How to become a good teacher - 2

I would like to discuss two facts here:
Firstly, how to make the students ask questions - it completely depends on how relaxed you are in the class, how open you are to the students.

New teachers always feel that their lack of knowledge should be covered up in front of the students.  This always happens by becoming stricter in the class, not encouraging the students to ask doubts, etc. If someone ask a question which is related with the topic discussed, but not part of the syllabus, then immediately the teacher answer - "it is not there in the syllabus".  This is too bad and this discourages the students to learn the subject and demotivates them.  It is affected not only for the student who asked the question, but also for the entire class.  In the initial stages, you can ask the student to meet in your office/cabin where they can clear their doubts.  If you don't know the answer for the question asked, tell the students that you will refer and clear the doubt.  It is acceptable to tell them that you don't know the answer to their question, but you should refer and answer it at the earliest possible.  This is again one of the opportunities for a teacher to learn from students.  Demanding students make the teacher learn more and become more competent as the time goes.  Remember, this is possible only if you have a passion towards teaching and learning.

Secondly, for the second category of the students - those who know something, but creating distraction in the class, the teacher needs to gather more knowledge by referring to the lecture slides or materials prepared by eminent teachers.  There are a lot of US universities who publish the video lectures on most of the technical subjects.  That is always a help for a budding teacher.  The only thing required from the part of a teacher is to be patient and dedicate much of the time to enhance the knowledge.  This may take at least one year to get stabilized.  One of the Deans whom I know used to tell me that "Excellence is a journey and not a destination".  This is correct. There is no end to excellence.  The more you improve in gathering knowledge, the more you are termed as "good teacher".  Imparting knowledge is more important compared with gathering knowledge.  The main aspect is that you must be able to reach the students and disseminate the knowledge so that it becomes purposeful.

Sorry to say that there are no images in these posts - as I felt that they don't make any meaning.

How to become a good teacher - 1

This is quite a difficult question to answer.  But here are my experiences as a teacher.
Type of students:

Those who already know something about the subject and wants to learn more.

Those who already know something about the subject, but creates distraction purposefully by asking silly or unimportant questions during the lecture

Those who don't know about the subject, but eager to learn and are studious

Those who don't know about the subject, but not interested in learning.

One class of say, 60 students, it is a combination of the above categories. The first category may not be present in all the classes, but rest of the categories are always seen in all the classes.
For teachers who have joined as freshers:

It is a bit challenging for a new teacher to handle one ore more classes with given subjects. Sometimes, subjects may not be the part of interest area for the teacher.  First and foremost qualities expected from a teacher is the passion to teach and love towards the topic / subject assigned. Why I underline is that I have seen so called teachers joining college or institution, just for the sake a job. If teaching is very poor, it creates frustration among the students. A good teacher must always be a friend, mentor and philosopher of students.  This doesn't mean to have a sympathetic attitude by giving good grades and creating a sentimental approach towards the students.  Those who work hard and smart shall be encouraged well. 

In the initial stages, all teachers may not get the subject of interest.  But it is important and necessary that the subject whatever is assigned is taught well. It is the stepping stone towards a good teaching career. Ideally, the preparation has to start at least before a month of commencement of classes by preparing the course plan, finding assignment questions, examination questions, etc. Firstly refer the books as per the syllabus because students might have already procured the books before the semester. Learn maximum from the referred texts and then the next best choice is the internet.  Always try to gather best examples for all the concepts to be taught in the class.  Getting example from web is very easy.  Rely only on the .edu sites and lecture notes prepared by good professors of good universities / colleges.  In the first class itself, it is better to show the course plan and as much as possible stick on to the plan.
Theory class and lecturing

It is essential that students should feel relaxed in the class rather than making them sitting like robots. Theory classes must always be interactive by asking questions so as to make the students think about the concept you are talking about. Questions must be from the teaching topics, related with a real time application which the students might already have come through their life.  For example, any subject in computer science can be taught by citing examples in social networking, gadgets like tablets, smart phones, etc.  This makes the student listen to what you talk and it creates interest on the subject taught. When the students answer, you come to know about the level of each student. Do not tease them if they don't answer or they answer wrongly.  Because, if they don't answer or give a wrong answer, they haven't understood what is taught and then you have to come down to one more level to teach them. Asking questions and making them answer helps the students to come out of the shell of fear.  Use chalk & talk to the maximum possible.  Write legibly on the board.  Clean the board before starting the class.  Writing on the board without cleaning indicates your lack of interest in teaching and love for the subject.  Use presentations in case if you want to explain an application to describe the concept. Body language is very important and walking in front of the board by explaining the topic keep the students alive in the class. If you wish to teach with a presentation, make it rich with images and reduce text as much as possible. Presentation must always be crisp. With the points listed in the presentation, explain them in your own words.  I have seen some teachers just copy pasting the sentences in the text which looks too boring in the presentation.... to be continued in next post

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Encouraging students to ask questions