What's an ideal teacher ?

[MissMaCo]

please tell me !

 

[nbcrusader]

One who cares for the growth and development of their students.


Not one who wants to be their friend.

 

[isabelle_guns]

good question, my former english teacher Ian was the ideal teacher so I lucked out

 

[LoveTown]

I had a lot of BAD teachers when I was a kid.

I guess I would have to say an ideal teacher for me is one that genuinely cares about all the kids equally and not just the rich ones or the cute ones or the ones from certain families.

A good teacher will show every student kindness, compassion and respect. Even the difficult kids because really those kids are the ones that need the teacher the most.

 

[The Sage]

One that treats you like an equal human being rather than a piece of shit they found on their shoe

 

[maro_chik]

Hmmm... I'll try to answer this by sifting through both great and not-so-great teachers of my past. And since I'm hoping to become a teacher myself, I'm also interested in hearing others' answers.

-Do care for each and every one of your students, even though it may be hard to at times (A simple 'hello' or 'how are you' can make a big difference)
-Don't try to be everyone's best friend; that never seems to work.
-Don't try to be a strict authority figure, show compassion and respect, and hopefully the students will do the same
-Do set rules and guidelines; a so-called 'laid back' teacher will get walked all over for being just that (Creating a class 'constitution' is a fun way to make the rules)
-Don't yell; some of my favorite teachers never had to yell, but still had a great command of their class
-Diverting from the standards once in a while (ie. having class outside, playing history/french/math Jeopardy on a Friday, etc)
-Have fun, even if it's dorky fun (My chemistry teachers would sing and rap about, well... Chemistry )
-Establish honesty and trust between yourself and your students, and when that trust is broken, let them know

Er, that's all I can think of for now. That about sums up my ideal teacher, and how I'd run things if/when (when!) I become a teacher.

 

[Liesje]

Someone that respects and challenges you at the same time. I've had difficult teachers with huge egos or authority complexes and I've had teachers that were so easy and spend all their time trying to be "cool". My senior religion teacher in high school was like this. Every class period I was left wondering "and THIS is what we're paying $6000 a year for?". He would try and have these deep personal conversations with us like we were all best friends and then when he tried to teach, he was basically using lesson plans like ones from previous years' religion courses. The class was such a waste; I just sat in the corner and did other homework or played Yoshi on my calculator.

Teachers also need to have realistic expectations. Recently, two Profs that I know of have been canned from my college b/c their courses were so difficult, yet part of core curriculum (all students are required to take it at some point). The Prof. I had for 100 level religion had a 50% drop-out rate for the same course the previous semester (I stuck with it and found her rather interesting and extremely knowledgable, passionate, and a good communicator, but she expected way too much of first semester freshmen who were just taking the class b/c it's required).

 

[forbonou2]

A good teacher should well-Teach!! Lol! REally Liv+I had a teacher like that last one, and it left me with the question..'why did I take Her class'? Yet-I love my Baking instructor-she always stayed instructor, encourager, and would Never rat on you! Oh, and I got a 'B' in her class! yeah! If I were a Teacher-I would want to be like her!!

 

[ylimeU2]

The best teacher I ever had was my Algebra teacher. I'll try to describe what I think made her such an amazing teacher. Like a few people have said, she treated everyone with equal respect. No one was favored for being popular, that kind of thing, etc. I know I complained when I was in her class, but this is something I'm extremly grateful for now, she made us work. We had work we did together in class (which explains why algebra was the only form of math I was good at) and we had homework, which we got credit for completing, not for how many answers we got right. One other thing I appreciated about her was she had rules, and she stuck to them. I guess this can also be lumped in with treating everyone equally, but she set the rules and gave the same consequenses to everyone who broke them. Most of all, she listened if someone was having a problem with something, and she took the time to explain, and make sure we understood what ever concept we were learning. She would always make time to lend a helping hand.

I don't know if that helps at all, but good luck with whatever it is you are teaching!

 

[OneBadLemon]

i had a couple favorite teachers. everyone likes different things out of their teachers. all of my favorites seemed to do the same things.

mary cannon - 6th grade english, reading & homeroom. (now she's teaching math, which is kinda weird) she was serious about school work. she didn't necesarily try to make learning fun, but she did things to try and challenge every student, not just the smart ones or whatever. i think the reason i liked her best was her humor though. she was really witty and sharp. she would insult students so subtely that they wouldn't know what hit them. and that's the same as...

brad sohler - 10th grade biology. he was funny, wouldn't stand for kid's bullshit when not doing their work or doing bad on tests. he was always willing to help all the students do better. he was born & raised in the same highschool system that he taught in and i think that's pretty cool. i have quotes from him. he loved messing with people. after saying something totally bogus kids would ask, "are you serious?" and me, the class genius of the time would say, "NO, he's just messing with you." he told totally lame jokes, but it was okay because he knew they were bad. we did the best project ever, "bug trials" and he taught us things that the other 10th grade biology teacher wouldn't teach. like evolution theories and spontaneous generation theories. and we watched arachniphobia. nothing beats a good/cool teacher when we get to watch that. he was laid back and not so uptight and that made me more comfortable in class. i actually have a collection of quotes from him.
student: (about portugese man o' war) how do you kill them?
sohler: well first, you jump on them. and then you wrestle them.
me: ::laughter::

gates: (about frogs being able to push their eyes in their head to aid in swallowing) so it's kinda like the force?
sohler: what? what are you talking about?
gates: you know the force. they move stuff with their eyes.
sohler (looks at me).
me: ::nod::
sohler: yes. yes it is.

doug miller - high school band director. he's one of those teachers that students love to hang around with after school and in other band activities (marching band, pep band, stage band, lessons, talent show, musical...etc) he is my movie friend (hehe). i can actually talk to him about movies because he actually has a chance to see alot of indie/foreign/strange etc movies. he's serious about what he does and everyone respects him for that. he gives the band students respect and i think that's what's most important. when the teacher respects the students back they can respect them. he cares about his students and what they're doing in their lives. and he owns a mini cooper.... mmm mini

this is making me feel better about going back to school today.
peace, love & bad lemon,
toni

 

[elevation2u]

i had 2 great teachers in high school, i had a bunch of horrible ones, many boring ones, and many good ones too... but 2 stand out the most and they were different but equally great.

for example one of them i had first in 9th grade and she was always pushing me to do the best and would always talk to me about the issues i would write in my essays because they were quite different from the other students... i was a bit quiter than the rest too...she had a great sense of humor which surprised me because she wasn't the very approachable kind for whatever reason.. anyway she was about 30 but acted older than that, she was a bit mroe on the conservative side... i had her again until 12th grade and we would still talk like old times about life in general and society.

now the other teacher i first had in 10th grade where we got off on a rocky start... he was very sarcastic, immature, had ADD and could sometimes be cruel.. he got away with talking about things that could possibly get him under supervision but the students loved him because he was easy to relate to. we would always get into arguments and he would always pick on me. somehow our relationship slowly evolved.. i guess in a way we had a lot in common, we were both cynical,we both loved obscure movies, 80s music.. the police and of course u2, he even got me U2 bootleg concerts, we both were anti-corporate, vegetarians, anti-consumerism, aware of enviornmental and societal issues, anti-bush etc...
i had hiim 10th grade, 11th grade and even 12 grade... he was very funny and he taught us a lot of stuff that we wouldn't otherwise have learnt from education, he was aware that many students simply copied homework off each other so wouldnty assign any, he gave essays which he did garde crucially from time to time, he did noit accept late work, would let us eat/drink in the classroom,a nd we had class discussions regularly, he played cool music in class among other things...
also my friend and i would always leave to get lunch down the street with him, anyway, it was weird having a teacher as a friend, and having someone to talk to about problems, i even went to a coldplay concert once with him (long story), and got many Apple discounts .. we still keep in touch and we would hang out sometimes outside of the classroom with another of my friend who was also a ateacher (she was only 24) and his wife who was also really nice.

but yeah, from the bad teacher experiences i had, those 2 definitely made it up.

 

[Mullen-Girl]

<-------- Will hopefully be a great Spanish Teacher in a couple of years *crosses fingers*

 

[Tomer]

good question

 

[Laura M]

I had this brilliant biology teacher in school. He was eccentric and lived in the country and used to let us do great experiments with gas cylinders and animal lungs he would get from the abbatoir near his house. Ok maybe you don't want to hear "be eccentric to be a great teacher"

Honestly though, just be yourself.

Don't pick your favourites. I had a teacher in school who hated me (and a few others) and made it really obvious. She always put us down and compared us to her favourite pupils (all of who I beat when it came to doing our exams). Don't be strict but don't be a pushover either. As the Sage said treat them like equals. I think you'll do a grand job.

I would be no good teaching teenagers. This is why I'm opting for the really long degree so I can teach at colleges/ university.

 

[MissMaCo]

Lara

Well, actually some of my students will be 18 or more The youngest will be 15.
I REALLY start on Saturday morning.

 

[Klaus]

Good luck MissMaCo, i'm sure you'll give your best

 

[WildHoneyAlways]

I just started my first full time teaching job this week. (high school US History, World History, and Civics) I've taught summer school before and I genuinely enjoyed it. I am definately a teacher who shows compassion and empathly for students. I think that comes from my experiences with special ed students. I am pursuing my master's degree in special education! I'll let you all know as I try not to stumble through this first year.

 

[LoveTown]

wow my life just answered this thread...well sort of.

My five year old nephew just started kindergarten yesterday. Come to find out, his teacher didnt pay attention that he gave her a money for hot lunch. She has been putting him in the cold lunch group for 2 days......so basically my little guy has gone 2 whole days at school without having any lunch. She put a note on his jacket telling my sister that he has been very grouchy and when my sister asked my nephew why he said "mommy, Im hungy, they didnt give me any lunch." Needless to say my sister was PISSED!!!


Also, my nephew is named after his dad (craig) and goes by the name C.J., for Craig junior....well this teacher asked my nephew why he didnt respond when she said his name ( Craig) and he said "because my name is C.J." it's the only name the kid has ever been called and she yelled at him and said "C.J. is not your name, your name is Craig"

*sigh* this is why people who dont have patience and understanding should not be allowed near children

2 days into Kindergarten and the poor little guy hates school.

 

[Cowgirl]

STart hard,
Dont try and win them over with friendship. You need to set your rules and expectations on the very first day.
Show them what you expect and then later, once you get to know them better, you can ease off a bit.
You can be kind, caring, compassionate but you still dont need to be their friend.
They have friends, they dont want you to be that, they wnt you to be their teacher.

Children want structure, they want to learn. They dont want to be babysat.

show them that youre serious, that you care about them, that you want them to achieve, even if they dont care, show them that you do.

come prepared, show up on time, know your stuff.
children smell fear, weakness, and even illness. once they smell it, they will take every opportunity to take advantage.

it is very hard to be a disciplinarian. it is very hard to try and discipline a child for an inappropriate behaviour when what they have done is making you come close to bursting out in laughter....which they will often.
but if i can give you any advice, the hardest part will be getting their attention and keeping it. hit them hard at the beginning of every lesson with something interesting and powerful. dont start off with "today we are learning about angles". ithey will be staring out the windows before you even say the word "angles".


dont use sarcasm. never put them down.
let them know that they have choices to make.
if they do their work and try their best then that is all that you ask.
if they dont make the choice to do so, then they will need consequences for their actions. you will need to always follow up with them too, otherwise they will continue to do the same thing because they know they can get away with it.

you may wonder why ive focused so heavily on behaviour management....

it im afraid is the most challenging part of teaching. not the syllabus, not the smart kids, but dealing with kids who arent interested in learning.

id love to witness one of those classrooms on american tv and movies where the teacher talks and the children all raise their hands and giggle and do their work silently, they dont exist. i havent seen one of those yet. its funny to watch though!

good luck with it, im sure youll do great.

 

[Laura M]

Lara

Well, actually some of my students will be 18 or more The youngest will be 15.
I REALLY start on Saturday morning.

I think you'll be fine. You aren't dealing with very young folk. Good luck