What makes a teacher good? What are the qualities of a good teacher? How do you compliment a teacher? Who is the best teacher? Here are the answers to these questions.
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| what makes a teacher a good teacher |
What are the qualities of a good teacher?
Who is the best teacher? This type of question we always ask ourselves and our answer is always limited to a few kinds. But the reality is, there are as many kinds of good teachers in our schools as there are varieties of good apples in supermarkets. Unfortunately, we tend to recognize and honor only one kind of teacher at a time. We glorify teachers whose students pass in all the exams and sometimes admire those who had proven they could bring about greater student achievement. Most of the teachers have a Vision. Knowing the visions of different kinds of teachers will enable us to explore ways to support, develop and evaluate many kinds of teachers.
- The ideal teacher
- Analytic teachers
- Effective teachers
- Dutiful Teachers
- Competent teachers
- Expert teachers
- Reflective teachers
- Satisfying teachers
- Diversity responsive teachers
- Respected teachers
Ideal teachers
- Professional attitude
- Understanding of students
- Creativity
- Control of class
Analytic Teachers
- They record and examine their classroom practice
- Use observation techniques
- Investigative
- Self-correctional
Effective Teachers
- Monitor carefully learning activities with students
- Clear, accepting
- Supportive equitable
- Persistent in challenging
- Engaging them constantly
Dutiful Teachers
- Understand their duties
- Perform their duties
- Have the knowledge of the Subject matter, school, and community, classroom skills, personal characteristics that encourage learning.
Competent Teachers
Are competent in the area of, Planning, Implementing, Assessing and evaluating, Communicating, Performing administrative duties, etc.
Expert Teachers
- Have extensive and accessible knowledge
- Are efficient and can do more in less time
- Are able to arrive at novel and appropriate solutions to problems
- Have expertise
Reflective Teachers
- Teach with a strong, sustained interest in learning
- Are introspective
- Examine their own practice teaching by reading scholarly and professional journals and books
- They are thoughtful practitioners
- The teachers constantly monitor their teaching.
Satisfying Teachers
- Please students
- Parents
- Colleagues
- Administrators
by responding to their needs.
Diversity responsive Teachers
Are sensitive to students who are different culturally, Socially, Economically, Intellectually, Physically, Emotionally, etc.
Dedicated in and outside the classroom; they have great tenderness patience. Tactful in dealing.
Respected Teachers
- Possess virtues and qualities
- Honesty
- Decency
- Fairness
- devotion
- Empathy
- Selflessness
- Have determination
- Overcome obstacle
- Ensure the success of the students
Who is a Successful Teacher?
There are many characteristics, techniques, etc., that make for a successful teacher. These may be as varied as the teachers themselves. However, there are certain time-tested attributes, characteristics, and practices that contribute immensely to teacher success.
The following list contains items that students have used to describe their best teachers.
1. Enthusiasm
- Possesses enthusiasm and enjoys teaching
- Students easily detect the teacher's love for the job and the subject
2. Punctuality
- Always arrives on time
- Begins and ends the class on time
- Expects and encourages students to arrive on time
3. Support and concern for students
- Lets students know that he/she cares about their success
- Takes time with students
- Demands and encourages creativity and initiative
- Is friendly and courteous
- Develops a mentoring attitude and gives feedback
- Is smiling, caring, and loving
- Is able to communicate at the students' level.
4. Consistency
- Does not miss class
- Is consistent in attitude and dealingS with students
- Is always well prepared to take a class
5. Politeness
- Treats students with respect
- Does not condescend
- Avoids embarrassing students in class
6. Firmness and control
- It's firm but flexible
- Avoids tangents in teaching
7. Provides personal help
- Takes time to explain concepts
- Caters as much as possible to the students
- individual needs
8. Accepts individual differences
- Appreciates the cultural and ethnic
- diversity of students
- Employs an effective delivery
9. Knows the subject matter and
- presents it well
- Creates a sense of fun with the
- learning task
- Eliminates bad, irritating, and/or distracting habits
10. Does not make students lose face
- Avoids criticizing students
- Is supportive and interested in the growth of students
- Communicates high expectations to students
- Stretches the minds of students and challenges them to think.
11.Is humble
- Accepts own limitations
- Possesses self-esteem
12. Uses a variety
- Uses a variety of learning
- activities, experiments
- Allows spontaneity
13. Has a sense of humor and is relaxed
14. Use of engaged time
- Sets a good pace and provides for a change of pace
- Avoids engaging students in "busy work"
15. Use of text
- Is not a slave to the text
- Uses text as a road map
16. Arranges field trips and other activities
- Applies student experiences to class work
17. Builds up and maintains interpersonal relationships with students & colleagues
- Maintains a healthy teacher-student relationship
- Does not try to win a popularity contest
- Respects students
18. Keeps accurate records of
- Work completed
- Attendance
- Test results
- Grades
What Makes a Good Teacher?
The perfect teacher must be a learner too.
He/she is learning from his/her class, as they are learning from him/her. Together they form a team, and are not related as a driver and driven. They are not even leaders and led, or providence and needy: they are more humbly related to each other than that, and both belong on the same side of the plate at the banquet which is life.
A good teacher is always lit'.
There is a quality of fire about him/her that burns from far below the surface of his/her life. It is unquenchable, tireless, and enduring.
He/she is wise; which is as much more than being learned, as the whole is more than the part.
If he/she has no knowledge he/she is not afraid to admit that. Today s 1gnorance leads us to tomorrow's learning, and darkness is for our eventual illumination.
He/she is a patient, deeply rooted in the earth.
Is balanced, all-around, and wants to see the same sturdy growth in those he teaches. Knows the importance of a strong foundation if the house is to stand against the subsequent storms.
He/she has a sense of proportion
He/she has a sense of proportion and sees things in terms of their wholeness, not as unrelated parts. Sees both the past and the future in the living NOW. Has a sense of humor that can laugh, within himself/herself, sometimes loud, but never at the one who causes him to smile. This laughter is part of his life.
There is a tenderness about him/her that never makes him/her soft, because it is an all-around quality, and never a partial one.
He knows pleasure and pain: Knows gaining, and losing also. He does not crave popularity but earns it by being indifferent to it. He/she knows that life is full of ups and downs. He/she wants athletes for life: not only in their bodies but in their hearts and heads, for balanced life requires all-round accomplishment.
He/she has not the least idea how great a man he is, and couldn't believe it if you told him so.
He/she is an agent and a means, but neither a master nor an end. H/shee takes his orders from life and obeys them as all good servants do. So how can he be great? Life does the work; life teaches: and to that, lit by the light of Truth he/she gives honor. And he is right. But all the same, he is great.
Traits of a Good Teacher
1. Thankful
The thankful teacher reveals to the young minds the sentiments of gratitude and teaches them to be thankful to all those who do good to them.
2. Resourceful
The teacher, especially of the junior classes, has to be resourceful. The teacher has to find ways and means to make his or her class and the subject more appealing to the students...the teacher needs audio-visual aids such as charts, pictures, stories, etc.
3. Admirable
The admirable teacher would be caring, kind, and smart and will motive the students and become a great role model for them.
4. Imaginative
The teacher must be imaginative and creative, that is, he/she must be active in taking the first step to adopt and to introduce new methods of teaching.
5. Thoughtful
The teacher must be considerate and solicitous to the needs of the students and also of the other staff members.
6. Service-minded
A good teacher must be ready to serve and to be at the service of the students. especially of the weaker ones. The teacher must be able to render service by helping out in the extra-curricular activities of the school.
7. Orderly
A good teacher must be methodical in his/her teaching. A good lesson plan would be required. The teacher must keep order 1n the class and come to class well prepared with his/her books and appliances that are needed for the class.
8. Fair
A good teacher must be impartial towards the students... the objective in the treatment of the students.
9. Approachable
A good teacher must be friendly, accessible, and cordial towards the students, parents, and co-teachers.
10. God-fearing
The teacher, in order to impart true education to the students, must have good moral principles based on a strong belief in God.
11. Obedient to duty
The good teacher, in order to demand respect and obedience from the students, must himself/herself be obedient to those in authority and to duty.
12. Observant
A good teacher, in order to know the students well, must observe and watch the students, both in class and outside class. The teacher should observe the progress of the students.
13. Determined
A good teacher must not be discouraged by the failure of his or her efforts to bear fruit. 1eaching demands perseverance, patience, and Constancy.
14. Trustworthy
A good teacher, being a guide to the students, must prove himself or herself worthy of confidence and trust. He or she must not betray the confidence of the students.
15. Enthusiastic
A good teacher must be happy with the teaching profession and must show great interest in it. He or she must be able to arouse interest in learning among the students.
16. Appreciative
The teacher must be an appreciative person, who constantly appreciates the efforts made by the students and encourage them to do greater things.
17. Communicative
A good teacher, by his or her vocation, needs to have the quality of communicating because there can be no good teaching without communication of ideas.
18. Hardworking
This is pretty well understood if a teacher wants to be serious in his or her work. This means hours of correcting books and preparation of the lessons.
19. Encouraging
A good teacher can get a lot from the students with encouraging words, especially from the weaker students. The teacher should never be a discouraging factor in the life of the students.
20. Responsible
A good teacher must be conscientious in fulfilling his or her duty...must be punctual, must prepare the class, and must finish the matter assigned for each subject.
ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR NEW TEACHERS
New teachers are often limited in their repertoire of instructional strategies. Many teachers enter the teaching field directly from university or college where they mastered minimal pedagogical knowledge or skills. Often, they are not taught how to establish the positive, organized learning environment necessary for them to teach and for students to learn. Some teachers enter the field with almost no formal teacher training.
Through trial and error, new teachers develop a repertoire of teaching strategies. This haphazard process of strategy development may take several years by which time many struggling, unprepared new teachers have already left the classroom. Without high-quality preparation to ready them for the challenges of the classroom, new teachers will either teach as they have been taught, or they won't teach at all.
A framework of skill
1. Organizing strategies
2. Instructional strategies
3. Assessing strategies
Organizing strategies
Organizing strategies include planning, lesson design, and time use (time management, time on task,), advance-work, and classroom management. New teachers usually find organizing strategies the most difficult to master. Organizing strategies help create the necessary conditions for learning, and teachers can acquire these skills systematically rather than depend on trial and error.
Planning: New teachers spend much more time planning instruction than their veteran counterparts do. During instructional planning, teachers must keep in mind the learner, the content, and the context. Who are my learners? What information, ideas and concepts do l want my students to grasp? Under what conditions will instruction occur? Complete lesson planning comprises four components: initial, active, in-flight, and follow-up planning.
Advance work implies getting to know the learners their background, their tastes their specific needs, etc.
Classroom management: Good classroom management is nearly invisible. When classes are poorly managed, however, disorder and chaos steal time from learning and exhaust the teacher. Poor management can lead to student discipline problems and sustained student misbehavior.
Classroom management is more than discipline: It includes, among other things, interactive instructional approaches that foster student achievement and active learning, including cooperative grouping, projects, and experiments. It involves the development of classroom rules and rational consequences for breaking them. Classroom management can be measured by a teacher s ability to share, control and promote student self-discipline and by the extent to which social justice triumphs over the "teacher's pet concept.
Initial: means visualizing is, the lesson, that 1s, they think through the lesson, anticipating their teaching and the student's responses.
Active: involves putting together materials and resources for the lesson.
In-flight: occurs during the lesson and usually reflects changes in the day, such as a last-minute adjustment in the school schedule.
Follow-up: makes teachers reflect on the lesson and write down what went well and what changes they need to make.
Instructional strategies
Instructional strategies exist on a continuum from most teacher-centered to most student-centered: lecture, demonstration, questioning. discussion, guided practice, independent practice, role-play, and simulation. During a lecture, the teacher is the source of knowledge. By contrast, student-focused activities depend more on students as the sources of knowledge.
New teachers are most familiar with teacher-centered instructional strategies and often revert to them when under pressure. With time and experience, teachers learn to use more student-centered instructional approaches. For example, teachers can begin to incorporate more student-directed approaches by following lectures with 2-3 minute student-to-student discussions about the information or issues presented during the lecture. Eventually, teachers can incorporate cooperative learning structures and student research projects that require students to seek knowledge from sources other than the textbook or the teacher.
Instructional strategies are -Lecture, demonstration, questioning, discussion, guided practice, independent, practical role play, simulation, etc.
Assessing strategies
Effective teachers assess both student learning and their own professional learning. New teachers struggle with both types of assessment.
Student assessment:
Most new teachers have a limited repertoire of assessing strategies and few prior experiences with alternative assessment. Even maintaining student records is an unknown quality to first-year teachers. Novice teachers must explore formal and informal measures of learning and practice constructing various assessments.
Most new teachers only have experience with the assessment measures that their teachers used when they were students: multiple-choice, true/ false, short answer, and essay types. Assessment strategies, like instructional strategies, require a range of options to reflect a student's diverse learning abilities.
Self-assessment:
Teachers rarely receive ongoing feedback about their teaching. Accurate feedback is a crucial component of instructional change, but teachers are dependent on others to supply the necessary data to answer the question, how am I doing? A typical teacher observation model would be the Head of the Institution observing a teacher in his or her classroom a few times a year. Self-assessment can also be done by gathering information from a variety of sources, including student feedback and audio taping a class and then analyzing the lesson.
The Attributes of a Great Teacher
There is a virtually universal agreement about what makes a teacher great. These are attributes that, regardless of a person's subject area, instructional methods, and educational setting, supply the energy behind his or her ability to influence others in constructive ways. The extent to which one can work to develop these same human dimens1Ons in oneself will determine how effective one is (or will be) as a mentor to others, and how satisfied one will feel with one's choice to be, part of this profession. Given below are some such personality traits which add to the teacher's effectiveness.
Charisma
Since the beginning of the human race, those who were called to the teaching profession, whether as priests, professors or poets, were those who had developed the capacity to inspire others. They emanated a force from their personalities that others found attractive, compelling, even seductive, in the sense that there was a strong desire to know more about them and from them.
Charisma, in whatever form it is manifested, whether loud and dramatic, quiet and understated, works to command other people's interest in what we are doing. It is not necessary to be an actor, an exhibitionist, or to have a florid personality in order to be charismatic; but it is absolutely crucial to feel passionate about what one is doing, and to be able to convey this enthusiasm to others.
Compassion
Children and all other living creatures, for that matter, appreciate people who are genuinely caring and loving towards them. That is why the best teachers are so much more than experts in their fields and even more than interesting personalities; they are individuals whom children can trust; they are adults who are perceived as safe and kind. Even when on occasion, they are in bad moods, give difficult assignments, or have to teach units that are relatively boring, students will give compassionate teachers the benefit of the doubt. Somehow, teachers, who are loved by the students and revered by their colleagues, are those who feel tremendous dedication and concern for others not just because they are paid to do so, but because it is their nature and their ethical responsibility.
Egalitarianism
Good teachers are compassionate, sometimes even permissive, but they recognize that children need and even crave having the teacher set limits. It is not so much that students despise discipline in the classroom, but rather that they will not abide by rules children complain about the most in schools are those teachers who they perceive as biased or inequitable in the ways they enforce rules.
Sense of Humour
II there is one major premise of teaching, it is conveying the idea that learning is fun. When the students are bored or disinterested when their attention is diverted toward internal fantasies or external distractions, very little learning takes place. In the marketplace of life, we are competing with a variety of stimuli that are vying for children's attention.
The teachers who value humor, who not only tolerate laughter and fun in their classroom but even invite them in and encourage them to stay, are those who are perceived by students as being more interesting and relevant than those who appear grim and humorless. A sense of humor communicates to others that one is creative, witty, subtle, and fun-loving. Who else would students respect and pay attention to?
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