Characteristics of a Good Teacher (Transcript)
F5: I think it's very important to be flexible. There was a few lessons I did and I got half way through and I thought no, I'm scrapping this and I'm changing the entire lesson, just in the middle of it because it clearly was not working. The students were disengaged sometimes and I thought well that was fine, I gave it a try but just take it in a different direction and get them back on track so they actually do get something out of a lesson and don't think it was a waste of an hour. So I think flexibility is really important. Secondly I'd say it's really important to be engaging. If the kids aren't engaged they're not going to pay any attention. So I try to do a lot of hands on work, use the interactive whiteboard the kids ... whenever I walk towards the interactive whiteboard, 'cause the classroom teacher didn't use it very often, they got really excited and they really wanted to know what we were doing. What are we doing today with the interactive whiteboard? So I think flexibility and keeping them engaged is really important.
M3: What really impressed me about the school was the closeness: staff, teachers, they had a really good working relationship. It wasn't, you know, the ... the teachers are here and the children down here, it was they worked together. Everyone worked together. And I think that made a really good community, school community. They were a very tight knit school community.
M4: I had two mentors on my round. My ... one was like an older bloke that was the head of the department and the other one was quite young and she only taught for two years and she was already taking on a mentor, but she was a fantastic teacher and one of the things that she always did in her classes was get the kids up and moving around and interactively learning with each other. And whether that's pairing off or sitting in a circle and yeah, just getting them up out of their chairs and actually doing something related to what they're learning is ... seems like a really good strategy to me to get the kids engaged and keep them on task and not just sort of drifting off and getting the fuzzies and all that stuff.
M1: A really important thing or characteristic a teacher needs to have is a sense of risk taking in the sense that you need to take risks in order to ... to implement lessons or curriculum that is creative and that does not follow traditional ways of teaching. And I think that's a really difficult thing to do and you know, I'm not there yet, I'm like, I don't know, five percent. So it ... it's my journey so to speak towards that being able to ... to take risks to be creative. So that's really important. And the other thing is to be able to see things from a student's point of view. If you can't do that, if you can't empathise with the students then you can't create curriculum that engages them because you don't know how they respond to certain things and what kinds of perspectives they bring to ... to a subject. So those are the two things that I would think are really important that would contribute to making a successful teacher.
F8: One of the most important things with teaching is organisation. I think you're basically, you know, you're just on the go the whole time, kind of orchestrating this whole room with you know, activities going, you know, everywhere. A lot of the time I was just kind of like looking at my mentor, you know, in disbelief thinking how does she do this? You know, it's like ... being so perceptive I think and just about having eyes in the back of your head all the time. Yeah, and just being able to see what's going on with a room full of students is, yeah, it's quite a good skill to have I think.
M2: Think a good, a successful classroom is a space where all students can feel comfortable. That can mean different things in a classroom, there's no one set up that will fit all ... all students and all classes so just one that students feel comfortable. I think something that a classroom is good that inspires students to do good work and also provides students opportunity to work independently. So there's lots of places where kids can get resources or advice so they're not just going to this teacher which saves you a lot of time as a teacher. In terms of what makes a good teacher then I would say the knowing your students is vital, that's a really important thing, and also just to keep it I think especially in primary school education should be fun, you know, they should be learning things, yes, but it also should b something that's enjoyable for them. They should like ... they should discover the joy of learning.
F6: I regarded my first mentor that I had, he was a fantastic teacher, important qualities are definitely a sense of humour, being able to discipline the students in a rational way, not getting angry and out of control when you're upset.
F2 Flexibility is the big thing, I think. Flexibility, being willing to listen, being willing to try new ideas. Being willing to run with the whatever's happening on that day because sometimes that is where the real learning comes from. Knowing, knowing child development and knowing where ... where you want the children to go, but that doesn't mean that I want them all to learn how to sing the ABC song by the end of it, the year, just a broader development goal for all children and ... and a focus on the social development. I think that's really, really important 'cause my ... my belief is that social development is what underpins everything else that if you ... if you can't cope socially that, all the ... that other learning doesn't really work.
F3: The team work amongst the teachers, I love the way they just ... they just work together in everything. I just love the way they ... they help each other in terms of ideas, of how to teach a particular lesson.
F4: Organised, prepared and compassionate. I've given you three.
I: Okay, three.
F4: I think I've ... I've been both ends of the organisational spectrum and I've seen teachers who are completely disorganised, where they spend time looking for documents and paperwork and stuff like that. And I've also seen teachers who are totally organised that I'm envious of but I also find that ... that filters down to their students. So if they're organised and if they're prepared, obviously their lessons will run on schedule but it also prepares the students for their daily routine in school so the students know what to expect, you know, and I say you know a lot (chuckles). So, yeah, where they've been organised there's lists on the boards so students know what rotational group they're at and where they go next. Whereas when they haven't been organised, the teacher yells out oh you're in this group today and this is what you're doing and it just doesn't run smoothly at all. So that's organisation and being prepared but compassionate where a teacher is genuinely interested in a student's life and their interests and engages in dialogue with that student. And again I've seen that not happen and I've seen that happen. So, and when it does happen it just ... it just makes it a really strong connection for that teacher and student.