Monday, 27th September 2010

Characteristics of good teachers, students & parents

Posted on 18. Sep, 2010 by kchristieh in education

The recent Los Angeles Times series on using value-added test scores to evaluate teacher effectiveness recently got me thinking about what defines a good teacher. It would be great if every teacher would:

  • Be excited about the subject matter
  • Be highly competent in the subject matter
  • Be good at explaining new concepts to people
  • Respect and care about the students
  • Command/deserve the respect of the students
  • Be willing to accept constructive criticism
  • Constantly work to improve
  • Collaborate with peers
  • Encourage and inspire students
  • Communicate with parents and students
  • Be fair
  • Take pride in their work
  • Stay updated on the latest teaching techniques and advances in the subject matter
  • Be organized and prepared
  • Be flexible
  • Have a sense of humor

But how well a student learns isn’t just up to the teacher. A good student should:

  • Be eager to learn
  • Work hard
  • Take pride in their work
  • Be organized
  • Be prepared
  • Be willing to learn from mistakes
  • Be honest
  • Attend class unless there’s a good excuse
  • Respect the teacher
  • Respect other students
  • Obey class and school rules

A parent can do the following to support their child’s education:

  • Encourage the child to do everything listed in the student section above
  • Communicate with the child’s teacher not only to express concerns or ask questions, but to thank and encourage
  • Provide the resources the student needs to succeed
  • Volunteer at the child’s school
  • Model lifelong learning for the child
  • Expose the child to a variety of activities, people, and experiences
  • Encourage the child to be passionate about the path they choose
  • Not expect their child to be like a new and improved version of them
  • Understand that we all make mistakes, and encourage their child to learn from them
  • Encourage the child to live a balanced life
  • Make sure the student’s physical and psychological needs are met
  • Attend school meetings and conferences

It’s not surprising that there’s a lot of overlap between these three lists. The best learning happens when students, teachers and parents act as a team.

If only it were easy to make sure all of this happened!

Tags: , elementary, elementary school, , , junior high, junior high school, parents, students, teachers, teaching

One Response to “Characteristics of good teachers, students & parents”

  1. Chantal 21 September 2010 at 9:50 am #

    Love these lists, Kathy.