You might have two or three degrees and still have no ability to teach. You could be the most intelligent man or woman alive, but in a classroom full of students, you’d never survive. Good teachers are born that way, and a college degree is simply icing on the cake. The key to being a good teacher will revolve around the teacher’s ability to find and maintain the following character traits.
1. Patience:
Patience is required every day and in every way within any classroom full of youthful minds who will use their ingenuity to test your patience every day and in many ways. Any teacher who assumes that a room full of children will be eager to sit quietly and listen to the teacher teach, will be surprised by the rude awakening that children don’t work that way. Don’t go into teaching unless you’ve been blessed with the ability to patiently keep teaching, even when it appears that no one is listening. You will need to patiently guide the child to where he or she needs to be and find new and improved ways to maintain their attention, not to mention the ability to patiently re-teach.
2. Extra Sensory Perception:
Good teachers have ESP when it comes to children and this gives them the ability to read child like minds. They intuitively know why children do the things they do, and know what to do to help children improve. They see the potential long before it arrives, so they are able to inspire the child to see themselves through their teacher’s eyes. A good teacher will use this ESP wisely, by providing the key teaching technique which fits with each child’s unique mind and learning style. The teacher will actually see the child’s success ahead of time.
3. Intrinsic Motivation:
Good teachers are intrinsically aware that teaching won’t bring them abundant living through wealth or esteem, so they go into teaching with the intrinsic ability to work as a team. They understand that teaching will most likely not bring them a raise, much less praise, but they keep teaching due to an innate need to teach. The inspiration which motivates good teaching comes from within anyone born to teach. Even so, this intrinsic motivation will shine for all to see, which is why good teachers are often recognized in our society.
4. An Empathetic Nature:
Along with every good teacher’s ESP, the teacher will need to see through an empathetic view. That’s what all good teachers do. They see the invisible child who sits idly by in the back of the classroom. They attend to the child who misbehaves and guides them to another way. They feel what the child’s parents feel when a student succeeds, but they also know how it feels to fail miserably. From an empathetic nature, good teachers respond accordingly. They never humiliate any child by singling them out in class, but take the time to find out why the child might need some TLC. Good teachers rescue kids every day and save the day when someone bullies them, or when they have no friends. They know how to relate to a variety of issues and how to resolve them through the wisdom which comes from experience.
5. Determined and Strong:
Good teachers possess a determined will that tells them every day, “I’m determined to teach well today.” This determination and strong will comes through to the students who respect their teacher in every way. Good teachers have students who obey, just because the day goes better that way. When the teacher knows how to motivate children to do the best they can do, that teacher is the definition of what being a good teacher means. He or she makes it very clear, right from the start, what he or she expects of each student in the class. The rules and routine will be followed in a structured way to make the children feel safe, but not take creativity away. The teacher teaches through a strong and firm, but gentle and kind mind at all times.
6. Flexible and Calm:
There’s no such thing as a good teacher who screams, and no good teacher goes nuts just because something or someone messed up his or her rigid routine. Good teachers are flexible, because they have to be. They go through their day in a calm way that tends to proclaim, “I’m in charge today, so come what may.” Good teachers know that any room filled with young souls will be like a three ring circus now and then, but then again, every good teacher knows how to maintain control. They do this through the wisdom that comes from experience and through a magician’s view too. Magically, good teachers take a class clown and teaches the clown how to settle down. He or she can teach even the most unmotivated child how to achieve miraculous things, just because the teacher was born to teach.
To Conclude:
If you took the time to read this article of mine, chances are it means that you were born to teach. It takes a good teacher to seek those things good teachers need, so I’ll conclude by documenting in print how much some of us appreciate you. Thank you for doing what most of us could never do, with the patience it takes to be a saint. We applaud you for going out on a limb for kids, with so little pay or praise. Thanks for being a magician now and then. How amazing your ESP can be to see when you so willingly help children achieve every parent’s dream. Good teachers aren’t made every day, so when one like you comes along, it’s wise to say, “Thanks,” before all the good teachers are gone.

Vicki Phipps