By definition a professional aims at improving his/her everyday performance for developmental reasons and this takes the shape of an on-going effort for developing the state of art of the humanistic science that he/she serves.
The following ‘tips’ may help some of us to re-think about the state of our teaching as a humanistic profession during our summer holidays and develop, alter or change some of our routines for the next school year.
The ‘tips’ are offered in a questionnaire format. Read each statement, reflect on specific teaching situations related to the question and then evaluate yourself.
Maintain your ‘Yes’ answers and develop your ‘No’ and ‘To Think’ (TT) answers.
School owners may go through the questionnaire with specific teachers of the school in mind for evaluation purposes.
QUESTIONS
YES
TT
NO
1.Do you think you respect yourself and your colleagues?
2.Do you think you respect students and their parents?
3.Do you think you respect the school’s rules and regulations?
4.Do you think you respect your learners’ opinions?
5.Do you generally accept advice and do you work on it?
6.Do you accept your students as they are?
7.Do you accept younger and older colleagues as equals?
8.Do you accept your responsibilities and do you carry them through every day?
9.Do you accept diversity in your students and do you learn from them?
10.Are you prepared to improve in your profession through training?
11.Are you prepared to be a life long developmental learner?
12.Are you prepared to share and cooperate with teachers, parents and students?
13.Are you prepared to inform others and be informed on new teaching issues?
14.Are you prepared to give constructive feedback and not mere criticism?
15.Are you sincere with yourself and others in your profession?
16.Are you sociable enough with the students and your colleagues?
Biodata
Akis Davanellos has been a school owner and Practitioner Teacher for twenty three years and he holds an MA in ELT from the University of Warwick. He has written a number of articles in local and international journals and he has worked for international and local publishing companies presenting professional and commercial seminars and courses. He has also been involved in forthcoming book evaluations and piloting. He is the initiator and the main materials designer of the IGUANA PROJECT publishing house, the initiator of the Iguana Project Educational Support System for schools (I.P.E.S.S.). He has also developed the ‘e-enilikes’ method for adult education and various e-learning programs for distant learning.
