Tip 58: Be Kind
Be genuine, show kindness and respect, treat your students like family. It’s an understatement to say that teachers have to build relationships with their students. Learners immediately know when a teacher is lying to them or not being genuine.
If a student has a problem, show kindness and also respect all your students because how you treat them is the way that they’re going to treat other people. If we treat our students as a family, they can feel the affection you have for them and will work harder to show their love for you. The best teachers are those that create relationships with their students, and these relationships can last the rest of your life.
Tip 59: Be Early
Be early, not on time. Set an example for your students. A teacher is never on time, a teacher is early to class, early to school, and early to events because that gives you more time to prepare.
Remember, once again you are the teacher, you should lead by example. By being earlier, you can also check that everything is working. The worst thing is if you want to start a class and there’s something that’s not right, something wrong with a computer, or you don’t have the right papers or books, so be early to make sure everything is ready. As said before, teachers are role models. Students will see you arrive early and they will respect that. Your colleagues will also take note if you’re there early every time, which increases your value as a colleague and a member of the school.
Tip 60: Promote your Subject
Be a cheerleader for your subject. Learn to love it and show that to your students, they will feel that energy too and will grow in their enthusiasm for the subject too. They will put in the work to show you how important it is because the students won’t want to let you down.
When you love your subject, you’re going to put in a lot of work and students will also add to it. If somebody doesn’t enjoy their subject, why are they even teaching it? So learn to love your subject and teach it with enthusiasm.
Tip 61: School Gossip
Respect confidentiality when given personal information. Maintain the teacher-student relationship, don’t gossip or allow students to gossip with you.
If a student comes to you in confidentiality, listen to them and help them unless something dangerous can happen because of it. Otherwise, keep it professional, keep it secret. Only work with the counselor, or give them some advice.
One thing a lot of teachers do is gossip. Try to stay away from that negative atmosphere, it can quickly sour relationships between teachers.
Something a lot of students do is that they would come to a teacher and say, “Oh teacher, I hate this other teacher,” and tell you something bad.
If a student does that to you, tell them, “Sorry I do not want to hear this, please keep it to yourselves or talk to the teacher about it. Do not spread gossip,” but the problem is a lot of teachers think, “All the students like me, they’re sharing this with me,” and get that sense of pride that you’re that special teacher that they sharing it with.
No, don’t do that. It’s really bad if a student comes to you to gossip about another teacher. Say sorry I’m not interested. Listen, be professional because a lot of these things will come out.
