Think back to your favorite teacher. What made them special? What made them memorable? What things did they do that others couldn’t? On this World Teachers’ Day, we should take some time and reflect about how our best teachers helped us. It’s highly likely that these teachers worked a lot of long, sometimes unpaid hours on our behalf. They may have skipped a meal or a bathroom break or two along the way. They had to ensure their lessons were aligned with Common Core standards while consulting students’ individualized education plans to see those with special needs had a fair shot.
Believe me, until you become a teacher, you don’t actually know what we go through. It’s a lot of hard work that often leads to burn out (which is very real, by the way). A tremendous deal of pressure from parents, administrators, and trustees (yes, I’ve dealt with them).
And then, there’s the issue of time. Until I entered the teaching field, I thought that 168 hours was more than enough go-arounds for a week.
It looks like plenty until you look at the to-do list of a teacher…
Planning. Copying. Grading. Entering grades into the system. Emails. Paperwork.
As a colleague joked to me the other day, ”we need three-day weekends and just four days of school a week.”
Sadly, I’m not even sure that would be enough.
Is it all worth it? I think so. I would have left the field by now if I didn’t think that. That’s not to say there aren’t days when I come home and question whether or not being a teacher is for me. Those days happen often, especially when you’re dealing with the adjustment period of a new school (as I am right now).
So why have I not called it quits on teaching yet?
It’s because of the kids.
And the impact.
The thank yous. The Eureka moments. The safe spaces you can provide for the students with difficult home lives. The life lessons that are far more important than any English, math, physics, or ICT I can teach them.
(You might ask what ICT stands for, and to this day, I don’t actually know. Basically, it’s computer class.)
The best teachers not only educate, but they inspire and create a lifelong love of learning in their students.
So what actually separates the great teachers from the average ones? I could talk for hours about the best qualities of teachers. But you don’t want to read for hours. Let’s narrow it down to five…
5) Humility
You are the teacher. In theory, you should be well prepared and know your material. Of course you should. But you’re not perfect. You don’t know everything. Students will ask questions you don’t know the answer to. You might even make mistakes in the middle of class. Of course, no teacher wants to or tries to do that, but it happens. A couple of weeks ago, I was teaching a math lesson and an astute student raised his hand. He believed I had the wrong number on the board. I checked my calculator and sure enough, he was right. I had forgotten a zero. I thanked him and praised him for being sharp. I then said to the students that this stuff is hard and easy to make mistakes with. Of course, I went and beat myself up over it after the lesson, but a colleague later put it in perspective for me by saying that was a genuine teachable moment that we both benefitted from. Instead of being stiff about it and insisting it was my way or the highway, I allowed the student to express his opinion, even if it might embarrass me in the process. Nobody’s perfect, and pretending you are only lies to the students.
4) Attention to detail
This one wears a lot of different hats. Primarily, teachers need to be well-organized. Your lesson plans need to make sense and have fall-back plans. You need to know exactly which materials you need and ensure you have enough for each student. Teachers need to organize their thoughts and present the material in a way that makes sense even to the lowest-ability students. Educators must make sure there are no typos in their work (and when you do, express the humility mentioned above) and that rubrics and expectations are clear. You need to keep student work organized, sometimes with dozens of different classes. The same goes with behavior. For example, I keep a behavior book with notes about every class on every day. This way, I can justify giving a student a poor comment or a low behavior grade on their report card. But I have to keep it organized so I know where to go when a parent contacts me and asks why. Schedules are another essential to keeping organized. Some days, I teach all four of my subjects, while others are lighter. Knowing what I teach on what day, as basic as it may seem, is critical. Planning ahead is a major part of the process, and balancing your schedule so you have time set aside to accomplish everything you need is a must. As a teacher, you need to set boundaries for yourself so you don’t stay at school until 8 p.m. and get locked in the building…not that that’s ever happened to me. Oh, wait, it has, but it will never again because of the boundaries I’ve set and the organized routine I’ve built over the past couple of weeks.
3) Patience
Not all students learn at the same pace. At our school, we have five different levels for middle-school English classes, from borderline advanced to those who struggle to form a sentence. You have to respect students’ abilities and be ready to devote more time to those who struggle. If students keep asking the same questions, teachers have to answer them with a smile, not a sigh. They have to be ready to hear “I don’t understand” and deal with it. Never give up on a student, no matter what. Patience is also required with smaller children. This year, I’m working with 4th- and 5th-grade students on a full-time basis for the first time. They can get too enthusiastic or get off topic sometimes. They talk out of turn or get out of their seat without permission. There can be a lot of things happening in one classroom, especially with kids at these ages. It might seem easy to yell at them, but that doesn’t accomplish anything. When you do that, it sends a message to the troublemakers that they won, and the students might even enjoy it and try to push your buttons further. Yelling may even scare some students. You are not there to be the students’ enemy. With younger students, understanding why they make poor behavior choices is important. It may be because of a poor home life, because of bad influences in their class, or because they just don’t know any better. Maybe a previous teacher didn’t come down hard enough on them and they believe what they are doing is perfectly fine. You have to be patient, because the students are not only learning academic concepts but are also learning right from wrong.
2) Communication
Teachers communicate with EVERYONE. Students, parents, colleagues, administration, support staff, HR staff…the list goes on and on. It’s crucial to emphasize your expectations to students and parents right away. Make sure they know the rules and consequences. Make sure they are familiar with policies regarding assignments, homework, tardiness, etc. Teachers need to respond to emails in a timely manner. No parent should be in the dark about their child’s grades, behavior, or what they’re learning in class. And the communication with colleagues is just as huge. At school, many of us work with the same students, so we have to know if they are having similar or different issues in their class or if they have a behavior management technique that works better with these kids. Of course, there are the customary emails, group chats, and meetings. But we’re all on the same page (in theory) and have the same goal. Being able to work in a multinational team is an underrated skill teachers must have. At the moment, I work with teachers from the Czech Republic, the US, Canada, Slovakia, England, the Philippines, Spain, and more. What works in my country may not work in theirs. Furthermore, I can learn from their experiences and stories. I look at it not as a United Nations, but a melting pot that can open our eyes to different cultures and practices.
1) Empathy
You knew this was coming. As a former colleague used to say, ”it’s not about what you teach them, but how you make them feel.” You simply can’t be a teacher without empathy. You need to be a person first. Teachers have to listen to their students and respect them. Empathy builds a great classroom culture and dynamic learning environment. If students don’t feel safe and valued, they will not learn. Yes, students must learn the concepts you are teaching, but the life lessons are just as important. Keeping an eye out for students’ emotional health will not go unnoticed. If students know you care, they will see you as a role model and someone who is worth having an impact on their lives. Students are not numbers and are certainly not problems. They are humans with feelings. If you are a teacher out there, realize that the next time you want to curse out Filip or Honza or Terka for acting out in class. Like I said before, yelling at them and degrading them accomplishes nothing. If you don’t care about their feelings and emotions, they won’t care about your lessons. If they believe you see them as a problem, that’s how they will see themselves. Getting to know them and their feelings is the key to a lot of doors. Empathy builds trust. When your students trust you, the sky is the limit.
There are so many others I did not include, and many will disagree with some points mentioned above. That’s fine. These aren’t the be all and end all. These are just the first five that came to mind for me. Am I the world’s best teacher? No. Far from it. But if I include these five qualities, even in small amounts, in every day, I’m doing something right.
On this World Teachers’ Day, remember your own teachers who had these five qualities. And then, look at where you are today. These qualities probably helped them become teachers in the first place. And they helped you get to where you are today.
The average teachers taught you concepts. The good teachers taught you concepts and a few life lessons. The great teachers inspired you to become good people.
And good people can change the world.
Czeching Out the World of TEFL 