Helping others achieve goals is probably one of the most noble things that we can do. Empowering the people around us to get better at anything might seem like an impossible task but in reality, it is doable, particularly when one considers the job of a teacher.

Teachers empower (or should empower) children and students all the time, to become the best they can be. But what if you were to become a teacher? Shouldn’t there be some requirements, or rather, skills that you should learn in order to be even better? There are some skills that make good teachers better and here they are, in no particular order.

Empathy

Nothing is like empathy. Empathy teaches us to understand others and feel their emotions, pain, suffering and joy, happiness, or even boredom.

With this skill or trait, rather, we can solve almost any situation by adapting to a person’s needs and troubles. A child is angry, no problem, see why they are that way. Another person is bored out of their minds, but what is the cause of the boredom? One’s teaching style or their own mind wanting something more exciting. 

Empathy can help a teacher not overreact when students are being unruly and noisy, but rather, to help alleviate the situation through a joke or a silly remark.

Communication Is Key

A teacher may have all the empathy in the world but if they cannot communicate to their students, things become awkward pretty quickly. A teacher can communicate their way through to the toughest students who appear frightened out of their minds or simply uninterested. Communicating can help a teacher accomplish the basic part of demystifying any subject and making it relatable. Abstract concepts can become simple, which is a very difficult task for any teacher.

Adaptability 

Anybody who was a teacher would have known that things tend to change in the classroom. One moment, everybody is yelling and at each other’s throats, the next, everybody is sleeping and cannot hold their attention for longer than a couple of seconds.

Teachers should know how to adapt their teaching style to every situation. This can be practiced, and has to be, because every classroom is different and one can only get experience through practice, at least for these things.

Real-World Experience

Teachers need to help their students relate to the world that they know and interact with. Every generation will be different in this regard and if you are teaching a variety of ages in a single group, you will have to find something that everybody will be able to understand. This way, the students will be more engaged, when they can connect topics to actual experiences or situations they are familiar with.

Patience

Every teacher gets heated from time to time. Students tend to test a teacher’s patience with every opportunity they get. This is somewhat normal, especially in high schools where students are simply put, energetic. If you are teaching adults, you might have to have patience when it comes to some who keep wanting their opinions to be heard, or who challenge your authority. Regardless, patience is one of the first skills a teacher should master.

A teacher can be good with just their natural attitude but having the skills mentioned above would certainly improve the classes and their outcomes. Good luck in the classrooms.