Are there any embarrassing teaching moments you're willing to share? What are they?
For the teachers. Just for fun. I think most of us have had at least one experience or two that we find embarrassing.
8 answers from our tutors
Best answer
I remember myself, I was not an experienced teacher, and frequently I faced problem - children were not obedient in my classes. One day, after a difficult working day I shared with my husband, that I couldn't cope with misbehaviour of children. The following day, my lovely husband came with me to my job (to school). He has prepared a long speech for my students how to treat young teacher. It was a funny situation ! ))))
All of them were based on initial language barrier or cultural differences, and I am too embarrassed to share them publicly but in a class of course I am willing to talk about at least one! :)
Oh plenty of those days...Mixing up "desert" and "dessert" during a lesson-imagine trying to explain a sandy sweet treat and the look on my student's faces. I have once called a student by the wrong name for an entire class...we laughed about it at the end but a lesson was learnt: Check your spellings and read your notes thoroughly.
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I got to my classroom far too early on my first day, sitting there and twiddling my thumbs, trying to over prepare as much as possible for the kids got in.
I felt embarrassed when I could not pronounce the student's name correctly, it was actually quite funny. The student and I had a good laugh together.
As a young teacher, I taught at a rural school. On my first day, I tried to learn all the names of the children. Eventually, I asked the name of a lanky boy at the back of the class. He piped up with,'My name is Beautiful, Mam. ' The rest of the class burst out laughing. I was so embarrassed on behalf of the not-so-beautiful boy that I cried on his behalf.
Early on in my teaching journey, I was trying to clarify the difference between 'who' and 'whom' when I hilariously mixed them up in a sentence. My students caught it right away and burst out laughing, and I couldn’t help but join in. It was a great reminder that teaching is just as much about learning for the teacher too:)
I am currently a spanish teacher but a couple yeas ago we were giving in-person english classes with a Canadian classmate. so my classmate was teaching but he was very sick so he fell asleep in the middle of the class so i had to apologize to the students and ended up teaching the rest of the class. At the it was super embarrassing!!! hahaha
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Best answer
Not so genius, but this has worked with my Asian and Latino students: Substitute all "Th-" in words with a "D-", as it is an easier starting point e.g. instead of "The", ask them to say De(almost like a form of pidgin english: de boi VS the boy). Its a matter of throat to tongue, where sounds with "T" and "D" are easier to begin with and then you will gradually progress to the "Th-" sounds as the find confindence and comfort. You could always tell them to pretend they are blowing out candles on a birthday cake; and for the "Th" sound their tongue should gently touch their teeth, like in words like "Thin" or "This". Have them practice the not so elated soft "Th" sound-- its like their tongue is having a short siesta on their teeth! Such a mental jounery and lots of creativity will get you through a lot of pronounciation hurdles.
