When you think about your career you want something dynamic and exciting. You need to feel like you spent your life invested in leaving a positive legacy in the world. You want to spend each day helping people.
Today, I want to explore the important qualities and virtues that enable us to make a positive difference where it is needed most. In the lives of our students. Students will interact and learn from you everyday – you are responsible for their success.
1. Teachers that develop good relationships with their students.
To be a great teacher you have to be able to develop positive and encouraging relationships with your students. Students need to be able to trust you; trust that you will build and maintain a safe, positive and productive environment in which they can learn.
This can be done by taking the time to listen to a student when there is a problem. Being consistent in your approach so they aren’t confused by sporadic behaviour or consequences. Finally, using your emotional intelligence to negotiate your way through your interactions.
2. Dedication to Teaching & Pedagogy
Dedication to self improvement and the refining of your craft is paramount for teachers. There is always new research on how to teach or how kids learn. Teaching is a craft that you can get better at. If a student sees you’re passionate about your subject, and about their success they will be motivated themselves to succeed.
Ways you can show your dedication is by keeping up to date with your professional development or reading books based around pedagogy or education – check out my top ten books for trainee teachers here. A dedication to teaching means that you’re always willing to help a student.
3. Having a Caring & Patient Personality
Students will test you emotionally everyday. Are you able to maintain you patience even when you’re at your wits end? Do you still care, even when you’ve been rudely spoken too? Being an emotionally intelligent teacher that can withstand the challenges of working with kids and maintain a positive and encouraging persona in the face of adversity not only sets a good role model for students but enables students to learn and grow.
4. Being Persuasive and Motivational Communicators
Teaching is a version of performing. You stand up in front of a group of people and perform. It’s a rehearsed show of 50 minutes in which you attempt to communicate a message with countless techniques, emotional queues, body language signs and verbal hints. Research mentions cognitive, emotional and behavioural engagement that is required for students to learn.
Being motivational and persuasive in your communication is essential, because you have a group of students who most likely don’t like or want to be at school that you have to bring along on the journey with you.
5. An Understanding of Differentiation and Learning
The beautiful thing about the human race is that everyone is unique, this is especially true with our students. Understanding that learners have individual abilities and needs; and will need to challenged and pushed in different ways.
You need to be able to adapt to meet the needs of each different learner all at the same time. This can be seen as understanding which techniques need to be deployed for each student to successfully challenge and enable that student to learn.
If you think about some of the teachers that left a lasting impression on you. They were probably fantastic communicators, that valued education and were passionate about their subject.
You may even be interested in starting a career in education and wondering if you have what it takes. The beautiful thing about teaching is that you can refine and develop yourself. By focussing on your own learning anything is possible.
Check out my post here of the best ways to get into education.
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