Qualities of a Good Teacher
Uploaded by guardiandevils on Feb 13, 2006
Qualities of a Good Teacher
In “The Sandbox Experiment”, Peter Sacks says “[I]t really didn’t seem to matter what I knew about my field when it came to teaching” (Sacks 311). I disagree with him. I believe that knowledge, among many other things, is essential to being a good teacher.
A good teacher is someone who is always willing to learn something new and expand their knowledge to help their students achieve success. For example, I had a teacher once who, after a few years of teaching high school, went back to school to earn her doctorate degree. She wanted to go back to school so that her students could benefit more from having her as a teacher.
A good teacher encourages the students to take risks and always has a positive attitude. Good teachers understand that errors will be made but they try many different methods of teaching that encourage students and create in them a sense of accomplishment. Good teachers believe in students and set high standards to bring out the best in them. They do not give students the answers, but teach students the techniques needed to find the answer themselves.
Along with encouraging risk taking and acceptance of errors, another essential trait of a good teacher is simply being there. Good teachers spend time with students after class to further help them, listen to them, and answer their questions. A good teacher should be able to sit patiently with a frustrated student and explain how to come up with the solution to a difficult math problem or how to go about completing an assignment. In tenth grade, whenever I had a writing assignment due, my teacher was always willing to answer any questions I had about the assignment and she made sure that I was on the right track with my paper.
It is not enough, however, for a teacher to be there if they do not have any respect for their students. A good teacher will never humiliate a student in front of his or her peers but rather they will confront the student privately. They never make meaningless threats or try to intimidate their students. Good teachers do not hold grudges and they are always fair and objective. They are honest with their students and are proud to...