Successful Teachers – 6 Traits of Successful Teachers
What We Can Learn From Successful Teachers:
1. Successful teachers hold high expectations:
The most effective teachers expect great accomplishments from their students, and they don’t accept anything less. In education, expectations form a self-fulfilling prophecy. When teachers believe each and every student can soar beyond any imagined limits, the children will sense that confidence and work with the teacher to make it happen.
2. They think creatively:
The best teachers think outside the box, outside the classroom, and outside the norm. They leap outside of the classroom walls and take their students with them! As much as possible, top teachers try to make classroom experiences exciting and memorable for the students. They seek ways to give their students a real world application for knowledge, taking learning to the next action-packed level. Think tactile, unexpected, movement-oriented, and a little bit crazy… then you’ll be on the right track.
3. Top teachers are versatile and sensitive:
The best teachers live outside of their own needs and remain sensitive to the needs of others, including students, parents, colleagues, and the community. It’s challenging because each individual needs something different, but the most successful teachers are a special breed who play a multitude of different roles in a given day with fluidity and grace, while remaining true to themselves.
4. They are curious, confident, and evolving:
We’re all familiar with the stagnant, cynical, low-energy teachers who seem to be biding their time until retirement and watching the clock even more intently than their students. That’s what NOT to do.
In contrast, the teachers I most admire renew their energy by learning new ideas from younger teachers, and they aren’t threatened by new ways of doing things on campus. They have strong core principles, but somehow still evolve with changing times. They embrace new technologies and confidently move forward into the future.
5. They are imperfectly human:
The most effective educators bring their entire selves to the job. They celebrate student successes, show compassion for struggling parents, tell stories from their own lives, laugh at their mistakes, share their unique quirks, and aren’t afraid to be imperfectly human in front of their students.
6. Successful teachers emphasize the fun in learning and in life:
The teachers I admire most create lighthearted fun out of serious learning. They aren’t afraid to be silly because they can snap the students back into attention at will – with just a stern look or a change in tone of voice.
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