As teachers, we have a duty not only to teach our students the content of our courses but how to function in society so that they have the better chance to be successful. We often have to show tough love by enforcing deadlines, creating seating charts, and strictly correcting errors on writing assignments. But when class is over are we practicing what we preach? More often than not, the answer is no.
More than half of the presentation proposals that were submitted for this year's KOTESOL International Conference were submitted in the three-day period before the deadline. A quarter were sent on the last day. Ten more submissions came in after the deadline. Educators had more than three months to prepare and send their proposals but chose to wait until the very last minute. We roll our eyes when freshmen behave like this and then do the same thing ourselves.
Another example of teachers behaving like students can be observed while attending academic conferences. When students go into a new class for the first time they tend to sit in the back of the room. A few keeners will sit in the front but the room usually fills up from the back. Go to any conference and you will see the same behavior from teachers. We sit in the back, pull out of phones, and try to sneak out if the session is boring. Sound familiar?
A third example can be seen when teachers post things online (English teachers are also guilty of this). Typos abound. Words are misspelled and errors with homophones such as there/their/they're are frequent. "Why didn't you check you're work before submitting it" we ask our students. For the same reason we didn't read our own post before clicking send, I guess...
Do as I say and not as I do. Teachers need to do more than make rules in our courses. We need to model strategies for success and actually practice what we preach.
More than half of the presentation proposals that were submitted for this year's KOTESOL International Conference were submitted in the three-day period before the deadline. A quarter were sent on the last day. Ten more submissions came in after the deadline. Educators had more than three months to prepare and send their proposals but chose to wait until the very last minute. We roll our eyes when freshmen behave like this and then do the same thing ourselves.
Another example of teachers behaving like students can be observed while attending academic conferences. When students go into a new class for the first time they tend to sit in the back of the room. A few keeners will sit in the front but the room usually fills up from the back. Go to any conference and you will see the same behavior from teachers. We sit in the back, pull out of phones, and try to sneak out if the session is boring. Sound familiar?
A third example can be seen when teachers post things online (English teachers are also guilty of this). Typos abound. Words are misspelled and errors with homophones such as there/their/they're are frequent. "Why didn't you check you're work before submitting it" we ask our students. For the same reason we didn't read our own post before clicking send, I guess...
Do as I say and not as I do. Teachers need to do more than make rules in our courses. We need to model strategies for success and actually practice what we preach.
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