Job Discussion Forums

[guangho]

In addition to English I also have a couple of teacher training courses. One of my students asked a simple, but thought-provoking question. What makes a good teacher?

What are your answers?

[Bayden]

[Rimbaud]

I think a good teacher is one that is willing to take chances and is not afraid to learn from his/her students. A good teacher loves to teach, is passionate about the subject material, and can speak in a way that is captivating and interesting to the students.

My best college prof. was a man by the name of Jerry Farber. He taught poetry classes that were phenominal. He wrote an essay in the 60's about the relationship between students and teachers that garnered a lot of attention when it was published and still receives a fair amount of criticism today. While I don't agree with everything that he says and some things might be a little dated, I think it's a very good read (entertaining at the very least). Give it a read if you haven't already done so. I think all teachers should because it made me re-evaluate what I was doing in the classroom - which I believe is a good thing to do.
here's the link:
http://ry4an.org/readings/short/student/

[guangho]

[chrispy]

I think a good kindergarten teacher is persistent and caring by nature. He or she should be fair and reasonable when deciding the punishments for the misbehaving child. When I was in grade 1 I had this crazy teacher who shook her students violently whenever she got mad. In grade 12, there was a student teacher who yelled on top of her lungs at the students who talked while she was talking. The students including me, had no respect for her, you can guess why. A good teacher should know how to tranform her anger to positive energy.

[denise]

Not automatically blaming the students when something goes wrong, but rather reflecting and asking himself/herself, "What could I have done differently?" While at the same time not berating himself or herself!

d

[mlomker]

Someone that inspires students to learn (study).

I tend to have an environmental view about most things, so my belief is that there generally isn't something wrong with students but sometimes subjects are inherently boring and materials are inadequate. I bombed in high school algebra, for example, but I got straight A's in my freshman year of college. how is that possible? The books and methods of instruction in my high school were complete garbage.

[Guy Courchesne]

One has to be a good listener...

[Justin Trullinger]

One has to understand the learning process.

One has to inspire students to take responsibility for that process.




I had a great high school literature teacher, who would "discuss" the assigned readings by coming into class and making infuriating, misguided, ill informed, ridiculous statements about his interpretation of what we'd read.

It made us want to disagree with him. It made us want to prove him wrong. It also, by the by, made us read and consider the reading to an unusually deep level, so as to be ready to argue the toss with Mr Fishels and his "dumb ideas." I'm not sure how much later it was that I realized that was the point. He had us experiencing the work, and forming our own visions and ideas, without ever telling us what to think. He stimulated us to think- on our own.

Teachers are great, not for what they do, but for what they stimulate students to do.

Justin

[Rimbaud]

[Sweetsee]

One who never ceases to learn.

[tedkarma]

1. Cultural sensitivity to where they are
2. Genuinely cares about the success of his/her students
3. Determined/Persistent/Flexible
4. Firm/Fair/Friendly

And . . . has some knowledge of the course content and appropriate methodology to deliver the content.

[Sweetsee]

An effective teacher:

1. has positive expectations for student success.
2. is an extremely good classroom manager.
3. knows how to design lessons for student mastery.

[thrifty]

4 weekers were reading that book in the early 90s.

[guangho]