How You Can Be A Good Teacher
Eight Qualities A Good Teacher Should Have
A teacher might have one of the most important roles in everyone’s lives right after the parents. Teachers are crucial when it comes to building up a student’s foundation of knowledge. Not only do teachers help to teach students math or language skills, but they are also essential to students developing the interest to further their own quest for knowledge. As such, it is important for teachers to want and to strive towards being an A+ teacher. So, here we have 8 tips that we believe can guide you on your way there! If you are not a teacher yet, but an aspiring teacher who wants to help students learn english, you should find this list useful too!
1. Do Effective Goal-Setting
It is important that teachers often do timely check-ins at the start of an academic term to gauge the individual goals of every student so that you become more well-informed and know how to guide them towards their goals during the year. In fact, it does not have to be limited to the goals your students tell you they want to achieve. It can also be goals set for certain curriculums or goals that you want your students to achieve. This is an important thing to take note of because, without goals, we would all be going on like headless chickens.
Some steps you can take to help you with goal-setting is to check for the students’ understanding of certain topics and have a feedback session. This can be a way to end off the lesson as well by asking students to recap the concept taught so that you can identify where the problem areas are and students also have a chance to clarify doubts.
2. Do have Clear Communication
When we talk about communication, we do not just mean the ability to converse with students but also the non-verbal aspect of communication. The interaction between teachers and students is extremely important as teachers are the next most reliable to spot if anything is on a student’s mind.
When developing this skill, it is important to recall that this requires active listening in order to be able to derive the needs of the students. The time where you should talk is when you need to clarify with your student if what you interpreted was accurate. This is important because you need to remember it is about the student and not us.
3. Do Act as a Role Model
Well, this is self-explanatory. When someone tells you to do one thing but does the other, it definitely does not feel good and the credibility of that particular individual is diminished. So, it is important to uphold the values and principles that you would like to impart to your students.
In order to do so, you would need to have more self-awareness of your own behavior and actions. In psychology, there is a common theory for how young people learn and that is through observant learning. You should also foster an open environment where students can be honest with one another. This prevents any bout of miscommunication and by explaining your own intentions behind your actions, you also encourage your students to do the same.
4. Do be Adaptable and Flexible
This may be a guide with tips on how to be a better teacher but humans are dynamic and so are your students. They come from many different backgrounds each with their own idiosyncrasies. As such, they are bound to have different needs and even these needs will change over time.
Just as you know how unique these individuals are, always remind them that it is okay to be different and in fact, that is normal and what makes the world such an interesting place. So, students should also take pride in their own uniqueness. It would also be good to get to know them individually to identify the different ways that they learn.
5. Do your Preparations
This is also linked to the previous tip, in order to be adaptable and flexible, you would also need to prepare for sudden changes to schedules and in students. Showing that you are prepared reassures your student that you have had the foresight to consider all scenarios.
Thoroughly plan through your lesson plans. When you have a lesson plan in mind, jot down all the things that a student could possibly take away and prepare for any changes. Furthermore, adding to previous tips, it would really be great if you could get better acquainted with every student. This can help you set out better plans.
6. Do encourage Self-Reflection
This advice does not only apply to teachers but to all aspects of life. The ability to self-reflect is not only good for you but for your students as well. Only when you engage in it can you see how to improve from your weaknesses and become a better version of your old self.
In executing your lesson plans, you can consider the option of allocating some time at the end of class time for the class to partake in self-reflection activities. To do this, you can consider asking the students to keep a journal to pen down all their thoughts and if they are open to sharing, they can do so. Otherwise, you can provide them a more private setting to share.
7. Do engage in Life-Long Learning
Life is always on the move, and so are your students. You will go through batches of students and methods will change, so you have to be open to learning new things to achieve new goals.
Take on courses that can help you better adapt to changes in the classroom like psychological and technological classes.
8. Do Promote a Love of Learning
Learning does not always have to be boring and draining. This is where a good teacher comes into play. They are able to get students to enjoy the process of learning.
How: Consider innovative methods of teaching, if you can teach using a more hands-on method, opt for that. You can even ask the student themselves what kind of lessons they would like through feedback sessions.
Learn more about our online teacher courses, to see which fits your needs.
Maybe we can place it after this sentence found in the article: Take on courses that can help you better adapt to changes in the classroom like psychological and technological classes.
Conclusion
We hope these 8 tips can go a long way to help you become a good teacher! You are an important part of every student’s learning journey, so set a good example for your students and be open to suggestions.
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