What makes a teacher effective? by Jorge and Shary

As students we know perfectly well what we do not want in a teacher, we have criticized endlessly those teachers who were hypocrites or those who had no passion in what they were trying to teach us. We have a clear idea on what kind of teacher we want to be, we have set our minds to follow the examples of the good teachers we had. As teacher that’s a question we ask ourselves every time we start a school year, a course, a new level… because we want to be good teachers.
The desire to be a good teacher is a good start. Some skills can make our life as teacher a lot less complicated and a lot more enjoyable, by developing them you can not only help yourself but also your students.
Firstly you must work on your decision making. Secondly, you need to have the right attitude. Thirdly, you need to have knowledge on very specific areas. Finally you need to develop teaching skills.
Decision making- Teachers have to make decisions all the time. The decisions can be related to the planning, implementing or evaluating phases. When planning the teacher needs to decide not only on the contents he/she wants the students to work on but also on the strategies and activities he/she will use to teach those contents. His/her decision should answer the questions what, how, when and why. The implementing phase occurs when the teacher is actually teaching and here he/she will have to decide on how to attack the problems that come up during the lesson. Knowing the students, their learning styles, their backgrounds, preferences… comes in handy during this stage. The final phase, evaluating, requires the teacher to decide on the way he/she will measure the success of the activity and whether or not her objectives were met.
Attitude- A teacher’s personality is also very important; students show more interest and better results when they feel they can trust their teacher and when the teacher is nice and respectful. The teacher’s attitude can change the environment in the class, there are four categories he/she needs to work on: attitude toward self, toward children and their relationship, toward peers and parents, and toward the subject he/she teaches. It is crucial that the teacher knows and understands him/herself in order to be able to identify and understand other people’s emotions and actions. Another aspect teachers need to remember is the influence their actions have on the students (especially kids and teens), it is key that the teacher watches his/her behavior and treats students equally and with respect. A good teacher is a real person with good and bad days but is also someone who values his/her students and shows empathy and understanding. The teacher’s attitude toward peers and parents is also crucial, it is necessary that the teacher sees them as collaborators rather than obstacles, only then he/she can benefit and work well in his/her workplace. The attitude toward the subject the teacher is facilitating should be of passion, enthusiasm; the teacher should love, or at least like the subject to transmit this enthusiasm to the students.
Knowledge- Three kinds of knowledge are required from the teacher: knowledge on the subject, knowledge on human behavior and theoretical knowledge. It is more than obvious that the teacher needs to know as much as possible on the subject he/she teaches, but that is not all, they also need to know the methods to teach the contents, understand the curriculum and know about what is expected from his/her students. It is also needed from the teacher to know how people work, learn and interact. Sometimes students need professional help; the teacher needs to be constantly monitoring students to find out what they are requiring or lacking.
In order to become an effective teacher it is important to master some skills. The skills that have been chosen as essential are: asking questions, reinforcing certain kinds of behavior, diagnosing student needs and difficulties, keeping students involved, being able to recognize when students are paying attention, using technology, making learning meaningful and assessing that learning. The previous skills need to be practiced to the point that they become automatic to the teacher. Later on the teacher can focus on communicating to students by their behavior, on not interfering with the flow of the class and not slowing down the pace of the lesson. This can be reached by establishing clearly defined rules and routines (the more involved the students are the better), ensuring that students are committed to the rules and demands, and by involving the families
Remember that just as the girl in the case study (Carol Landis) a new teacher is bombarded with doubts, questions, insecurity and lack of confidence. No matter how many A’s or how many years if college one has gone through the real learning comes when we are faced with reality and have to put into practice all the acquired knowledge. The problem is that no one told us what to do if a student falls for you or if another student has a serious problem with authority and it’s in these moments when we could use a hand.