What makes a good teacher?
What makes a good teacher? Many teachers make their best efforts to answer this question by experiencing lots of trials and errors during their whole career. Some of them succeed to set their own image of a good teacher. But quite a few of them are still on their journey to answer it. Needless to say, many qualities for teaching and personal traits are needed to be a good teacher such as teaching skills, leadership, devotion, etc.
Here are what I think makes a great teacher: passion, understanding and patience.
The first thing is passion for your subject you teach. Without this, it is impossible to become a good teacher. If you don’t love your subject, how can you expect your students to? This passion makes you find many ways to develop your subject knowledge. In addition, it also makes you develop teaching skills to deliver your knowledge more creatively and efficiently. This passion also makes you develop class management skills and fun techniques to help your students to concentrate on the class.
The next thing to have as a good teacher is understanding of your students. This is about knowing your students; what they know, what they don’t know and what they want to know. With a lot of subject knowledge and teaching skills, if your teaching is too difficult or does not meet the students’ demands at all, your class will never be satisfied with you and your students. This understanding also should be expanded to the emotional part of your students. Good teachers always try to observe their students’ interests and changes in their daily lives and try to communicate with their students. It is important to show teachers’ warm interests in each student because a good education can start only with good relationships between teachers and students.
The last thing is patience. Teaching is not easy simple job because it is working with or against the young at the age of puberty. Students have complex lives as you do. They are very changeable and sensitive, sometimes they are almost cross. Good teachers wait for the students to understand and accept things they should know. Sometimes, instant corrections or spontaneous anger from teachers don’t help students. Moreover, good teachers have great expectations of success for all students. When you have a negative expectation of your students, you can’t expect good feedback from your students, either. Also good teachers don't forget to give their students positive reinforcement with applause and cheers even if they didn’t do good job yet.
Getting a job as a teacher is very difficult. But the more difficult thing is to be a good teacher. There are many teachers, including me who lose their confidence and passion when in difficult times. Teachers get the strength to go on by their own students' approval, respect and love. To be a good teacher, you have to be a happy and lively person in your life first and try to keep developing your passion, understanding and patience by enjoying your work and life.
