What Makes a Good Teacher?

What makes a good teacher? Over the last 4 years, I have seen and trained many different kinds of teachers. You can tell almost instantly who will become a successful teacher because of their character.

Personality

A person with personality can sell. When teaching kids, especially as a second language, you must be able to sell the language. Through your personality, you must be able to get the kids to react to you. We tend to forget that how we form relationships is based on our personality trait.

I have seen teachers before that are quite reserved and lacked the positive energy required to encourage students to open up. The way you portray yourself to the kids is how they will respond to you. The best teachers are friendly and approachable.

Passion and Drive

This is one of the most important characteristics for a teacher. Without the passion or drive to make a change in the students development, they will not succeed. Simply turning up work will not suffice.

What you put in to your work is what you get out. A teachers job is to inspire others to learn. Passion and enthusiasm is infectious and it leeks onto the students. Having the drive to be successful in your field will result in better work results. Preparation and organization is key when it comes to the backbone of teaching.

Adaptive Leaders

The teacher in the classroom is the leader. The class will be dysfunctional if their position of leader is not known . Clear instructions from the front is vital for the lesson to be conducted in a smoothly manner.

Being adaptive is important and a characteristic teachers tend to take a while to grasp. Lessons do not always go to plan. Teachers must be able to make amendments on the spot to continue the lesson in a productive manner. Being quick to respond to situations showcases the character of the teacher.

Patience

Lastly patience. I can’t stress enough how important it is to have be patient with students who are trying to learn English as a second language. There is a lot of frustration that comes with the job. Students will make mistakes and may be unmotivated. It is up to you as a teacher to be patient with the student and try to do your job to the level that you are capable of doing.

Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to a good attitude while waiting. End of the day, it is not their first language so be considerate! Put yourself in their shoes, is English really that easy to learn? Is any language that easy to learn?

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