running the show, soon you will have 15 people with different agendas trying to pull you in different directions and nothing will get accomplished. Ultimately the teacher is still responsible for what happens in class, and if you let the students just talk the entire time, or play games, or just do what they want, they’ll never make any progress in improving their language skills. As a teacher you must put people in situations that are somewhat new and challenging to allow them to try new language and think in new ways. Even when I sat down and discussed the class with the students and had them try to settle on a “perfect class”, three students all had different opinions and ideas about what needed to be done.

He basically told me that I should keep doing what I think works, and if the students have a problem they can vote with their feet. He’s got a lot more experience at higher level classes and might be comfortable with putting down his foot much sooner than I would. Maybe the students that quit my classes were doing just that. I don’t know. I think a little discussion about classes as they progress might not hurt, but I would never let a student give a veto to what I wanted to do. I’m not asking permission to move on to the next topic, or to do an activity. I’m the teacher, damn it, you listen to me.

Anyway, I haven’t gotten any harshly worded emails decrying my teaching style yet. I know the first class back after I had gotten some critique of my class style was a big confidence booster for me personally. It went really well and had everyone entertained too, but I really don’t want to start down the path of having openly hostile students like I did at my last university job. That just sucks. I’ve been very careful to try to limit any deals with students, and be consistent with everyone I meet so that no one can get leverage over me. As long as I play fair and try my hardest, I hope to hear as few complaints as possible.