What to make a Great Teacher?
The difference between a good and great teacher is that good teachers helps students to learn things, while great teachers motivate and inspire students.
I tend to teach students how to catch the fish than feed them with fish, and become a good self-learner. However, you need to be aware of what your students really want. One strength I had over other teachers is my industrial experiences. I found it very effective to link real-life case studies to what they learned from the textbook. If you could show students where to use what they learned and motivate them to learn more, than it becomes a life-time learning, and they will benefit from it for the rest of their lives.
There is so much that goes into being a great teacher but three of the qualities you always see are: lifelong learner, sense of humor and empathy for their students.
Thank you so much for your very positive comments. That really helps as I learn to navigate this new career path!!! I hope that all the little motivating tricks I learned from precepting new staff nurses can translate to this new role of formal class instructor. I have been looking on-line at a couple of sites that give good, positive ways to become better instructors and along with the tips I just learned in the ED101 course, I'm going to sit down and start my personal professional growth portfolio. Mindy Smith
Hi Mindy,
I like your attitude about about keeping an open mind and seeking ways to expand your professional development. Just as you have and are doing in medicine you will need to do in education. As a result you will become an instructional delivery expert very quickly.
Gary
It never, ever hurts to let the students see that you are engaged with the class and that you enjoy learning also. I like to tell people that I am a "life-long learner" and that I take any opportunity to learn something. I still am learning things today about medicine even though I've been a nurse for 29+ years! Mindy Smith
Hi Perry,
I do agree with you and to add to that a great teacher should never be rigid because the classroom is both for students and teachers alike. What I mean by that is that teacher should also realize that they can learn afew things from their students.
Perry,
This is a great point. We should all focus on the learning side than the teaching side, and help open the mind for active learning.
the most important thing tht goes on in the class room is not the teaching it is the learning.
The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
That is what makes a great teacher.
