Teach English in Heilizhai Zhen - Zibo Shi

The Question of “How to be a good teacher?” or “How can a candidate build a successful teaching career?” has had many definitions and redefinition throughout the history, and it is still an open topic to debate on. However, they turn out to be some very fundamental characteristics which are present almost in all definitions of a good teacher. Nearly all the general and basic features of a good teacher can be classified into three categories; love, excellence and experience. Whereas the first one encircles around the teachers, the other two require the presence of students as participants in a teaching act though it should be pointed out that the love, excellence and experience triangle is always tangible in a good teacher. The first category, love, deals mainly with the mental characteristics of a candidate prior to becoming a teacher, and it encapsulates several other subcategories within itself. First of all, the candidate should weigh up his inner desires and figure out if he/she has the demanded qualities of being a teacher. The first and most important quality which needs serious consideration is patience. As teachers deal mainly with specific groups of people, and as these groups are from different level of knowledge compared to teachers’, the first criterion is a sense of patience which must be incorporated into teaching act. A candidate who finds him/herself easily annoyed, or in tense situations reactionary, should rethink of his/her decision several times. But if this criterion is inevitably palpable in the candidate, he/she should think of the love of a teaching relation which will be established during the teaching career. Teachers need to bear in mind that they are going to work with humans who are either enthusiastically or obligatory there to learn somethings from them, and this goal cannot be achieved except by establishing a relation with them (teachers and students). Accepting the existence of relation, teachers step toward the other side of the mentioned triangle, i.e. excellence. At the beginning, it should be made clear that teaching is a never-ending process, and therefore, it requires new theories, skills and methods in order to run properly and smoothly. The initial step in achieving a degree of excellence is to have a good grasp of the knowledge of the field which will be presented to the groups in the future. So, teachers, at first, must have a good- not perfect- and acceptable understanding of the fundamentals of the field they are going to deliver. These fundamentals can be achieved through academic or private pedagogy. Then, there come up the qualifications of teaching approved by international Teacher Training centers. In fact, the certificates granted by these qualified centers imply that they have tested some of the abilities of the teachers and have partially guaranteed a minimum quality of efficient teaching in these candidates. The moment a certified teacher enters to the teaching sphere, he/she has already taken into consideration some of the needed qualities of a good teacher. Now, the teacher is almost familiar with profound effect of right eye contacts with students, appropriate body language, classroom management, the importance of taking risks in learning and producing new things, the right ways of evaluating, testing and feedbacking the students, exertion of discipline when needed, and the main role of a teacher not as a dominant of classes. Instead, the classes should be student-based and the speak time of teachers ought to be reduced dramatically compared to the traditional theories of teaching. More importantly, teachers are now capable of establishing a good rapport with students which plays a remarkable role in encouraging, and consequently, engaging the students in taking part in the activities of classes. Moreover, he/she has completely grasped the influential function of Engage, Study and Activate method in modern pedagogy, and is also aware of the fact that the classes start with engagement of students and ends with their production phase. Every single phase has its own right place and time in any teaching process and students are no longer passive participant in classes, instead they are the main factor in classes, and the teachers are always there to support and motivate them to reach to their goals. As mentioned before, teaching is an unlimited act in process in which everything is open for any changes. It should also be pinpointed that teaching different classes have different methods apart from all the theoretical instructions of teaching, and any teacher should be flexible and prepared enough to adapt himself to the new environment, and here is where the role of experience comes up. The moment a teacher enters to class, the practical experiences starts to develop and therefore every single day of teaching adds up to the overall experience of the teacher. Besides all these facts, a teacher should always welcome new experiences in order to climb up the stairs of excellence during his/her career. In fact, it is in the zone of experience that a teacher is exposed to students with different ages, social backgrounds, levels of knowledge and demands. A good teacher makes use of all his previous experiences to guide and motivate his/her students in the times of need. Furthermore, a good teacher should also be open to learn a lot from his/her bad experiences during the classes and make them means for future successes. In conclusion, a good teacher is the one who is ambitious, patient, supportive, and dedicated towards his/her students. This teacher is also capable of correlating the love, excellence and experience triangle of teaching act to the classroom Engage, Study, and Activate methodology. After all, a good teacher making use of these techniques comes up with helpful comments and feedbacks towards his/her students. Sources: Harmer, Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Essex, England: Longman, 2001. Print. Larsen-Freeman, Diane. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.