- "There are some people who are born to do it and some who learn to do it, and there are some people who really shouldn't do it."
Unfortunatly I have experienced one too many teachers that really should not have been teachers. I am sure we all have.
I was a speech pathologist major for three years and really thought for years before college that I would not make a good teacher. I go to my mothers classroom often and see how much stress, pressure, and anxiety she goes through every day and I did not think I could handle that. It was not until I realized how passionate I was about English that I realized I have several qualities to make a good teacher.
- One teacher had a theory that "the key is to get the kids to like you."
I cannot agree with this theory 100% simply because you are a teacher to your students, not their friend. I had a teacher in 8th grade that I absolutly hated. There was not one quality that I liked about her personality, but I learned more from her than I did from any other English teacher. So of course you want your students to like you but that should not be your main priority. Your main priority is to teach them something, to show them how to apply the skills and knowledge you share with them. If you walk into a classroom thinking you are going to be a friend to every student you have, good luck!
1 comment:
Your point that teachers can't be friends to every student is, in my opinion, so true.
We have an odd place as teachers. We can't be "friends" with our students, and trying to acheive this friendship will not help students respect or learn from the teacher any better (as you also pointed out).
As teachers, though, we want to have a "friend-like" relationship with out students. We want studetns to feel that they can confide in us, trust us, and have fun in our classrooms. Aren't they some characteristics of a "friendship?"
Like I said, our place as a teacher is a unique one. The best thing we can do for our students is foster a classroom environment of mutual respect. It seems as though everything would fall into place after that.
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