TEACHER ATTRIBUTES

TEACHER ATTRIBUTES

(Dr M Prabhu

Post Graduate Teacher in English

Dept. of School Education

Salem Dt.)

I am a good teacher, aren't I?

Times are gone when teacher was treated next only to the Almighty.  In modern systemic understanding, a teacher is not any more than a facilitator. Still more precisely, he is a “professional” – nothing more or less than that.  Just because he is a ‘professional’ now, he needs to inherit certain attributes that in tandem with the changing times.  Recently, one of my friends, the Principal of an engineering college, approached me for some thematic assistance in developing a PowerPoint presentation on the attributes of a teacher in the contemporary institutional context.  We were discussing the topic for some time and finalized on the following.   Since my knowledge about computers is unenviable, I wanted to have a look at the PowerPoint presentation he was to demonstrate in his college.  He did not get me the PP but was kind enough to tell me that his presentation was very well received by his faculty.  

 

Going through the points once again, I feel that the contents of the sheet are relevant to school set up as well and this could be shared with the teachers under the umbrella – ELCOM.  Your responses to this sheet will be responsibly looked into and if any suggestions for improvement are deemed right, it will be readily amended or expanded.

01. GET TO KNOW THE STUDENTS

To know your students is to make your job easy and effective. The ‘comfort zone’ you maintain with your student clients help you establish professionalism in the classroom. Our profession is learning facilitation.

02. CREATE CONFIDENCE
Students come from various social, economic and cultural backgrounds. They come from different mediums of instructions too. They enter college for the first time. Create and nurture confidence in them. Subject knowledge can wait.

03. LISTEN TO YOUR STUDENTS
Confidence is gained while expressing one’s ideas. Make them speak. Let them tell you about themselves, or anything they like. Give them a patient hearing. When they know you care to listen to them, they respect you. Goal is half achieved.

04. BE AN EXPERT IN WHAT YOU TEACH
When the learning climate is set, start teaching your subject. Students, however weak in their intellect, are blessed with an insight to recognize real merits of a teacher. When you teach well, they know it. When you don’t teach well, they know it too.

05. HAVE YOU DONE YOUR HOMEWORK?
Venturing into classroom without preparation is to start a business without capital. The business is bound to fail. There is nothing worse than cutting a sorry figure of yourself in the presence of your students. Do your homework thoroughly.

06. BE DEMOCRATIC
It is reliably learnt now that interactive and participative classrooms are the most productive classrooms. Don’t try to be pedantic [in the manner of an all-knowing expert] and didactic [in a propagating way] in your approach. Involve them while you develop the content.

07. ARRANGE YOUR PRESENTATION
Do you have a plan of your delivery? Delivery is as important as conception. Be time conscious. Be strategy conscious. Be content conscious. And, be student conscious. A well-planned class is a whole, complete in itself.

08. MAKE SURE IF LEARNING TAKES PLACE
Design Formative Assessment Tasks at the appropriate places during your lecture. The faculty needs to be informed and creative to design his own FA Tasks. FA is pedagogy. Summative Assessment [SA] is evaluation.

09. YOU ARE NOT A CONSULTANT BUT A COUNSELOR
You are not a professional consultant who charges a whopping fee to throw a few tips at his client. Students are your concern. They are your duty. They are your profession. What you make out of them is what you make out of you. Be available to redress their grievances.

10. AVAIL ALL THE HELP YOU CAN
Teaching is not any more a one man job. To facilitate learning, technology has given way to many assisting tools. Avail as many of them as possible. Just make sure that they are appropriate in the given context. Technology is not for technology’s sake. They are for the sake of learning and growing.

11. TALK TO THEIR MIND, NOT OVER THEIR HEADS
What you know is not important. What is important is what your students come to know from you. “HOW” part is as vital as “WHAT” part. Talk in their ‘language’. DINAMANI failed whereas DHINATHANTHI is a huge hit with the mass. Connectivity is everything in teaching.

12. YOUR SCHEDULE COULD BE FLEXIBLE AS LONG AS IT IS PRODUCTIVE
A faculty is an empowered expert. He is not a word-minting machine that works to a set command. You can be flexible in terms of content covering, strategies adopted, evaluation methods, etc. Just make sure that your flexibility is for productivity.

13. ARE YOU COMMITTED?
Teaching is not any more a six-hour job. It is 24X7. When you ignite a spark, the mind can start burning at any moment. When it burns, be there to stoke it. The fire that is not stoked is as good as a deadwood.

14. ARE YOU A HAPPY TEACHER?
None is more dangerous than an unhappy teacher. When you don’t enjoy teaching that is infectious. The students won’t enjoy their learning too. Teaching is not the only means to survive. I won’t remain a teacher if I don’t want to be one. Teaching is my choice. For you?

15. I AM OKAY, YOU ARE OKAY
Develop the mindset that you are a contributor. Not a contractor. There is so much to give these young minds. Find out that real happiness lies in giving, not in taking. When you give, you produce. When you take, you consume. Be an important chunk in the chain of man-making process.