Everyone has a teacher they will never forget, albeit for right and wrong reasons. What you remember about your teacher are the observable qualities that stood out to you. It may be how they taught you to read, their remarks on your homework, how they were easy to relate to, or even a fun catchphrase they used.
As a teacher, you’ll want to be remembered for meaningful impacts and how you added value to your students daily. To do that, you must develop qualities that naturally endear you to your students. These qualities will make you a good teacher and a class favourite.
This article helps out by outlining five important qualities that make you a favourite teacher and the easiest ways to develop them.
How Can I Be A Good Teacher?
As a teacher, you don’t just wake up one day and become the class favourite; you must be a good teacher first. This entails doing the basics like good communication, management, listening, flexibility, compassion, organisational skills, and so on.
To take the first step in becoming a class favourite, you must be a good teacher at the bare minimum. The best teachers are life-long learners committed to students’ academic progress. They often keep studying to improve their approaches to learning and hone their teaching skills.
You need to work hard and strive to develop goal-setting that works. It would help if you also had unambiguous communication, sound preparation strategies, adaptability, and a natural passion for learning. All these combine to make you an even better teacher and offer you gradual recognition among your students. You can start by being reliable and helping your students with “how to do my project” queries and then make an extra effort to improve their learning experiences.
5 Qualities That’ll Help You Be A Class Favourite for Your Students
To become a favourite teacher for your students, you can develop and practice these five qualities below.
1. Confidence-Inspiration
Many kids do not feel that their teachers or even their parents believe in them. As a result, many pupils do not believe in themselves. Students who do not believe in themselves are more likely to have behavioural and academic issues. This premise is backed by a 2011 study suggesting that student confidence positively correlates with several academic performances.
Hence, naturally inspiring confidence in your students is an important quality to develop. To become confidence-inspiring, you need to make learning goal-oriented by giving your class an understanding of its individual and collective objectives.
For instance, you can begin a lesson with a statement like “today you will learn the basics of simultaneous equations.” Then, end the class by saying, “Congratulations! Now you’re ready to solve a more complex problem!” By instilling this growth mindset, you help your students glean confidence from their progress, boosting their learning outcomes and motivation.
2. Self-reflection
According to a 2010 research on the function of critical reflection in teacher education, teachers need to constantly review and assess their attitudes, behaviours, effectiveness, and successes. Deep self-awareness and reflection improve teachers’ knowledge and abilities by helping them understand how their teaching methods work.
Without reflection, you can make poor judgments and assume pupils will always understand your actions correctly. Without the ability to evaluate your talents, you may continue to plan and teach based on unquestioned assumptions – and therefore stay unconscious of your greatest strengths and weaknesses. Developing this quality will make you a class favourite and, most importantly, keep you there.
3. Patience
Patience is a key attribute of the best teachers. Students progress at varying rates, so the teacher must ensure they feel safe and supported throughout their educational journey. Most students suffer a homework crisis and ask themselves, “who can do my homework for me?” As a teacher, you can inform students that you can offer them assistance and pointers that will make the homework process less daunting – this helps a lot.
4. Adaptability and flexibility
Every student comes from a different family and has different personalities, educational demands, and developmental stages. The best teachers understand how to adapt to each student’s unique demands. To be a class favourite, you should learn to celebrate students’ uniqueness and create an accepting climate in the classroom. Accept pupils where they are in terms of growth and academics. When students felt at ease and appreciated, they are more likely to ask questions, learn, and enjoy their environment.
5. Communication skills
A teacher’s role on any given day is to engage with kids, co-workers, parents, and even administrators. As a result, communication abilities are at the top of the list of what distinguishes a poor instructor from a class favourite. Communication skills indicate that a teacher is not only competent at talking and leading a classroom, but they are also an excellent listener. Furthermore, a teacher with strong communication skills can command the subject matter and communicate facts at a level pupils can easily consume and take home. This is undoubtedly the most essential quality needed by a teacher.
Conclusion
Students naturally gravitate toward you and your learning processes by developing these five qualities. This will, in effect, make you evolve from a good teacher into a great one and effectively a class favourite.