Do you remember the teacher that left a lasting impression on you when you were in school? All of us had at least one teacher we called our favorite. As adults, we can definitely appreciate the effective teachers.

Teachers are a blessing. They spend at least eight hours with our children and play a major role in our children's lives. An effective teacher displays a number of characteristics.

First, an effective teacher cares about each of their students, even the ones that need some extra attention. When a teacher cares about her students she will listen to their needs. A child that acts out in class requires additional attention because they may lack that attention at home. The student may be experiencing problems at home such as the divorcing of his parents, a parent losing a job, a parent working too much, or even abuse. Although it is not the responsibility of the teacher to counsel the students, she can keep the student's learning environment as positive as possible.

Next, an effective teacher will tap into the learning abilities of each student. Students learn on different levels: audio, visual, and kinesthetic. When providing new material to students, the teacher will verbalize the information for students that learn through hearing and write the information on the board for the students that learn by seeing the material. For the students that learn by doing, the teacher will provide a hands-on assignment to help provide the learning by doing method. At the collegiate level, some students have a hard time comprehending the material if they are visual or kinesthetic learners and the only method of instruction used is lecture. At the collegiate level, this writer uses all three methods of instruction for every lesson. Economics is a hard subject for some students to comprehend and every student tends to benefit from the use of all three methods.

Lastly, an effective teacher will provide an environment that is conducive to the student's learning. Due to No Child Left Behind, many teachers find that they spend more time teaching the students how to take the standardized exams instead of teaching the students to use their critical and creative thinking abilities. The standardized tests are important currently; however, teaching the students how to think out of the box plays a major role in the student's live long learning.

Effective teachers are need in the schools at all levels: elementary, middle school, high school, and college. Teachers will continue to be good role models to our children of the future..

Learn more about this author, Tamika Steward.
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