As a school teacher, or a college professor, or a trainer you may consider yourself to be in a teaching profession. But even if you are not in the teaching profession, you may be still imparting knowledge, wisdom, or guidance to others as part of what you do. You may be a manager, parent, guardian, artist, yoga teacher, author, speaker, leader, or an expert. In all such cases you may want to take note of the following six things to be a good teacher:
If you are lost, it helps to at least stop running in the wrong direction. So it may be important to know what mistakes to avoid to become a great teacher. Here are three of them:
1. Do not worry about becoming a great orator
A teacher is a communicator, but this does not mean you have to be a great orator. If you have to communicate using the spoken word then you have to make sure that your ideas are well understood, but you do not have to blow your audience away with your oratory skills. More important is to build a relationship of trust and rapport rather than obsessing about excellence in oratory skills.
“When you study great teachers… you will learn much more from their caring and hard work than from their style.” – William Glasser
2. Or a world-leading expert
There is no doubt that you should be knowledgeable about your subject. But should you worry that you are not the world-leading expert? Most certainly not. More important than knowing everything is knowing what you do not know. As a teacher or guide you should be humble enough to point out to the limits of you knowledge and honestly say “I don’t know” to your students where a question takes you beyond your expertise.
3. Don’t try to be a friend
To be a good teacher it is not a prerequisite to be friends with your students. More important is to establish a rapport and a channel of communication. This should allow you to understand your student and where they are coming from. Do not sweat it if your students or the people you lead do not consider you as their friend.
We now come to the three things that make a good teacher and that you should aspire to:
1. Be a lifelong learner
To be a good teacher you have to be infinitely curious. You want to constantly expand the breath of your knowledge and expertise in your subject. You also want to constantly improve your teaching skills and communication skills. A good teacher is a lifelong learner, an ordinary teacher says to herself “I know enough” and stops learning. The love for learning is picked up by students who then become inspired about the subject too:
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William Arthur Ward
2. Have a burning desire to help
A great teacher is able to relate the subject she is teaching to the impact this knowledge has on her student’s lives. “How will this help my students?” Is a question that a good teacher constantly asks herself. The driving desire of a good teacher is to help and serve her students. This is what makes the teacher go above and beyond what an ordinary teacher would do. This is what makes the teacher provide the human connection and warmth that creates a great learning environment:
“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.” – Carl Jung
3. Be Honest and Humble
Arrogance is the biggest stumbling block for a teacher. Arrogance prevents a teacher from expanding her knowledge or learning more of the difficulties her students are facing. A great teacher is humble and open for correction and feedback. Underlying humility is a core that is honest and transparent. This allows the teacher or leader to gain respect and trust of her audience and opens up a channel of communication through which knowledge can be transmitted.
Finally we come to the question: Why? Why do you want to become a good teacher or leader in the first place? The words of Ben Sweetland explain it as follows:
“We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own.”
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Credits:This has been written by Raj Shah and edited by Ketna Shah.
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