The definition of indicator has something to do with pointing fingers. Yes, I do that sometimes. But I’d like to offer a simple indicator to measure the quality of a teacher. Measure the minutes. How late are they?
The typical teacher is around 15 minutes late. If they leave the teachers’ room 5 minutes late, it’s perfectly reasonable and then if the classroom is far away, another 10 minutes is quite sensible. It’s hot. Why rush?
I worked in Japan for 15 years. It is in my system. My blood changes color if I’m late. In the 15 years I worked in Japan, I remember being late one time.
I know a few teachers who are not late. One says that his time to teach is never enough. He even finds ways so as not to waste time taking attendance. He knows each student by name and is proud that he instilled confidence to learn in every student. Giving students confidence requires planning and monitoring, consulting and amending and this takes time.
I was surprised with another teacher when I found him in class before I arrived. It happened more than once. What’s going on? I noticed a qualitative change in him. Rather than give tests with questions like, “How many personal pronouns are there in the English language?” to students who admitted that they can’t even write the alphabet, he negotiated with them. “What can you do? What do you need?”
The students agreed on clear and reasonable goals and rose to the challenge. The teacher gave them an oral test and looked at me repeatedly in surprise at what the students could do. Seeing students thrive on success rather than be browbeaten by defeat is something I suspect most teachers don’t see, don’t look for, don’t recognize and surely don’t cultivate. This one teacher was delighted at what he saw and I’m sure that is what brought him to class on time.
Back to indicators, I won’t argue with the number crunchers, but maybe we should just use definitions of “indicators” from chemistry or biology. Both are quite useful.
“A compound that changes color at a certain PH value or in the presence of a particular substance and can be used to monitor acidity, alkalinity or the progress of a reaction.”
“An animal or plant species that can be used to infer conditions in a particular habitat.”
