A Guide to Developing Teaching Skills
Scientists think that some jobs will disappear because of new technology. It is said that technology will change the world of work. For example, a robot will take part in people’s work. But what about teachers? Will they be taken away from their jobs? I don’t think so because robots are very good at technical work, but they aren’t very good at dealing with people. That’s the reason why we must learn teaching skills.
This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Thy Ho Khanh M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
Working on Stress Management
First of all, teaching anyone can also be tiring, stressful, and demanding. People’s minds and motivation vary a great deal and teachers have to find many different ways to connect with their students. Teaching is always a difficult task!
Working on rapport and workflow
As well as subject knowledge, teachers need more general qualities to have a good rapport and smoothly work. All need to be learned and practiced every time. As a teacher, you need to communicate your understanding to others. You will need to have the confidence to look calm and professional even when tired and stressed. To improve confidence, you need to have planning and preparation.
Also Read: TEFL Alumni Interview with Mark Durston
Planning for unexpected situations
In some situations, it may be necessary to have backup plans just in case the main plan fails. Firstly, planning what you would want to say and think of questions you may be asked. Then, practice your answers and think of the feedback. Sometimes, it happens that you may have mistakes or receive criticism taken in the way that everybody sees the world differently, what works for one person may not work for another. It’s life! What we should do is we try our best and we use mistakes as a way to learn and improve.
Being organized
Another skill that I think you need to learn is organizing skills. The poor organization usually means less productivity and missed opportunities and can lead to increased procrastination and stress. What you need to do is to be clear about what you need to do, when you are going to do it and make a list (lesson plan).
Also Read: 7 Effective Ways to Teach New Vocabulary
Group leading
Being a teacher, you also need to make people work effectively in a group. When people are part of a group, they interact and communicate in different ways. The more cohesive a group the greater the sense of team spirit and the more individual members will cooperate.
Conflict management
Bear in mind that learning teaching skills surely you need to be able to deal with the conflict between students o a disagreement. You need to express your views clearly and firmly but without aggression. Thinking of how to communicate about the situation. You explain the effect of particular behaviors or actions on you. Besides that, you need to motivate the students to do their best. People’s motivations will also change at different times, and for different tasks. Setting challenging but achievable goals. Too challenging the students will not believe they can achieve it. Not challenging enough, it won’t be motivating. The most important thing is if you are unmotivated, you will not be able to motivate others.
Also Read: TEFL Alumni Interview with Ning Zhang
Emotional approach
Empathizing with your students will create a feeling that you are all working together towards the same goal. If the students are exhausted then maybe no point in trying to teach a very complicated topic. You need to listen well and also pay attention to non-verbal communication. Using a smile to show that you are paying attention to what is being said and messages are being listened to and understood. Combining eye-contact with smiles and other non-verbal messages are a good way to encourage the speakers.
Evaluation and feedback
It is big short in teaching skills if we haven’t mentioned in giving feedback. It is a necessary step in teaching skills. The best questions are open-ended as they give the speaker choice in how to respond, whereas closed questions allow only very limited responses. You need to be aware of your emotions and manage them so that if the feedback causes an emotional response you can control it.
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Finally, teaching is a great job and you need to have well-trained skills to transfer your energy to people. I believe that with patience and our big love we can be aware of the importance of learning teaching skills and never give up.
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