That is the sharing of Mr. Nguyen Van Luc - former teacher of Trinh Phong Secondary School, Khanh Hoa - when talking about the excellent teacher contest at all levels.
As a History - Civics teacher, Mr. Luc was once selected by the school to compete in the district and provincial level excellent teacher contest.
The journey began with participating in the school-level excellent teacher conference, which took place in November, to celebrate Vietnamese Teachers' Day every year on November 20.
"The school level competition is very tough and seems more realistic because the individual has to take care of his or her own teaching without any help from colleagues. After passing the school level, the Board of Directors chooses "chickens" to compete in the district level. We teachers joke that the school "chooses the right person to entrust gold" to "bring the bell to fight in a foreign land" - said Mr. Luc.
Sharing about the time he spent preparing for the excellent teacher exam, Mr. Luc said that not only him, but any teacher who participated also had to bear heavy psychological pressure, losing sleep and appetite for a whole month to prepare for the district-level teaching session.
"Lesson plans have to be prepared and re-prepared dozens of times, countless documents, pictures, teaching aids (learning materials) have to be searched for. Teachers then have to teach a few test lessons so that colleagues in the group, team, and the school board can observe and give comments, and edit and revise countless times because everyone has their own ideas. Just one teaching period is extremely tiring.
When it comes to the competition, honestly, teachers are like actors, and the script is created by the team and the principal. If selected to compete in the provincial excellent teacher competition, the procedure is transferred to the professional team of the Department of Education to observe the trial teaching hours, give feedback five or seven times, and then wait for the day to compete" - Mr. Luc recalled.
On the students' side, according to Mr. Luc, they also encountered no less trouble. Because when serving teachers to teach trial lessons for district and provincial exams, the school mobilized participating classes, changed lessons, changed hours, changed shifts, taught in place, and tested teaching methods, causing many disruptions, affecting the quality of students' learning.
In some schools, the principal even gives teachers time off to focus on teaching exam-ready lessons, which causes students to miss lessons and lessons, affecting the quality of their studies.
Ms. Hong Duyen - a primary school teacher in Hanoi - also acknowledged that the current excellent teacher contest still has many shortcomings and negativity.
"The most obvious limitation that can be seen is that most of the contest lessons are not real, the students and teachers have rehearsed many times in advance. Even the class that the teacher teaches is not an official class but has been selected, reducing the number of students. Not to mention, I myself feel pressured when participating in the contest. Before arranging a lesson with new methods, or the expectations from colleagues and the school board...
Meanwhile, to apply all of those teaching methods into a real class without prior rehearsal is impossible," Ms. Duyen analyzed.
