Six Keys to Being a Successful Teacher
Top 6 Keys to Being a Successful Teacher
By
Melissa Kelly
The most successful teachers share some common characteristics. Here are the top six keys to being a successful teacher. Every teacher can benefit from focusing on these important qualities
First
Sense of Humor
A sense of humor can help you become a successful teacher. Your sense of humor can relieve tense classroom situations before they become disruptions
A sense of humor will also make class more enjoyable for your students and possibly make students look forward to attending and paying attention
Most importantly, a sense of humor will allow you to see the joy in life and make you a happier person as you progress through this sometimes stressful career
Second
Positive Attitude
A positive attitude is a great asset in life. You will be thrown many curve balls in life and especially in the teaching profession
A positive attitude will help you cope with these in the best way
For example
You may find out the first day of school that you are teaching Algebra 2 instead of Algebra 1. This would not be an ideal situation, but a teacher with the right attitude would try to focus on getting through the first day without negatively impacting the students
Third
High Expectations
An effective teacher must have high expectations
You should strive to raise the bar
for your students
If you expect less effort you will receive less effort
You should work on an attitude that says
that you know students can achieve to your level of expectations, thereby giving them a sense
of confidence too
This is not to say that you should create unrealistic expectations. However, your expectations
will be one of the key factors in helping students
learn and achieve
Fourth
Consistency
In order to create a positive learning environment your students should know what to expect
from you each day. You need to be consistent
This will create a safe learning environment for the students and they will be more likely
to succeed. It is amazing that students
can adapt to teachers throughout the
day that range from strict to easy. However, they
will dislike an environment in which the rules are constantly changing
Fifth
Fairness
Many people confuse fairness and consistency
A consistent teacher is the same person
from day to day
A fair teacher treats students equally in the same situation
For example
Students complain of unfairness when teachers
treat one gender or group of students differently
It would be terribly unfair to go easier on
the football players in a class than on
the cheerleaders
Students pick up on this so quickly, so be careful
of being labelled unfair
Sixth
Flexibility
One of the tenets of teaching should be that
everything is in a constant state of change
Interruptions and disruptions are the norm and
very few days are typical
Therefore, a flexible attitude is important not only for your stress level but also for your students who expect you to be in charge and take control of any situation