The Importance of a Teacher in a Classroom
The role of a teacher plays a critical role in a classroom setting. They are seen as leaders and someone for the learners to provide support and guidance. A great example of the impact of a teacher was in a previous lesson where it shows a comparison of two videos. One video showed the teacher being rude, disrespectful, uninterested, and inpatient among many things. He was rushing through his lesson, causing confusion among the students, and made it dreadful to be in the classroom. The other video showed positive examples of how to be a great teacher. The most valuable trait the teacher exhibited was by ensuring a healthy and positive learning environment. He started the lesson by smiling, greeting the students, and learning their names. Afterward, he started his lesson by asking questions on rules such as 'have to' and other similar phrases. He included every student to willingly participate, praised them, and only corrected when needed to. The teacher also explained the directions clearly and concisely before the activity began and ensured everyone understood the purpose. The students did not have any confusion and were enjoying themselves while asking each other questions. You can tell they were having fun. How a teacher leads the classroom leaves a significant impact on the success of the students.
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This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kimberly S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
Teachers' Duties
Teachers are also the ones responsible for what the students are learning and how the students are learning these materials. Lesson planning, a good one at that, ensures the students are learning what they need to for their level. What is important is how the teacher is providing these lessons. It is important to use a variety of methods to keep them engaged. It would be incredibly dreadful for younger learners to sit through a whole lesson hearing the teacher talk the whole time. Learners are more able to grasp concepts and lessons with a variety of lessons such as group or pair work, board games, watching/listening to a topic of their interest, among other methods. It's important to change things up to keep students excited to learn. This also applies to business professionals since this course briefly touched on this topic. It is crucial to be sensitive to their time and commitment as these people have other things happening in their lives such as work, family, hobbies, etc. It is good to know their goals and objectives of taking English learning courses while understanding their strengths and weaknesses to effectively teach material and concepts.
Also Read: Why Learning Grammar is Crucial for the Society
Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course!
Teachers are seen as someone who is a subject matter expert on the topics they are teaching. Teachers must have a deep understanding of the lessons they are teaching students as sometimes these teachers are their only source of this information. Important items for teachers to know are receptive and productive skills as these include the majority of the English language. One great thing that was brought up in the last lesson is how to address questions from students they do not have the answer to by simply responding with "I do not know, but I will get back to you on that". It shows that we are all human, and we may not always know everything but we will try our best to find the answer. This is an excellent approach to teaching, to have the mindset that there is always more to be learned.
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