A Good Teacher....

                                                                                                                                              Dr. Ashish Gupta

Professor and Head, 

Dept. Of  English, Govt. Girls College, Betul  (M.P.)

Few Tips to Become a Good Teacher

My dear friends,

Although I do not think I'm the best teacher, but being a teacher I know that every teacher wants to be a good teacher. Great teachers leave an unforgettable impression on their students’ lives. They manage to find what is unique about each student and inspire them to achieve great things. What exactly are the qualities that make a good teacher? What are the skills, talents, and characteristics, and can they be taught or learned?

Although every great teacher has their own special, unique style, I have found that there are few specific universal qualities that are necessary for anyone who wants to teach effectively, whether they want to teach in an elementary school or a university. If any teacher possesses the following characteristics and qualities, he/she can become a very good teacher with large fan base.

1-    Knowledge of subject matter -Great teachers should be extremely knowledgeable about the subject matter they are teaching. They should be prepared to provide satisfactory answers to their students’ questions.

2-    Clear objectives for lessons - Great teachers know exactly what they want to achieve during each lesson and they communicate this clearly to their students. They use the class time effectively in order to meet those objectives.

3-    Imagination - A teacher who is imaginative can do wonders in the English class. Their new ideas break monotony and make students take lively participation in the class.

4-    Interaction - A teacher who promotes interaction in the English class, does justice to their profession by empowering learners and helping them develop their communication skills. They motivate their students, create opportunities for them to interact with one another.

5-    Good classroom management skills - A great teacher, in a sense, is a great manager. He or she should know how to help students be more productive, how to encourage respect in the classroom, and how to ensure overall good behavior in class.

6-    Passion for children and teaching - A great teacher is passionate about teaching and working with children. They understand the responsibility in front of them and are excited to impact their students’ lives in positive and meaningful ways.

7-     Friendliness & Approachability - It's the teacher's job to help students learn, they must be easy to approach. Students will have questions that can't be answered if the teacher isn't friendly and easy to talk to. The best teachers are the most open, welcoming, and easy to approach.

 

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HOW DO WE SEEK AN IDENTITY FOR OURSELVES?

                                                                      

                                                                              Dr.Muralikrishnan T.R.

                                                                       Associate Professor and Head,

                                                                              Department of English

                                                     M.E.S Asmabi College, P. Vemballur, Kodungallur,

                                                                           Thrissur District,Kerala

   The proposed association is a platform for English teachers where they associate and network with other members of the same profession, be it schools, colleges or universities through collaborative engagement in capacity building activities.

    The teachers, who are part of this group get access to varieties of sources of knowledge within the teaching community and they benefit by sharing and caring of each individual of their community leading to collective improvement.

    The motto is thus to heighten the level of cooperation among teaching fraternity with a clear accent on co-work, collaborate and co-teach.

    The teachers need to feel a sense of accountability towards themselves as well as to the student community.

    A lot of interaction becomes possible leading to peer evaluation, projects based on collaboration, action research, and skill development programme for young learners.

       The teachers can update themselves on teaching skills.

    Creativity in the way that you teach, offers valuable opportunities for self-development.As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Almost always, the creative, dedicated minority have made the world better.”

    Moreover the teachers at the initial stages of their career need some kind of confidence boosting and this may trigger several opportunities for professional growth.

    Positive interdependence among group members is structured through setting a common goal, assuming a common identity, using the same space and resources and getting the same reward.

    In short we stay relevant through our camaraderie!

    The message is very clear. Recollecting the words of Gilbert Highet: "I believe teaching is an art, not a science. It seems very dangerous to me to apply the aimsand methods of science to human beings as individuals. Teaching is not like inducting a chemistry reaction, it is much more like painting a picture, or making a piece of music or on a lower level like planting a garden or writing a friendly letter. You must throw your heart into it, you must realize that it cannot all be done by formulas, or you will spoil your work, and your pupils and yourself."(Preface to The Art of Teaching)

 

TOUCH THE FUTURE YOU TEACH

                                                  G. A. Ghanshyam, Ph.D. 

                                                      Professor of English

                                            Directorate of Higher Education

                                                 Raipur, Chhattisgarh  

                           

The 21st Century demands teachers to be on their toes to meet the needs and demands of the stakeholders. In the era of ICT,the teacher has become a facilitator and has taken a leap from teacher to trainer. We are gearing up to become 'Digitally Literate." A teacher has to be FIT (Fluent in Information Technology) to be a HIT (Holistic Information Transformer).

iSPELL, a platform created by the fraternity of English is a small step rather a flutter of the butterfly to bring change in ourselves as facilitators and trainers to upgrade, update, uplift ourselves to uphold the motto "Reach to Teach"

Being a trainer we must "Touch the Future We Teach." A rapport with the stakeholders is the need of the hour to bring a change in the society from all sorts of adversities. Developing skilled stakeholders to meet the challenges of the 21st Century is the job on the card. 

The role of the teacher has taken a paradigm shift from "Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side." 

Let us promote, propagate and change ourselves from "Digitally Literate to Digitally Fluent" so as to 'Touch the Future We Teach.'

©GAG