Are you currently in the process of pursuing a career in teaching, or merely just curious about the field? Then you’re probably wondering if you have what it takes to succeed in education. One of the best ways to find out is to look into the skills you’ll need. Let’s dive right in!
1. Communication
It’s probably no surprise that communication is vital to possessing effective teaching skills. After all, talking is a big part of your job! You have to get comfortable talking in front of other people, including a room full of kids. However, your communication skills will need to go deeper than that, though.
Teachers don’t just merely give lessons. They also have to work one-on-one with kids who are struggling, tactfully relay information to parents, and communicate well with other teachers. As a teacher, it’s essential to get comfortable talking to kids and adults, both individually and as a group.
As a teacher, you also have to communicate lessons and instructions to students in a way that they can understand. For example, some students might learn best from written instructions, while others will need to practice the material themselves to grasp it fully. Noticing the learning styles of your students is an integral part of your job, as it can mean all the difference between successful students and those who struggle.
You’ll also need to be a communication expert who can alter how you speak to resonate with the people you’re speaking to. For instance, you will have to master speaking differently when teaching people at different age groups and learning to voice your thoughts clearly in conferences with other adults.
2. Adaptability
Lesson plans and schedules tend to go astray, especially when teaching younger children. That’s why you should be prepared to finish late and have a backup plan to make things easier on yourself. Additionally, you should also be ready to adapt to changes in your students’ moods and ability to learn based on things you might not know about.
For example, a student might be low energy if the snowman they built just melted or if they have something going on at home. Noticing how your students are doing will go a long way in helping them to feel seen and do well at school. If everyone’s feeling down, you might switch up the lesson plan to do a fun activity earlier than you planned. Afterwards, the students might be able to focus better on learning.
Your students will appreciate that you don’t rush them through the material and don’t get frustrated when the inevitable happens. You might not get through everything, but you’ll do your best to prepare your students without working them too hard.
3. Reflecting
Recognizing your own mistakes and how you can improve will help you go from a good to a great teacher. Be sure to take note of student performance and engagement, and be open to feedback directly from your students. Notice the way you naturally teach and how it meshes with your students. Do you naturally give a lot of verbal instructions, but most of your students learn through examples? Be ready to alter your teaching style to suit the class, and reflect on feedback from the students to make your lessons as helpful as possible.
Recognizing and celebrating your successes is key. If a lesson plan that you tried was a huge hit, you can add it to your repertoire and use it again next year. Through this process of finding what works and what doesn’t, you’ll develop an effective lesson plan. You can modify and adapt it throughout the years to keep helping new students to thrive.
4. Time Management/Planning
Teachers are constantly juggling multiple responsibilities. From lesson plans to after-school coaching, professional development and changing student needs… you’ll have a lot going on. It’s essential to know how to manage your time well, so you can meet all your responsibilities and still find time to sleep!
Keeping a day planner is an obvious choice if that sort of thing works for you. It’ll give you space to keep track of everything. You might want to keep two different calendars: one that has what’s happening at school and one for keeping track of everything else in your life. For the first one, you could keep a big calendar on the wall in your classroom that has all the school events on it. This will serve as a reminder to both you and your students.
There are also tons of apps you can download that are made especially for teachers. One that I like is called Planboard. You can use it to plan out your lessons, including both your own notes and media for the kids. You can keep track of your teaching schedule, send lesson plans to your colleagues, grade projects, and make sure you’re meeting all the lesson requirements. Feel free to try it for yourself!
5. Creative Problem Solving
As a teacher, you’ll often be in charge of resolving student conflicts and finding ways to make things work. Each classroom will be full of students at different learning levels. Finding creative ways to meet student needs and to keep the peace between your students is crucial for teachers!
A lot of problem solving is simply trial and error. As you get to know your students, you’ll learn which strategies work for them and which ones don’t. Once you realize which students in particular don’t get along with each other, you can separate them to keep the peace.
Not all of the disputes will be between children, though. Sometimes, disgruntled parents will hear stories about what the students learned or did at school. During parent-teacher conferences, you might end up needing to explain yourself and what really happened. Parents might have specific requests about their kids’ education, and coming up with smart solutions that will help those kids pass exams, without alienating their parents, will be a challenge.
You’ll also need to figure out how to meet each students’ learning needs. Satisfying the kids at the top of the class and those at the bottom requires some serious problem solving. You might split the class into groups, have them read different books, or try something else to make things fun for everyone.
With these five skills under your belt, you’re prepared to ace every test that your students throw at you! Remember that you don’t have to perfect these skills before you start teaching, but they’re important to keep in mind. Over time, these are the skills you’ll want to focus on to become an amazing teacher.
Get out there and change lives!