Teacher's role in a student career

For Teachers - becoming a good teacher

Effort put forth by the teacher is one of the important factors to make the student interested in the subject.  An effective teacher can make the student attend the class for any duration of time.  Usually a students are not receptive continuously for more than 20 minutes.  When I used to teach, I taught by switching between different topics so that students keep interested in the class.  Whenever the students feel boring in the class, it is better not teach with compulsion.

It is always better to use "chalk & talk" to teach and use the power point presentations occasionally.  Class should never be a "one man show" rather it must be a kind of discussion where the students ask and teacher reply.  A good teacher will encourage asking doubts, any time during the class. This makes the thinking process active in student's mind.  This is one of the core factors in teaching - the real understanding occurs only when there is a thinking process about one specific topic.  Thinking only can create doubts in the mind and that automatically makes the student lively in the class as well as generates interest.

No time to learn!

One of the hurdles teachers face is lack of time to learn new topics or keep updated with the emerging topics in one's area of interest. This especially happens for a fresher who enters the world of teaching immediately after the post graduation. It is very difficult to tackle this situation.  Students may not get satisfied because of the poor presentation and lecturing.  Without passion towards teaching, it is very difficult to become a good teacher.  First you need the passion.  With this, you can definitely withstand the initial struggle.  Determination and dedication is also very important and required.

Preparation for teaching

Preparing for a lecture is a challenging task.  Especially when you are in front of graduate students.  You need at least 3 hour dedicated preparation for a 1 hour lecture.  "Dedication" means, fully focused and to make the students satisfy.  To mention in between - no teacher can satisfy all the students in the class.  Everything starts with the subject allocation.  Once the subject allocation is done, one has to go through the text books, then find the applied areas of the subject topics.  Prepare a definite course plan by looking into the plans already prepare by reputed professors from several institutions.  By preparing the course plan, one should be able to know the real depth of the subject and how long would it take to teach each topic.  Course plan must include the assignment questions, lab questions (if lab oriented), the examination questions (if prepared by the teacher). Refer text books a much as possible, latest developments in the respective area, etc.