I think that to some extent, in order to be a teacher today one must be somewhat philanthropically inclined. For the amount of hours teachers work in the classroom, they spend at least the same amount of time in preparing for the classroom. At least in the USA, teachers aren't paid overtime! Those involved in the teaching profession must have a heart for the students and a desire to see the students challenged in a way that makes them thrive. So if a teacher is in it for the money, I would question whether their motives would drastically impair their ability to be effective teachers. A teacher should know what the profession entails before they jump in; if what they're after is money, they should choose another profession. I agree with you that effective teachers are synonymous with life-long learners. When I was in college, I was challenged to do my own assignments that I gave my students. My students love it when I do this! This tells them 2 things: 1) I am aware of what the assignment involves and think it's meaningful. Busy work is such a waste of time! Assignments should count towards something meaningful being learned 2) By doing my own assignment, I show them that I care about them specifically and individually. AND...it provides great incentive for them to see if they can do it better than I...and it's fun to let them actually succeed in this endeavor to "one-up" me!

There shall be a mix of business motive and quality awareness in a balanced manner. One shall not supercede the other. I feel this is very essential for the survival of our schools and our teaching profession as well.

Some good points there Shimo. I think teaching in a state school is pretty highly regarded in most countries, and in the UK at least requires rigorous training. However, teaching ESL is pretty easy to get into. Some places, just being able to speak English will get you a job. And even the most stringent requirements are not too burdensome, i.e. study 4 weeks for a CELTA/TESOL. But, that doesn't mean there aren't hard-working, dedicated ESL teachers out there, because there are. Many of us are working all the year round teaching more classes per week than your average secondary school teacher. And while it's true we don't have the same amount of paperwork to do, we do spend extra time actively trying to develop ourselves in schools where often the management (who are running a language school purely with a business motive, and have never taught) don't have a clue about education. At the same time, there are also a lot of traveler teachers out there, who don't really give a damn about teaching and this undermines the good work other ESL teachers are doing. It doesn't help our image. But, there are some schools out there who recognise the merits of investing time in their teachers (which is frankly more important than money) to improve the quality. The more schools do that the better the image of ESL teachers will become. Anyway, just wanted to join in the conversation. Nice to meet you all.

Do you think multimedia slides will help students at higher levels? If you want to derive a mathematical equation will power point slides motivate students?

Teaching is the noblest profession. Driving is the world's largest profession. Do you agree?