What Makes A Good Teacher Great?

Becoming a great teacher takes years of practice, learning and honing your craft. There’s no single path to becoming a great teacher, just as there’s no single quality that makes a good teacher great. However there are qualities that the best teachers all tend to share, and the good news is that these are learnable.

If you are training to become a teacher, or are looking to further your teaching skills and require a little more support to become successful in the classroom, then this article is for you. These practical tips will help anyone take their teaching skills to the next level. 

5 Qualities of a Good Teacher

Certain qualities are needed to become an effective teacher. A successful teacher is one that has the ability to form positive relationships, allows students to feel comfortable and believes in their student’s potential and creates engaging classes. In order to achieve this, there are a number of skills that all teachers should strive to develop.

1. Communication Skills

Good communication skills are a fantastic quality to have in any role, let alone a teaching role. Good communication helps you as a teacher to deliver a clear message to a student on a daily basis. Good communication promotes trust, improves teamwork within a class and leads to engaged students.

Not only can good communication benefit the relationships between teachers and students and help students to understand tasks, it’s also a necessary quality to have when speaking to parents, helping to deliver successful parent evenings. 

2. Enthusiastic and Energetic 

The energy you use to deliver a class is the energy which your students will use to engage and respond effectively to tasks. If your students feel you are unenthusiastic about a subject or task, this can affect their productivity levels leading to poorly delivered classes and students underperforming.

Enthusiasm within a teaching role is essential, this teaching method will be welcomed by parents and students, making classes more enjoyable and will create a positive learning environment for students to learn. 

3. Knowledge 

Being well-read and knowledgeable around your subject matter can inspire students to feel motivated to learn and perform effectively. Good educators not only work with their existing teacher knowledge, but they also are continuously learning with students to be successful within their field.  You can grow your knowledge by taking online training courses, staying on top of the latest trends and asking your employer about development opportunities. 

4. Be Professional 

Being professional and disciplining students is an important quality to have as a teacher. This can be done by respecting students, taking rules seriously. These qualities create good working relationships and help you to manage classroom behaviour.  It’s important to create a balance of being a fun, yet professional teacher. This way students will give you respect in return and will make you easily approachable for students to enhance communication and relationships and as a teacher sets high expectations.

A great teacher must be organised. Perhaps the best way to stay organised on a daily basis is to utilise a teacher planner. A teacher planner is the perfect way to stay on top of lesson planning, day-to-day diarising and note taking. When it comes to teacher planners and teacher diaries, it pays to invest in a quality planner designed specifically for teachers.

5. Have Patience 

Being a teacher is one of the most mentally challenging roles and in order to perform well, it takes a lot of patience. Whether you are controlling classroom settings, understanding student behaviour or are trying to communicate effectively with students, all require patience. Being a patient teacher will show your students and their parents that you are focused on them succeeding and take your role seriously. 

What Makes a Good Teacher Recap

1. Communication Skills
2. Enthusiast and Energetic
3. Knowledge
4. Be Professional
5. Have Patience

Can you be a Successful Teacher?

Being a good teacher is not only important for the success of your role and your personal growth, but it also has a huge impact on your students and how successful they become once they have left education. 

To be a successful teacher it is important to incorporate our teaching qualities. Learning to adopt effective teaching qualities into your everyday life can lead to you being successful within your role and provide you with progression opportunities later down the line.