How To Be A Favourite Teacher

by Dany Kuswoyo N

Introduction

Most people can look back at their own school days and identify teachers they thought were good. But generally they find it quite hard to say why certain teachers struck them as special. Perhaps it was because of their personality. One of the reasons that it is difficult to give general descriptions of good teachers is that different teachers are often successful in different ways.

It is often said that “good teachers are born, not made” and it does seem that some people have a natural affinity for the job. Teaching is not an easy job, but it is a necessary one and can be rewarding when we see our students’ progress and know that we have helped to make it happen.

Approach, Method and Technique

In this article I want to explain a little bit about approach, method and technique, the three terms which are often overlapped in language teaching. People often mention one of them but they refer to another. According to Anthony ( cited in Richards and Rodgers,2001:19 ), the three have hierarchical arrangement;

• approach is the level of theories

• method is the plan of language teaching which is consistent with the theories, and

• techniques carry out a method

In other words, the arrangement of the three is that approach is axiomatic, method is procedural and technique is implementation's

How to make your teaching process interesting

Your teaching performance is much more significant than what many people ever thought, as it may seriously influence the situation of the class, the attention of your students and finally the quality of your teaching outcome in your students. Hence, it is necessary prior to entering your class.

Considering Your Aims of Teaching

The first points to think when you intend to communicate the lessons with your students to result best in them are to recognize three main aspects or roles involved in your teaching process :

1. yourself as the teacher

2. the teaching materials of the lessons to communicate; and

3. the students, to whom your subjects of teaching are aimed at

If you want to successfully improve your teaching skills and be a professional teacher, lecturer or trainer, you should have one teaching spirit and play three roles or characters in all stages of your teaching process, which must be integrated in one personality.

Sincerity is the essence of energy, which motivates your teaching spirit, consisting of 3 (three) main objectives :

• as a teacher, you must of course be very knowledgeable especially in the matters you teach them
• an instructor must be reliable and instructive, in order that your instruction will work and be effective, otherwise, the students will neglect or overlook it
• as a friend, you must be accommodative, responsive and entertaining, in order to make your students enjoy the lessons and feel appreciated, as if they were communicating with a friend. So that, they can freely express any aspirations they have such as expressing questions, suggestions, corrections and sharing ideas in your teaching process.
  

Do and Don’t

Do...........”establish and maintain”

• eye contact with each individual person of your students
• voice volume; make sure that all of your students are able to hear you
• gesture; keep it natural and relaxing
• smile; avoid giving the impression of being arrogant

Don’t

• pace too frequently
• directly point out to your students
• underestimate your students
• sit too long on the chair at the time of teaching