I REFER to Wednesday's article, 'MOE wants teachers with job experience'. I like the forward planning of the Ministry of Education (MOE), which is trying to recruit mid-career people who want to switch to teaching. As class size reduces and more and more schools go single session, it is laudable that this exercise is being launched now to alleviate the teacher shortage envisaged in the near future.

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After years of teaching, I don't believe in "born" teachers. More "successful" teachers have developed certain qualities to help them teach and connect with their students (and other stakeholders, including fellow teachers) better, but they aren't necessarily born with them. Depending on various factors, such as (quality of) students and (level of) support from administrators and parents, some teachers may be more "successful" than others in a given set of circumstances. It's just like even the best scripted classes can "bomb" on a "wrong" day.

The practical issue is how do you identify those teachers with the ideal qualities at the recruitment stage? You can only get a proper assessment on the job.

hey unewolke, i totally agree with you that there are no 'born teachers'. I have certainly honed my teaching and class management skills over the years of teaching and still learning! HOwever, I believe that anyone venturing into teaching should have the minimum requisite - a PASSION in educating the young ones. I earnestly hope that our children are able to look up to our teachers (both permanent and relief) as role models!

teacherfriend, the one thing that i think all "good" teachers have is the willingness to constantly challenge themselves, intellectually, creatively, and otherwise...basically to think out of the box and increase their skills-set, or in short, the willingness (and preferably ability) to learn, adapt, adopt, finetune and keep doing it/going/learning! :)

another thing too: the willingness to (learn to) be encouraged and encouraging. very important when your lesson(s) or students "bomb"!

What teaching is also depends on the school or the principal the teacher is working for. If you have been working in a school environment, where you just need to worry about students' discipline in the classroom, you obviously haven't seen the other side of teaching in Singapore, the materialistic and ugly side.

In many schools, teachers have to do lots of work unrelated to teaching as well, from being a traffic police in the morning to being punching bags for their principals.

Originally Posted by Baikinman

The practical issue is how do you identify those teachers with the ideal qualities at the recruitment stage? You can only get a proper assessment on the job.

you don't. teachers are living and breathing, and they can either lose or gain those qualities depending on various factors. as a preliminary, you want to choose people (mid-career switchers esp) who have demonstrated a degree of (some or all of the following):

1. subject knowledge
2. perseverance
3. creativity/flexibility
4. kindness and understanding/empathy
5. good judgment/fairness/consistency
6. managerial skills (people, time, priorities etc)
7. coping with pressure
8. desire to share (his/her knowlege)
9. thirst of knowledge; and very importantly,
10. ability and willingness to learn (beyond his/her areas of expertise/knowledge)

well said unewolke! It's absolutely important to be receptive to feedback and to stay positive when 'everything bombs'!! That's how I'm still in teaching despite those 28 years hahaha
I'm still excited about teaching and quite certain I will be steadfast for years to come.

I welcome with open arms those who are READY to join us in this challenging profession! :)

Members of the public who are thinking about joining teaching should do more research, and not just gather the one-sided( usually the rosy side) information about teaching from MOE's recruitment (or marketing?) department. Once you are with them, you will have to be there for at least three years (excluding the year you study for your postgrad diploma in education at NIE).


http://www.asiaone.com/print/News/Ed...428-62239.html

Also, here's a not-so-rosy account of a teacher in Singapore that members of the public could read about, before they sign on the dotted line of the teaching bond. Such accounts do not appear in the video presentation of MOE's recruitment drive.... for obvious reasons.


http://www.straitstimes.com/print/ST...ry_154670.html