by Jake Hollingsworth / Seoul, South Korea / www.JakeHollingsworth.net
No.3 By taking your job seriously, you teach them that their education is important.
When I say that we should take our jobs seriously, I don’t mean that we should stop coming in to work hung over, or telling crude jokes to our students, or anything else childish and immature. I’m assuming that’s a no-brainer.
What I do mean is the small stuff. The things that are easy to let slide. The crossing of the T’s and dotting of the I’s. When your students read a paragraph, do you stop them when they leave out an “a” or an “an”? Do you correct them when they gloss over a few plural nouns without pronouncing the “s”? In my classroom, I regularly have students write the on the board the sentences they have just completed in their workbooks. They are generally nervous and write quickly before hurrying back to their seat. There are always one or two students who don’t mark the end of a sentence with a period. And I always make them go back and add it. A period is simple. It’s small. It’s seemingly insignificant. I could easily write it for them (it’s so small, in fact, that it sounds a bit strange to say ‘write a period’).
They huff and stomp back to the board, but I don’t care. It’s important. I’m actually flattered to be labeled as that overly picky teacher. Our student’s education is important, and we teach them that by being picky about perfection. They trust us to be serious.
Go to the next Tip:
Everyone is a Teacher (4 of 5)
