What is a Good Teacher?

[Badshah Mamun]

What is a Good Teacher?

By Catherine Taylor, Lagos


What is a good teacher?
Depending on one?s perspective, this question has many valid answers. A child might say that a good teacher makes learning fun, is fair, and assigns no homework. A parent might say that a good teacher is organized, has good control of the class, and challenges students. Administrators might say that a good teacher follows district guidelines, presents district curriculum effectively, and contributes to the school community. The school building manager might say a good teacher is tidy, has students clean up after themselves, and makes reasonable demands on his/her time. In short, it would be difficult to describe a good teacher without acknowledging all the people a teacher touches in the course of doing her* job as well as the varied needs and expectations these people hold.

(* I use the feminine pronouns ?she? and ?her? to simplify. This in no way dismisses or diminishes the many men who are good teachers.)

Good teachers come in a variety of sizes, shapes, colors, genders, and backgrounds. Some are old, some young, some serious, some funny. Despite this broad range of individuals, there are some characteristics common, some might say essential, for all ?good? teachers.

A good teacher, first and foremost, sees each student as an individual with hopes, dreams, strengths, and vulnerabilities. In her classroom, each student is treated as an invaluable, essential member of the class, a person capable of success, a person with something important to contribute. A good teacher works to create a classroom atmosphere in which every student sees every other student in this light ? an atmosphere in which respect for each other is the guiding principle, an atmosphere in which every student feels safe enough to share their thoughts and feelings, an atmosphere in which making a mistake is seen as an opportunity to learn rather than an opportunity to feel like a failure.

A good teacher knows her students on many levels. She learns all she can about their academic strengths and needs, but even more about their interests, fears, hopes, and worries. She helps her students learn these things about themselves. She helps her students to learn some of these things about each other, especially the strengths and hopes!

A good teacher helps her students to develop, achieve, and maintain strong self-esteem. She helps each student feel they are special, unique, and very, very wonderful. She looks beneath a defeated, sassy, comedic, defiant, weird, or compliant attitude to find the ?real? person inside the behavior. She understands and accepts every child?s need to try on a variety of identities ? and doesn?t allow clothes, hair, or other eccentricities to get in the way. She sees diversity as an enhancing ?spice? in the classroom and welcomes differences as a way to expand each class member?s world.

A good teacher allows her students to see and get to know her real self. Rather than hiding within her role, or maintaining an adult distance, she lets her hopes, dreams, fears, and vulnerabilities show (when appropriate, of course) and lets her students in. If students see their teacher as a person willing to be open and honest, they will be much more likely to be open and honest with her. She makes herself available to her students, both her attention and her time.

A good teacher remembers that each of her students is somebody?s precious child. She knows that every parent has high hopes, valid concerns, and great expectations for that child. She works to help the parents understand her goals, become comfortable with her style, and to develop their confidence. She sees parents as an integral and vital part of the child?s education ? not intrusive, annoying impediments. She recognizes how much influence she has in a child?s life ? and how difficult it can be for a parent to trust their child to her.

A good teacher tries to see things through her students? eyes as well as her own. She works hard to be fair, empathetic, and encouraging. She strives to maintain high expectations for each and every child ? to challenge them to reach for their best and aim for the stars. She is strong, firm, and determined. She shows her students that learning and doing one?s best are the goals and that grades are not.

A good teacher is not afraid to try new things, to look a little silly, to show a little sadness, to be a little angry, to get mighty excited, or to act really happy. She?s not afraid to play with her students. She?s not afraid to say she?s made a mistake, to apologize, or to change her mind. She?s not afraid to bend a rule or to make a new rule. She?s not afraid to have standards, values, and manners ? and to help her students see why those things are important and why they should have them themselves, as well as why they must live up to hers.

A good teacher makes learning exciting. She helps each student find areas of interest to explore and master. She helps her students see that goals which are at first difficult may eventually become easy, and are often the most satisfying to achieve. She helps her students to see new things as stimulating challenges rather than dreaded obstacles. She shows them that perfection is not only unrealistic, but undesirable as well.

A good teacher knows that no one can be a good teacher to every student every day, but she continues to try ? knowing that if she can be a good teacher to every student many days that she has been successful. A good teacher forgives herself for becoming discouraged or frustrated, encourages herself to keep trying, pats herself on the back when she knows it worked, and allows herself to feel proud when she sees a child grow, because she knows she was part of that growth.

A good teacher shares what she has learned about being a good teacher with other teachers, for a good teacher wants all children, not just the ones in her class, to have the best possible experience in school. She knows that teachers as well as students can always learn from each other.

A good teacher becomes attached to her students, knowing it will be hard to say good-bye at the end of the school year, hoping those students will come back to visit, realizing that even if she never sees them again, they will carry.

Source: http://www.kyrene.org/kea/pdf/MembersSpeaktarticles/goodteach.pdf