What makes a good teacher?
Posted on: May 6, 2012
Ask any teacher, student, administrator, or parent what makes a good teacher and you will rarely get the same set of responses.
The panel in the video below shared what they thought.
The first main speaker, Sir Michael Wilshaw, highlighted five traits of good teachers: Prepared, reflective, able to think on their feet, focused on learning, and resilient.
It was not the most engaging of videos and I got bored listening to the rest. Frankly, I prefer dry British wit to dry videos.
I think that the most important teacher trait is being reflective. If you are reflective, you think about what happened, how things might have gone better, and take steps to improve the next time round.
You might even reflect in advance. By this I mean playing out lessons in your head and thinking of contingencies. This is a sort of anticipatory reflection where you foresee issues, reflect on them, and prepare for them.
