09 April 2010

The Perfect Teacher


Almost everyone who has gone through school has a teacher or coach that they admire. Notice how I said, “Almost everyone…” I personally do not have a teacher or coach that I admire, but if you mix up a bunch of teachers I have had, you can find my perfect teacher. My perfect teacher, most importantly, does not crack down on students and only have them do work. Instead, he should care about a student’s life outside of school. He should also get to know the students and help kids who need help and let kids who are ahead of the current teachings to go a bit farther in the book. This can help people learn at their own pace, not too fast and not too slow. He should get to know the kids so that they see him as an acquaintance or a friend instead of an evil ogre from the deep who came out of the darkness to enslave us for two hours minutes every day so we can learn and be prepared for our doomed futures (Note that this is not personal, but a very detailed and descriptive metaphor.). Good teachers have no effect on my attitude because I always try to have a positive outlook on life, and always try to be happy. A good teacher should be interesting, help kids who are falling behind, and let kids go forward and advance ahead of class.
A good teacher must be interesting. Some teachers can be funny to be interesting, but if you’re not, don’t try (It’s not something you can learn). You can also make your subject interesting. Some teachers may say, “How do you make Math or Language Arts interesting?” If you are one of these teachers, try making fun study strategies you can do in class, such as Trivia or Jeopardy. If that’s not your style, you can assign cool projects like making 3-D geometric shapes for math and making a scene from a book in a shoebox. Teachers can also assign kids to read books that are at their reading level, but also books that they will enjoy. This type of work is probably going to make kids more relaxed, instead of making them tense and thinking, “Oh no! Ten hours of slave labor from the textbook!” (This is not a personal comment.) When the kids are less tense, the classroom atmosphere will be less tense, which makes it a better working environment.
A good teacher also helps students who are falling behind in class. A teacher could think, “We will get through the book. We won’t slow down, stop, or review, and I don’t care if my students get Fs.” (This is not a personal comment) A good teacher doesn’t think this; they would help kids and slow down for them. If a teacher does this, the students she helps will respect her, and actually, this is what a teacher should do, because these student’s grades on the Star Test will reflect on how well the teacher taught them. The kids in class will be happier because they know that if the don’t understand something, the teacher will help them keep up with the rest of the students.