Teachers-a how to guide.

What are the key qualities a teacher must have to excel within their profession?
Do you believe that everyone can teach, or are there attributes within a person that would make them unlikely to succeed within the industry?

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Comment by Samuel Kidby on January 10, 2013 at 6:46am: Hi Ellie

Great question, on which im sure there are a variety of different opinions on what makes a great teacher. To answer your first question to be successful in the profession, there are many different ways of excelling in the teaching industry from quality in teaching and great exam results, to providing good pastoral care to ensure that aswell as doing what is required learners are enjoying the experience.

As for attributes it is my opinion that a good teacher must firstly be passionate about their subject, and by doing this having good subject knowledge. This should be backed up by great communication skills with students and parents to ensure that information and knowledge is passed on effectively. It is also vital to have the right personality that encourages a strong rapport with the learners, this will come from passion for the learners and having high expectations. This should motivate the and increase self esteem through having a supportive teacher there to encourage and facilitate a positive learning environment. Finally confidence is vital, to ensure good classroom management and behaviour control. What are your thoughts?

Comment by Christopher Heath on January 12, 2013 at 8:21am: Hi Ellie

Fascinating question and one that I gave great thought to before I started my teaching journey. I believe that anyone can teach, however not everyone has the personal attributes to be a good teacher. Looking back at my own learning I remember that the majority of teachers I liked and the ones who got good results were always down to earth, outgoing characters who allowed nothing to get on top of them. I believe you need to have a fairly thick skin to teach otherwise young people will pick up on this immediatley and tear you apart.

Good luck in your own personal voyage of teaching discovery.

Chris

Comment by Ellie Nelson on January 15, 2013 at 4:48am: Hi Sam, I certainly agree that good subject knowledge, and great communication skills are essential to the profession. Coming from a performance background I am curious to find a correllation between teaching and performance. I know I am naturally a fairly insecure person, but as you mention Christopher young
people can pick up on this immediately so I learn to put on a front of being thick skinned. This makes me wonder if with the right guidance anyone could understand how to project the necessary personality traits linked with teaching, and whether/when the mask would eventually slip. What do you feel about this? Is teaching as much about putting on a front as it is possessing the right attributes?

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