Beijing Teens Have Spoken: What Makes a Teacher Great?

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Happy teacher’s day! In this year’s Teen Takeover issue our interns wrote about what attributes make certain teachers exceptional. What is it about these teachers that make lasting impressions on their students and change their lives forever?

Students, do you remember that community-building activity that teachers like to have at the beginning of the year, the one where you have to list the traits you want your teacher to have? We’ve always been stumped by this question, so we interviewed some students from various schools to find out the traits that make a great teacher!

Communicative

“I believe the most important trait for any teacher is knowing how to effectively communicate with his/her students. The teacher should know how to lecture the class with appropriate language, order, etc. so that students understand his/her point effectively, and the teacher should know how to approach different students in different manners to maximize student participation in learning.

For example, our English language and literature teacher has this trait. During classes, she gives lectures and analyses of pieces of literature that are engaging and easy to follow because there is a clear and logical structure to her speech.” — Anonymous (G9, Keystone Academy)

Passionate

“I think passion. Passion for the subject that they’re teaching, passion in their work, but most importantly the passion to teach students and make them excel.

The astronomy and geology teacher loves stars and rocks, the history teacher loves random, humorous, dark historical facts, the English teacher loves to read and talk about books and movies and other literary works, and the Chinese teacher is a poet himself. Passion in teaching definitely makes a fantastic teacher.” — Oscar Tsui (G10, Tsinghua International School)

“Having a good knowledge of the subject goes without saying, but a really special teacher can showcase their passion for their subject and influence their students to feel the same.” — Olivia Xiao (G11, International School of Beijing)

Engaging

“One trait I really like in teachers is being engaging. Maybe it’s charisma or humor that makes their classes interesting to listen to, no matter if they’re teaching a subject I love or hate.

My English teacher is like this. In class she begins with “life lessons” that are loosely related to whatever we are learning but very helpful and gets our brains focused on English class. She always encourages us to talk and share our own ideas, which makes class a lot more engaging.” — Olivia Xiao (G11, International School of Beijing)

“Being able to capture the class’ attention and make the lessons interesting and fun to attend is important.” — Cindy Luo (G9, Episcopal High School)

Images: Pexels

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