3640. On Becoming a Better Teacher: Some Hints

 If you know about teaching and learning another language, you may know that some experts have said that that teaching should be student-centered, right? 

Yeah, I can see the point, but to achieve that, the classroom has to be also teacher-centered. 

All of us teachers want our students would learn for example English, and to attain that goal, well, the teacher is a central piece in that classroom. 

Most students who have gotten to learn and acquire that second or foreign language, well, mostly they have also had good teachers. 

If we wish a number of learners in a schoolroom will learn a tongue, we have to get very good language teachers. 

No good teachers, likely no good language learners. 

Behind a good learner often is a good teacher. 

Well you may also have a good student with a poor teacher, of course, but what I mean is that we have to invest on getting good teachers if we want those students will attain to learn English. 

And that good teacher also has to be a (moral) authority in the classroom. And that teacher has to speak well in the classroom for his or her students to also speak good English. 

And that teacher if he or she’s a non-native English teacher, that person has to strive to also learn and improve their English: a good language learner can orientate and direct other learners. 

I said that person must be an authority and a reference for those students. And he or she will achieve that goal by controlling and managing the classroom atmosphere: by controlling the environment with such and such looks, with looks into the students’ eyes, with looks that comb the class of students, with questions to obtain nice and useful feedback from those students, with benevolence love to them, with real interest and concern about their students, with conversations that implicate those students, etcetera. 

If that teacher is a serious professional, well, then he or she will transmit and pass on seriousness at working in the classroom. I’ve seen it. 

Some ideas were taken from Spanish teacher, pedagogue and philosopher Gregorio Luri. Have a nice day.

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