The Secret to etter teaching by Ryan

The Secret to etter teaching by Ryan - January 2015 Scholarship Essay

Many pieces of advice that come to mind when thinking about how to improve teachers; one stands out above all the rest. That one piece of advice is to keep a good attitude at all times. Do not bring anger into the classroom. Anger leads to forcing students to complete tasks, which then increases bad attitude. Instead, try to always be happy and easy going, and do not force kids to do things unless necessary.

Many teachers may see my advice as weird, hard, or bad advice. They would probably counter with “What does my attitude have to do with the students ability to learn?” “How can I possibly ignore the stress of my outside of school activities every day I’m in school?” or “How are kids ever going to learn unless you force them to do the things necessary to learn?” All those arguments are valid, but contrary to common belief, attitude is what separates the great teachers from the good ones.

When a teacher comes into the classroom with a bad attitude, he generally takes it out on the students whether realizing it or not. It would be impossible to ask a teacher to always be in a good mood, but out of all the teachers I have had, the best appear to be in a good mood virtually every day no matter what. When a teacher is in a good mood, not only is he more willing to help when a student does not understand, but he is also more willing to joke around and be friendly with his students. When a teacher becomes friendly with their students, he gains respect from them and the students are more likely to behave and do what they are told. Without respect from students, a teacher can never be successful.

In order to keep a good attitude in the classroom, teachers must learn how to keep what happens outside of school, outside of school. There is nothing worse than a teacher who is mad about something that happened at home or with a different class, and is in a terrible mood all day without a way to fix it. It may be hard at times, but bringing problems into a classroom will not make things better. Instead teachers need to let go of their problems while they are around students. If all works out, pretending to be in a good mood might actually create a true good mood part way through the day, again encouraging success.

Finally is the argument about needing to force kids to do what is necessary to promote learning. I believe that having to force kids to learn is one of the greatest misconceptions within the world of teaching. Some teachers feel that most of their students will fail without major pushing in the right direction. For some students that may be true, but others are just so used to being coddled and personally walked through school they forget how to put in all the effort themselves. It may be a tough love approach, but I believe that teachers should make students take their grades into their own hands with only little reminders about important due dates here and there. If the students fail it is their own fault for not working harder or asking the teacher for help. Teachers should not stress themselves out over finding ways to ensure a majority of students pass the class at their own expense.

With a good attitude, a teacher is able to teach what is meant to be taught, and gains the necessary respect from students without forcing them to do things. All of my best teachers have the good attitude every day, and in all of their classes, without fail, I learn a lot more. Due to the good attitudes, those teachers are widely recognized as the best teachers in the school by virtually every student. Attitude is everything, especially when it comes to successful teaching.