Seven Habits of Effective Teachers
Being on the right pathway to an effective teaching career requires a personal commitment to mastering excellent teaching habits. Effective teachers practice seven habits to connect with students and to help them thrive. These habits, like committing to knowing every student’s learning style, can demonstrate that teachers value students’participation in class. Motivating students requires ongoing change on the part of teachers , because teachers are the people who push the limits of students’ learning capabilities.
Classrooms should be places of innovation, where students can thrive by challenging themselves to learn in new ways. Successful teachers understand the value of providing students with environments conducive to learning. For example, successful teachers give students opportunities to research subjects of personal interest. An awareness of personal interest has a tremendous amount of influence over a student’s love for a particular subject. Teachers should motivate students through their instruction methods to imagine a bright future. Students are empowered when they see the world through their teachers’ displayed confidence in them.
Teachers who value the opportunity to grow in their teaching careers will benefit from adopting habits that are essential to the development of instruction methods that leave their students wanting more. The seven habits that teachers must have and think about throughout their careers include the ability to do each of the following:
1. Assess – Assess each student’s academic strengths and weaknesses.
Master teachers are similar to coaches who have strong desires to bring out the best in each player. Teachers must devote time to learning new teaching methods. Effective teachers change instruction methods to meet each student’s learning needs. These teachers study their students both inside and outside of their classrooms. Teachers who bring out student-strengths and address student- weaknesses are proud when their students leave the classroom with lifetime skills.
2. Incorporate – Incorporate the learning style of each student into the lesson plan.
Research points to the fact that students learn differently. Effective teachers prepare lessons with each student’s learning style in mind. Some students are tactile learners and others are visual learners. Still other students are auditory learners who listen and remember easily. Those students will thrive in a lecture while other students may need to touch or see things to fully experience them. Accommodating all of these learning styles into a classroom assignment gives teachers opportunities to understand each student’s individual creativity, weakness, and best strength.
Accounting for individual learning styles oftentimes leads to greater enthusiasm from students.
3. Communicate – Communicate with parents as partners in the education process.
Teachers understand the challenges that parents face and encourage continued communication. Effective teachers use the right approaches to gain parents’
confidence that they can be their partners in the education of their children. For instance, educators may share strategies with parents to implement at home to ensure that students complete their homework. When there is no homework a student may need to be reminded that they can study for pleasure: read a book, solve math problems, or research on the Internet.
4. Pursue – Pursue additional education.
Highly effective teachers are continuous learners because they always want to be exciting instructor. Those teachers value professional development opportunities and will pursue classes at colleges or universities. Effective teachers are always reading and learning new techniques that they can employ in their classroom setting. They attend conferences to learn how other teachers are advancing their instruction.
The motivation level of effective teachers plays a role in how the students respond to teachers. One of the key things that teachers do is to check their desire to make a difference in the lives of students. They watch their attitudes. Positive attitudes help educators to speak and teach with pleasure and confidence in the subject. They read motivational books or listen to Mp3 recordings, very worthwhile time investments. They take notes to keep their own motivation high. They invite speakers into their classrooms, and feel revitalized. A teacher who continues to learn will have an unlimited career in education.
5. Establish – Establish short-term and long-term instruction objectives.
Effective teachers are goal oriented. They have definite purposes for daily, weekly, and monthly activities. Students can sense when their teacher is well organized. Because of planned lessons, students learn routines, discipline, and responsibility. A teacher’s goals will change as the progress of each class is evaluated. Research shows that teachers are main components of dropout prevention programs. Their being components in that prevention speaks volumes about how much teachers can make a difference in the lives of their students.
6. Network – Network with excellence-inteaching award winners.
One of the best ways for teachers to grow professionally is to identify a formal mentor. A mentor’s years of experience can help a new teacher to create a classroom environment that motivates students. The mentor can offer constructive insights regarding challenges with curriculum design. There may be times when advice is needed regarding how to motivate a particular student. A new teacher can receive a mentor’s guidance about how to approach a student who needs academic support. A mentor can also demonstrate certain classroom instruction techniques that are not taught by a college or university.
7. Reach – Out Reach out to students at events outside of instruction hours.
The habits of an effective teacher extend beyond students’ classroom experience. The teacher who attends an after school drama performance or athletic event makes a further bond with students. A teacher’s active involvement in their community raises the chances of parent engagement. Parents who see the teacher outside of the classroom gain an added appreciation of the teacher’s commitment to students. This teacher has embraced the community as an extension of the school. The classroom is not the only place where the students have a connection with their teacher. That connection is what is meant by working with parents to establish an effective community connection.
There is no limit to what a highly effective teacher can accomplish throughout their career. Effective teachers who master the seven habits of effective teaching will also quickly learn that a modern teacher must understand that times change student-instruction needs. There must be awareness that technology is driving the new ways that students learn, research, and understand the world. Teachers must embrace new technologies to prepare students for new careers that are blossoming every day.
