What Makes a Good Teacher?
Good teachers can make all the difference in the world for a person. What is the magical formula for helping people learn?
Good teachers let you be flexible when they know that this will help
My high school English teacher was amazing. I struggled with learning languages all my life. By the time he started teaching me, I already felt hopeless and I didn’t want to learn. One of the assignments was to read and translate a set amount of pages from a book. I had several attempts with different books. All were always painful, slow, and discouraging.
At the same time, I was listening to a lot of music. And a big part of it was Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals. One day an idea came to me: what if I translate “Cats” instead of a book? I asked my teacher and he agreed. That was so fun and exciting. Finally, I wanted to do the assignment. After this, I decided to go bolder and asked if the next thing could be translating ABBA songs. He agreed again. That was the best thing for me to enjoy learning English. I am ever so grateful to my teacher.
Good teachers love their subject but know that you don’t have to
Every teacher wants their students to love the subject that they teach. Good teachers realize that not everybody will enjoy studying their subject. And that’s okay. Sometimes it is enough if a student respects the subject. It is even okay if the student hates it. Especially if previous teachers were not very helpful. There is nothing wrong with the student who doesn’t like the subject. And if the teacher is good, it might change the students’ opinion over time.
Good teachers always learn something new
A student is in a very vulnerable position. Learning something new all the time can be exhausting. It can be stressful to keep showing up when you are always in a situation where you don’t know enough. Students put their trust in their teachers to guide them through their education.
To be able to relate to that a teacher needs to learn something new to have this feeling fresh in their minds. To be in a situation where they don’t know something and they have to rely on someone else for guidance. Keeping the sense of vulnerability fresh in mind.
Good teachers encourage questions
One of the most important skills for a person to have is asking questions. Want to understand something better? Want to understand somebody better? Feel lost or want to help someone else? Ask questions. Good teachers will encourage students to ask more questions and to stay curious.
More about the importance of asking questions in this article.
Good teachers are not afraid to admit that they don’t know something
Once a teacher encourages students to ask more questions there will be a moment when the teacher will not know the answer to one of the questions. A good teacher is secure enough to admit it.
Hey, that’s a great question! I don’t know the answer.
After, depending on the situation there are two ways to deal with this:
Let me look into that and we will talk about it next time.
Let’s try to find the answer together.
What this shows to the students is that it is okay to not know something. It also is a wonderful opportunity to open a conversation about how to figure things out.
More about answering tough questions in this article.
Good teachers are okay if a student addresses them in an informal way
Some level of formality is important in a student/teacher relationship. But sometimes pupils feel so comfortable with a teacher that they forget about it. While bad teachers call them out on that, good teachers act as if nothing happened. They realize that this is an indicator of trust from the student.
Informally addressing a teacher shows that students are comfortable in their learning environment.
Good teachers get excited when a student uses a novel approach to do something
They might ask the student not to share this with classmates because this might create confusion. But they will encourage them to explore different approaches.
I would love to see your stories about teachers that inspired and helped you. Please share them in the comments.
Thank you for your time!
