BED EDU 1203 Teaching in the UAE Reading 1

Qualities of a Good Teacher

Discuss the following in small groups:

What do you think makes a good teacher?

Patience, honest, understand, empathy, care, fair, creative, and lovely
What are the characteristics of a good teacher?
Being patient, lovely, thinking positive, relaxed, empathy, and friendly
Is it the results that his or her students receive on tests?
No, sometimes it is related to the teacher's way of teaching, and
sometimes it depends on the students IQ and how hard he studies
Is it a strict, disciplinarian approach?
No
Is it a warm, friendly attitude with his or her students?
Absolutely

1. Connection
A good teacher is one who can connect with his or her students. A teacher who
just enters a classroom, stands there for an hour, reads aloud or dictates from
a textbook, and leaves the classroom hurriedly when the school bell rings, is not
really a very good teacher. A teacher should be able to connect with his or her
students. He or she should be able to feel the pulse of the classroom and adjust
or modify his or her teaching style accordingly. Keeping a high level interest
among the students regarding the subject being taught is very important.
2. Communication
Communication is vital for anyone with a teaching job to
succeed at his or her place of work. A teacher should be both, effective as well
as efficient when it comes to communicating with his or her students. Lack of
communication skills will only end up with students either not understanding the
subject matter at all, or understanding it incorrectly (which is equally bad, if
not worse). Remember, all good communicators may not be good teachers, but
all good teachers are always good communicators.
3. Love for Teaching
This is by far, the biggest factor that differentiates between 10 average
teachers and 1 great teacher. All great teachers are people who teach simply
because they love doing so. It isn't about the money, or the prestige, or about
earning the respect of their students, or anything else. It is all about the
love for teaching. A student can always tell if the teacher is passionate about

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Qualities of a Good Teacher

what he/she is teaching. It has always been that way, and it always will.

4. Humility
This I feel, is an important quality of a good teacher and
unfortunately, a quality that one gets to see very rarely. A teacher with a
I-know-it-all attitude can give all his/her knowledge to the
students, but rarely will he or she earn the respect or the affection of the
students. On the contrary, a teacher who, when in isnt sure abut something,
doesn't hesitate to admit this and say I dont know the answer to this,and is
open to 'reverse learning', i.e. learning a thing or two from the students , will go
down well with the students.
5. Listening Skills
A good teacher is always a great listener. He or she not only talks, but also
keenly listens to all that his or her students have to say. If a certain topic or
point is found to be debatable, a good teacher does not hesitate to throw open
the topic to the whole class and invite individual opinions on the matter. A
teacher plays an important role in child development.
Here are a few more traits that make an influencing teacher.
Write the word or words that you thing best matches the description.
6. Motivating
A good teacher always motivates a student, no matter how difficult the
situation is, or how weak the student may be. By letting the students know
why what they are learning is important, helps the student be motivated to
learn the subject, even when it is quite difficult.
7. Humorous and funny
A good teacher is one who freely jokes around in the class, but is dead
serious when the need arises. This teacher knows his or her students well and
can use humor effectively in the classroom.
8. Adaptable/flexible
A good teacher is one who, in a short span of time, can turn the dullest
and the most disliked subject into your all-time favorite subject. This teacher
has the skills to make a boring class interesting. He or she changes the types
of lessons often so that the students get the information in a variety of ways.

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Qualities of a Good Teacher

9. Friendly/caring/empathetic
A good teacher is one who is a leader, but also a friend. He or she notices when
you are unhappy, and tries to comfort you. When you have a problem, he or
she tries to give you advice or help you in some way.
10 & 11. Think of 2 other qualities of a good teacher, To help you do this, think
of some of the best teachers you have had. Write down some words and
descriptions of what the teacher did that helped you learn.

Word

Description
For me, a good teacher who does not differentiate between
her students; even if a student was the manager's son

Fairness

Patience

For example: In 3rd grade, my English teacher loved 2

students, because they were the manager's daughter and
niece. When she asks a question, no one was allowed to
answer but them, and that was mean.

In schools, not all students have the same IQ and the ability
to understand quickly, so teacher might be asked to repeat
the lesson more than once for them to understand. If the
teacher was patient with the, students will be able to
understand better, and they won't be afraid to ask her any
question.

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Qualities of a Good Teacher

Conclusion:
A job as a teacher is not easy by stretch of the imagination. Becoming a
teacher does require the fulfillment of certain academic qualifications, but
becoming a good teacher requires something much more than that.

After Reading:
Write the teacher qualities from the reading (and the ones you added)
in the order of importance.
(1 being most important quality for a teacher to have. 2 being the next most
important, etc.)
1.Fair
2.Patient
3.lestening skills
4.empathy
5. Friendly
6.Motivative
7.Humility
8. Humorous and funny
9. communication
10. Connection
11.Love for teaching

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Qualities of a Good Teacher

Collage: go through the newspapers and magazines and cut out words,
pictures and letters that you think best match these qualities. Glue them on
the paper provided. Your group will present the collage to the rest of the
class. You will explain how each picture, word, symbol, etc. represents the
qualities of a good teacher.