What makes a great teacher?

What makes a great teacher in your opinion?
For me it is someone who treats you like you’re human, doesn’t minds revealing a bit about their personal life, someone who jokes and has a bit of banter with their students, and finally someone who genuinely cares about theirs students education and welfare.

Reply 1

exhaustedstudent

• enthusiasm and passion for the subject
• shows an interest in the students, for example asking about their career goals or even just how their weekend was
• as you said, being able to show a humorous side, but to have the ability to not be strayed off topic

Reply 2

Kevin70

What makes a great teacher is great students.

Reply 3

ambient _knight

Original post by Kevin70

What makes a great teacher is great students.

As in the students are good and therfore make the teacher great so he can get on with his job? or the teacher is great enough to allow the students to achieve?

Reply 4

Baza2002

A great teacher is a teacher who is very strict and makes you work in silence unless you are doing group work.

Reply 5

ambient _knight

Original post by Baza2002

A great teacher is a teacher who is very strict and makes you work in silence unless you are doing group work.

working in silence doesnt mean your going to do any better does it

Reply 6

Baza2002

Original post by ambient _knight

working in silence doesnt mean your going to do any better does it

You'll be more focused on your work as you won't be able to be distracted by talking.

Reply 7

ambient _knight

Original post by Baza2002

You'll be more focused on your work as you won't be able to be distracted by talking.

Im guessing this is referring to schools, im talking about college

Reply 8

Baza2002

Original post by ambient _knight

Im guessing this is referring to schools, im talking about college

Oh. Yeah, I was referring to school.

Reply 9

Chloexx47

•

Shows passion in their subject (knowledge of subject matter)

•

Who cares about every single individual in the classroom

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Who gives you support and guidance on anything whether it be personal or academic

•

Showing a funny side and having a joke with the students

•

Who helps you with the work and gives you ideas on what to write

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Gives great feedback on work and tells you what you need to change

•

Wants every student to reach their full potential (has high expectations for students)

Reply 10

Kevin70

What makes a great teacher also depends on the context. What makes a great teacher at primary school makes him funny at secondary level and what makes a teacher great at secondary school makes him weird at sixth form.
It all depends on context.

Reply 11

Nihilisticb*tch

1) this is the most important thing for a teacher in my school : ability to control the class. I have lost years of education in some subjects because the teacher couldn't control the class. There is no point in teaching at all if everyone is running riot and you can't even listen to them.
2) Having the right mix of strictness and likability. As I have said before it's important the teacher is strict enough to control the class but it is also important that the students find them likable to some extent otherwise they'll just disengage and not learn anything.
3) Passion for the subject and for teaching. I have had teachers who are like the previous 2 points but have no passion for teaching or the subject which just makes them a **** teacher. Teachers should genuinely care about their pupils and sincerely like their subject and enjoy teaching. Teachers without this quality often end up presenting boring and uninspiring lessons and are unwilling to "go the extra mile" for their students
4) Give appropriate amounts of praise to their students. Teachers should praise children if they have done something good but excessive praise is bad and also lack of praise is bad. There needs to be a balance.
5) Treating students like adults to a certain extent. Teachers who baby students too much end up with badly behaved classes and especially at high school the students can view the teacher as patronising. However treating kids too much like adults is bad as they often cannot be trusted. In my experience making children feel grown up makes them behave more grown up.
This has been a sort of long post but I think I have encapsulated everything that makes a good teacher. Really though it depends on the class. A teacher should be able to adapt to each class.