Ever wonder what’s different about educators who become great or amazing for their students? Perhaps it’s the way they connect with them. Here are 5 qualities beyond the curriculum and pedagogy that make a teacher great.
If anyone is asked to describe a memory of their favorite teacher, we probably won’t just hear about teaching skills. We’re more likely to hear things like, “She’s like my friend,””He stood by me through thick and thin,””She never stopped believing in my abilities,””They made complicated things seem so simple,” and “He inspired us to chase our dreams.” Don’t we all treasure our teachers for the same?
Find 6 ways to challenge yourself as a teacher here.
So, how do great teachers do things differently? Here are five (out of many) qualities that make a great teacher!
- Empathy
Great teachers are empathetic, concerned & approachable at all times. They listen to kids, suggest solutions to various problems, respect their feelings & focus on emotional development and community building. Resultantly, their classrooms have a welcoming environment & all students feel acknowledged and loved. Their students grow up to be thankful, satisfied, positive, self-motivated, caring, and humane individuals.
- Integrity
Children may not comprehend very well concepts of social responsibility, integrity, or associating values and behaviors. A positive environment for socialization develops these qualities in individuals.
Children spend almost half of their awake hours away from home with peers or teachers. Their moral vocabulary, values & academic honesty are greatly influenced by the behavior and responses modeled by their parents and friends, but mainly teachers.
Best teachers model positive, upright behavior to encourage a culture of integrity at school. They ensure that all students believe in their strengths. As mentors, they help them resist all negativities, respond to classroom policies with responsibility, reflect on their mistakes, and find ways to correct them. Consequently, their students understand & internalize values, and learn to apply them to different situations in life.
- Passion
Passion is an important factor that piques a child’s curiosity, develops their interest in learning & motivates them to continue. Great teachers are passionate about not just their learning, but also their student’s learning. Best teachers love their subject, enjoy their profession, and constantly crave knowledge.
Passionate teaching includes a little more effort, creativity, deep thinking, and acting abilities. With these, teachers make their classroom environment collaborative, exciting, interesting & inspiring for students. We believe that teaching is not just a learning experience for students, but also teachers. The Infinity School’s teacher development programme helps educators learn new skills, build on their existing knowledge & improve as an individual, thus, contributing to their personal growth, as well as, the growth of their students.
Best teachers are deeply moved by the challenges and dilemmas affecting students, and work towards eliminating these problems. They have a deep-running affection for their students & believe in making the process of learning fun. It helps kids develop academically, psychologically, mentally, and physically. Resultantly, their students are gritty, passionate & self-directed learners. They learn to work on their curiosity, are engaged in classroom activities, and develop resilience & persistence in life.
- Curiosity
What happens when you snub a child for asking a question? What if you explain everything before they could ask a question? In either case, we’ve killed their curiosity! Great teachers never do that!
They encourage students to explore a fact, question it, test it & turn it inside out. Moreover, they make room for open-ended questions, answers & discussions. Their students are adventurous, independent thinkers, passionate about their quests &never stop learning.
At The Infinity School, our teachers implement an inquiry-driven, curiosity-based curriculum to nurture curiosity in children, leading to the pursuit of discovery & development of critical thinking and self-expression.
- Nurturing
All children are born with different interests & learning abilities. We can’t measure them all by the same standards. Teachers who actively create intermediate milestones to keep challenging their students and set high expectations, make the best teachers. They encourage collaboration, teamwork, commitment, etc., in a class and allow children to create, solve & decide by themselves.
Young minds can often get bored or irritated with repetitive activities and paperwork. Great teachers prevent this by nurturing the natural abilities of students. Understanding how the best educational practices influence learning & behaviour in children, and moulding them accordingly, can prevent failures, thinking blocks, behaviour-related problems & violent incidents in schools. With this, teachers can help students reach their true intellectual/creative potential.
The journey from being a good teacher to a great teacher is all about being passionate in understanding children, and the love to learn & share the learning with their students. The journey involves recognizing the fact that every child can contribute uniquely to a lesson, given the opportunity. It about doing what is best for the learner at all times. That’s what makes our teachers great!
THE INFINITY SCHOOL 