We need good teachers to shape the minds of tomorrow. If you truly feel the passion for teaching and it feels like the calling for you, then nothing anyone can tell you will persuade you otherwise. Nor should it. That passion is a rare resource and we should be utilizing it to its fullest extent. However, that doesn’t mean it should stop at passion. Beyond getting the qualifications you need, there’s a lot more to becoming a better teacher. The people you teach, your career prospects, and your satisfaction can all be improved by working to become the best teacher you can be.

Know What to Expect From Your Career

Don’t go into teaching with too idealized a view of what you’re going to expect. It’s not always easy. It’s not always about teaching just the subject. It’s also about teaching pupils how to be engaged and motivated to learn. It’s also about learning to deal with students who are disruptive or struggling and learning to handle the amount of emotional commitment that comes with that. Despite the fact you get school holidays, you should also be prepared for longer work days than more. Your work won’t end when class is over and you will find yourself with much less free time than in other careers. Know what to expect and you’ll have a much less rough experience of starting than many teachers.

Diversify Your Teaching

You’re going to learn many different techniques to apply the curriculum of the school you’re working at. However, you might have a good deal more freedom in how you create lesson plans and how you get the information that students need across to them. Teaching for the exam is practical advice and some teaching should be focused on that. However, much more should be focused on finding the methods of teaching that get kids more involved. One method to diversify your teaching method is to have students prepare for a lesson in advance and reverse learning. Have them teach what they have learned and inform them further on it. It encourages them to be more curious and to engage in a topic, not just memorize what a teacher says. There are plenty more teaching techniques that can help you reach students that better learn in different ways.

Recognize and Adapt to Disadvantage

The best learning methods for students vary widely. Nowhere is that more evident when teaching children with disadvantages such as special needs or a lack of literacy or numeric abilities. The school might very well have different classes for children with these disadvantages, but you can do a lot to help them, too. For one, you can learn to identify them if they haven’t been already so that their education is better catered to them. You can also use more inclusive learning methods to assist with your teaching. For instance, always including oral instructions if anyone in your class has reading difficulties.

Reaching Those in Need

If you have a passion for giving disadvantaged children the best possible access to education that you can, then sticking to one classroom might not necessarily be the best career for you either. A child’s abilities aren’t the only thing that can serve as a barrier to better education. Distance can play just as much a factor. Mobile teachers are those who travel to hard-to-reach communities, often to provide lessons in environments that don’t have a classroom. It’s a job that requires a lot of adaptability, but teaching in the ALS program can help you reach some of the most marginalized children in our society. This can make huge impacts in literacy, numeracy and more core skills in some of the most vulnerable peoples.

Specializing Your Teaching

Your skills might not be best utilized in teaching in a standard environment with a standard curriculum, either. Some teachers find that teaching in a different environment, like mobile teachers, can help them see more satisfaction from their job. For instance, if your English skills are excellent and you have found that teaching English lessons is where you excel, then training on the side to earn an online Masters in TESOL can help you further specialize your career. You could work primarily as an English language teacher rather than a broad curriculum that doesn’t always hold the kind enthusiasm and knowledge that allows you to achieve your best possible teaching results. Similarly, you might find that your ability to teach vocally could make you better suited to working as a speech therapist. Finding your particular skill set and focusing on them can help you become a much better teacher because you’re teaching what you’re best at.

Keep Updating Your Methods

It’s not just through specializing and learning new teaching techniques that you can make sure you’re the best teacher you can be. You can also adapt with the changes in how we teach. In particular, more schools are starting to implement better technology in the classroom. But even when teachers have access to these tools, many aren’t comfortable in using them as a teaching tool. Mimio tech resources for teachers can give you just the place to start learning how to incorporate digital technology in the classroom. In future, as his technology is implemented further, it’s expected that this might become an essential skill for all teachers.

Follow Conventional Wisdom, Too

New methods are all well and good, but finding an experienced teacher to act as your mentor can be of even greater help in the day-to-day of teaching. They can share stories of how they got students to stay engaged in a difficult subject or mistakes they made that you can learn from and avoid. Find a more experienced teacher with a similar philosophy and approach as you have. Of course, you don’t have to entirely listen to what your mentor says. Listen to your own voice as well as theirs. It can give you a much more balanced perspective on the job.

My Say

There are a lot of ways to continue developing as a teacher than just those mentioned above. Always be on the lookout for learning opportunities and ways to figure out which teaching environment truly works best for you.