What Makes a Good Teacher?
For Christmas I received one of those “for the teacher” desktop quote a day type calendars. You know the ones – full of inspiration, interesting facts, and funny stories about teaching. One of them had a quote from an internet article called “Top Eleven Traits of a Good Teacher” by Alan Haskvitz. If you haven’t read it I suggest you do. According to Haskvitz a Good Teacher needs to:
- Be Unsatisfied
- Have High Expectations
- Create Independency
- Be Knowledgeable
- Use Humor
- Be Insightful
- Be Flexible
- Use Diverse Methods
- Be Unconforming
- Be a Good Communicator.
#11 comes from educators from all over the world. I agree with what he says, I’m just wondering about everyone else? What do you think it takes to be a good teacher? What would your # 11 be?
I suspect great teachers should:
Be accepting of and enbrase diversity.
It seems to me that students are coming to us more and more from diverse backgrounds and with varied and different skills. Recognizing this and using it to push the learning envelope is what makes a teacher great. It puts relevance into the classroom and prepares kids for a life more and more ruled by global issues.
The one thing I see missing from this list is being emotionally connected with your students. I recall reading something somewhere that students who have a strong bond with their teacher are far more motivated and do far better in school than those who do not have that bond. The ASCD has written a book on this in fact called “Connecting With Students” – http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/template.chapter/menuitem.ccf6e1bf6046da7cdeb3ffdb62108a0c/?chapterMgmtId=6a5c44dbdecaff00VgnVCM1000003d01a8c0RCRD
It makes perfect sense to me. Think about it – imagine someone in your life who was antagonistic or negative toward you regularly. Imagine that person asking you to do a task that requires a lot of effort. How would you feel and how would you react? Now picture someone very important in your life, someone who made you feel good about yourself, someone who you trusted and respected. Picture that person asking you to do the same task. For whom would you work harder and want to disappoint less?
There are those who feel that it is important to keep ‘distance’ between students and teachers; “If I let my guard down, the kids will sense that and will act out!” I hear from many. While I understand that there are boundaries that one should not cross with students, I have found in my own experiences that students as young as kindergarten can contextually understand that certain behaviors are appropriate in certain contexts, while at other times they are not. Consider the types of activities and dialogue one would have while watching an Oilers game at Rexall Place. Compare that to taking part in a funeral. I don’t know of many individuals, including very small children, who wouldn’t intuitively understand that these two contexts present far different socially acceptable behaviors.
The same applies to the classroom in my opinion. There are times my students and I can share a laugh or a high 5 or I can share a personal story with them, and other times where we need to bear down and get some work done in a serious atmosphere. Kids can get that, and not only does it result in a much more enjoyable learning environment, it is proven through research to improve learning and motivation and decrease a whole host of other high-risk student behaviors. Do a Google Scholar search for ‘teacher self disclosure’ http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=teacher+self+disclosure&hl=en&lr=&btnG=Search and you’ll find all kinds of data which suggests that by opening oneself up to students in appropriate contexts and creating those bonds truly impacts the student learning experience.
I really like the list that Shane has brought to our attention, though I see the whole ‘connectedness’ element missing. Great post Shane – a real thinker!
I knew I should have come up with my own answer early on… both Reg and Danny have both brought up fantastic points that I totally agree with. Now I want to try and come up with something different – but that I still hold true.
How about a desire to make the world a better place.
In order to be a good teacher you can’t just be in it for the holidays. You can’t just be teaching to a standardized test. You have to be teaching students so that they can be the absolute best they can be and that way make a difference in the world.
I still remember Mr. Jones, my high school social studies teacher standing on his desk and shouting to the world “I’m not teaching you for some stupid exam!! I’m teaching you for the rest of your life!!!” (he did this after a student asked “will this be on the final exam” one too many times…) That moment still echoes in my mind – and guides most of my personal teaching practices to this day.
While I believe that all the points made are incredible valid, and I’ve seen examples of each trait in all those teachers I have tried to emulate in my career (especially the “connectedness” trait) – it’s that desire to make the world a better place that motives a teacher to develop and use all the other traits and guides an educator’s practice. That desire would be my # 11.
I agree with everybody who has commented so far. Each one has described a trait I believe is very important to be a teacher. It makes me think of a quote by Albert Einstein, “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.” It sounds funny, but even though the content we teach is important, I believe it’s what we leave imprinted on our students, and the life skills that we give them that is so much more important. Things like the ability to make the right decisions in very difficult times, or to advocate for oneself because he/she knows what he/she needs best. Good teachers prepare their students for the world that awaits for them, to be able to stand on their own and be successful.
[...] I actually find that funny, as I only ever did one post on the subject, and with the exception of the four initial comments, no one has ever decided to add [...]
This discussion has been great! I’m writing a presentation right now that is going to be given to teachers and trying to talk about why teachers started teacher and what makes a great teacher with out being cheesy. It seems like the thread finished a while ago but if anyone wants to add why They started teaching I would love the input.
Thanks!
Be tolerant
A good student makes a good teacher.
Someone who has strong learning skills can pass his/her learning skills to his/her students.
teacher’s shouldn’t just feed students information, they should teach them HOW to learn.
By that i mean guide them to avoid procrastination and teach them research skills.
That is especially important for elementary and junior high teachers b/c their students probably didn’t have a chance to learn those skills yet.
Another important thing that teachers should teach their students is good work ethics: Work is the key to success.