If you are reading this, then there is a high probability you have been in a classroom before, or been taught by a teacher, or both ! .. There is also a very high probability that you met a teacher you loved, and another that you could never like! [even if you tried badly to convince yourself] .. but seriously ? what make a good teacher ? what make such teachers better than "bad" teachers? ... Although I am sure that there is no strict answer to these questions, I will use my experience as a teacher (4 years) and as a student (22 years and still one [maybe for life]) to give my opinion about them.
I was lucky enough to teach students from the age 8 years to 50 ! Teaching kids is totally different than teaching university students. However, and generally, I think that a teacher must follow two general steps and re-do them as long he is a teacher. These steps are: 1) Attract your students, 2) Get close to your students. It is up to you as a teacher to implement these steps. I give next some general steps that I try to follow.
1) Attract your students: This can be done by being powerful. Power in this context is in making sure to have a charisma; which you can get only if you have confidence on yourself - but I will keep it to you to work on your charisma [I will have to read more about it myself]. Power as well can come from the ability to fair punishment of your students. And lastly, power can come from the superiority of the teacher in the domain he/she is teaching. However, a teacher should never forget that he was a student himself, and that he became better than one of his teachers, and therefore he/she must continually work to preserve this superiority. Yet, I dont mean it is a battle between the student and the teacher. A teacher should never be afraid that his student teach him as well. At the end, the teacher aim is to transfer his knowledge to his students.
2) Get close to your students: as in caring about them ! as in listening to their worries ! There is not only one way to be close to your students. Here are some techniques I personally used:
A teacher should never let his job to be constant. That is, the teacher should always remember the noble job he is working; which is to be "a candle of knowledge". I once attended a seminar by Prof. Sajal K. Das.
The seminar was interesting and was a summary of some of his previous work in computer science. What interested more was the last slide content - which was a reminder for all the researchers and teachers in the seminar:
These are just simple ideas that came to my mind ! if you think you have better ones, or additional ones, then please share them with me ! Thanks in advance !
I was lucky enough to teach students from the age 8 years to 50 ! Teaching kids is totally different than teaching university students. However, and generally, I think that a teacher must follow two general steps and re-do them as long he is a teacher. These steps are: 1) Attract your students, 2) Get close to your students. It is up to you as a teacher to implement these steps. I give next some general steps that I try to follow.
1) Attract your students: This can be done by being powerful. Power in this context is in making sure to have a charisma; which you can get only if you have confidence on yourself - but I will keep it to you to work on your charisma [I will have to read more about it myself]. Power as well can come from the ability to fair punishment of your students. And lastly, power can come from the superiority of the teacher in the domain he/she is teaching. However, a teacher should never forget that he was a student himself, and that he became better than one of his teachers, and therefore he/she must continually work to preserve this superiority. Yet, I dont mean it is a battle between the student and the teacher. A teacher should never be afraid that his student teach him as well. At the end, the teacher aim is to transfer his knowledge to his students.
2) Get close to your students: as in caring about them ! as in listening to their worries ! There is not only one way to be close to your students. Here are some techniques I personally used:
- Start the class with simple questions such as "How are you ?", "How was your weekend ?" or "How was your day ?" - without giving yourself the chance to enter into the personal lives of students. Such questions, though, gives the student the choice of whether to talk about his/her worries or not ! [Yet, I am very against discussing personal issues and always prefer to answer with generalized answers]
- Let them work in groups: and spends equal time slots with each of them... Interstingly, the group technique gives amazing results; whether with kids or university students. Lately; in one of my software development labs, I decided not to give a lecture previous to the class. Instead, I ask the student to read some material and then spend some time with students discussing with them the material.
- Be where your students need you to explain them your material ! if it is possible, give them more time than what you are supposed to. In other words, "Show them that you care !"
A teacher should never let his job to be constant. That is, the teacher should always remember the noble job he is working; which is to be "a candle of knowledge". I once attended a seminar by Prof. Sajal K. Das.
The seminar was interesting and was a summary of some of his previous work in computer science. What interested more was the last slide content - which was a reminder for all the researchers and teachers in the seminar:
"A teacher can never truly teach unless he is still learning himself. A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flame. The teacher who has come to the end of his subject, who has no living traffic with his knowledge but merely repeats his lesson to his students, can only load their minds, he cannot quicken them" - [Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel prize in literature, 1913]Yes, a teacher should be a researcher as well. He should always look for novelities in the field he is teaching. He should always pass through the hard paths of understanding new concepts and ideas and give them to his students in a simplified. A teacher should teach his students the secrets he used in order for him to understand. A teacher should also never forget that his main job is teaching; he should never stop being brave to find out his weaknesses; never stop being creative to introduce new techiques and methods, and never stop being a teacher to share his experiences with others !
These are just simple ideas that came to my mind ! if you think you have better ones, or additional ones, then please share them with me ! Thanks in advance !
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