Most people think they can be good at teaching because they’ve the knowledge. But, teaching students is more than just delivering knowledge. It is to understand, engage, care, support, inspire, and encourage students in their learning journey. Teachers should be compassionate and should model acts of compassion on a daily basis, and you cannot do that if you don’t care enough. You need to fundamentally care to make a change for the better in a child’s life. You should care for the student and for the subject when you’re teaching, else it is not possible to be a good teacher. You’ll seem plastic and you’ll be found out.
Let’s explore the basic value system that an individual should have to be a good teacher.
Altruism
Teaching is a tough job. Let’s be honest, it is not among the highest paying jobs. Therefore, teachers should essentially come from a “giving nature” of character and fulfilment to some extent. Teachers are givers and they should be happy in giving their time, energy, knowledge, and more to their students to build them for the future. This is why teaching is a profession that is highly respected – primarily because they’re givers. Teachers are building the foundations of a society and they’re net givers. Therefore, if you don’t enjoy giving, you may not be a good teacher. Teachers should be altruistic at some level deeper in their character and they can pull this altruism out of any aspect of their life.
Enthusiasm
Teachers should feel the energy for their subject and as an extension of it they should inspire enthusiasm for their subject among their students. Among other things, the first thing a teacher should have is enthusiasm for their subject and the beauty of learning it.
Compassion
Teachers should be compassionate and should model acts of kindness and compassion on a daily basis in their classes. Teachers should model compassion by complimenting their students and inquiring about their activities and life.
Patience
Teaching is a tough job involving various types of students, multiple class operations, homeworks, tests, parent teacher meetings, and other work. It is not an overall easy place to be sometimes. So, like all things in life, it is very important for a teacher to be patient and think long-term. Like for anything in life, your character matters more than your technical skills.
Simplicity
Thinking simple and explaining in simple terms is the hallmark of someone who understands the concept very well. As Albert Einstein said, “if you cannot explain something in simple terms, then you don’t understand it well enough”. A good teacher has a strong foundation in a concept and then based on the student’s learning curve the concept can be delivered in various styles and ways depending on the student who is learning from you. Simplicity, as a virtue, encompasses everything and hence it is called as the mother of all virtues.
Discipline & Conscientiousness
Without discipline, nothing can be really achieved in this world. When you’re teaching children, the role requires tremendous discipline. You have to go to your class or join your class on time, be regular to classes, complete syllabus on time, maintain schedules, provide homework, take exams or tests and more. If you’re not conscientious, you’ll be taking last minute leaves with excuses and your indiscipline will be found out by parents and students.
Respect Multiple Intelligences
Sometimes, as a teacher, we have one set way that we think that the child should learn or absorb the material in. But, as a teacher teaching different students from different parts of the world, you may be surprised how different people can be and how different their learning styles can be. Some people can learn well when they hear whereas some people are extremely visual learners and they can learn the concept of percentage intuitively using visuals and graphics than with numbers and some people are numeric thinkers. At its basic level, we can differentiate learners in 8 styles – linguistic, logical, pictures, physical, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and natural.
At UnicMinds, we absolutely firmly believe that reason comes in different forms. A person is extremely good at musical reasoning and another person is extremely good at physical reasoning and another one in numerical reasoning. So, you’ve to gain a sense of the student and respect the student and the subject equally.
A teacher is a net-giver
In conclusion, a teacher is a net-giver in this society. It is one of the fundamental jobs that build an individual, a society, and a country. Therefore, no matter what happens, people respect this job from the bottom of their heart because everyone knows that they’re net-givers.
If you’re a teacher, you always know you helped a couple of students learn and be better in life. No matter who appreciates it or not, in your heart to yourself, you know and you will always have that satisfaction that you did good for a few people. And, that is very important in life as you get old. That is the real true gift in return to your service to others!
Hope this is useful, thank you.
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