What Makes Teachers Great?

In our educational context the adjective great is related to effective teaching. So, teachers will be great if they are effective when teaching their subject(s); however, there are some characteristics that make teachers great. 

First, the real desire to be teachers is the key for us to become great teachers. If we have a real desire to be great teachers, we will become great teachers. This means that if we have the real desire to learn as much as we can about our subject in order to have a strong content knowledge, and if we improve our verbal ability in order to give the students clear information, they will learn very well what we teach. 

In order to become great teachers, we have to think not only of us, but also of our students. Teachers are great when they know his students very well. So, teachers should be very empathetic in order to understand their students´ behaviors, desires, needs, and differences. Knowing and taking into account all these aspects teachers can become great because they will be capable not only of teaching well but also capable of interacting with students in a good and friendly way.

  

Finally, what makes teachers great are their moral values because teachers are models, so we should practice moral values like: respect, honesty, responsibility, punctuality, and solidarity, in order to give good examples to our students.

Prerequisites of Effective Teaching

Which prerequisite is the most important?

It is very difficult to identify which prerequisite is the most important. All the prerequisites are important because they are related, but I have identified two of them that are the most important because they are  much more related than the others. So, it is not enough to have just one of them. I am talking about “verbal ability” and “content knowledge.” For me, they are on the same level of importance.

We, as teachers, can have a strong content knowledge about our subject. We can know a lot of things related to it, but if we don’t have the verbal ability to give all that information in a clear way, we are not effective teachers. In our case, as English teachers, let´s suppose we know a lot about English grammar rules, spelling, composition, and vocabulary. But if we don’t have the verbal ability to teach English in a clear way in order for our students to get and understand it, this means we are not effective teachers. Likewise, let’s suppose we have a great verbal ability to communicate to people. This means we are easily understood when teaching English. But if we don’t have an appropriate content knowledge, our students will learn ineffective English or wrong English. So, in this case we won´t be effective teachers, either. 

In my opinion, these two prerequisites are the most important because they are the key of effective teaching. They shouldn´t be separated because one cannot be an effective teacher just having one of them.