miércoles, 6 de junio de 2012

Talking point: The best teacher

8 May was National Teacher Appreciation Day in US. The celebration is a bit far-off now, but the topic has a universal value and can be useful for this week's talking point.

Get together with the members of your conversation group and discuss the questions below, some of which are taken from The New York Times learning blogs.

What teacher, or teachers, do you appreciate, and why?
Who was the most important teacher for you?
What did he or she teach you?
How did he or she do that to make it so memorable?
How important do you think teachers are?
What problems do teachers face as a profession?
What can we do as a society to show them they are appreciated?
Are teachers highly respected in Spain? Are they well paid?
What do you learn from a teacher that you don't from your parents?
Do/Did you prefer to be taught by a male or female teacher?
Should teachers express their political views in class?
Do you prefer strict teachers or easy-going ones?
What subjects are the easiest and most difficult to teach?

In preparation for the topic you can read these two articles: The first one, “Teaching Me About Teaching,” by Charles M. Blow, comes from The New York Times, where Mr Blow writes about the teacher who taught him the most. The second article comes from The Guardian, How Finnish Schools Shine, and was written by Adam Lopez, who tells us about the success of Finnish schools.

Photograph: www.alamy.com