A Good Teacher...

A good teacher is....  someone who has the ability to see each students as a individual and treat them as such, this meaning that they are willing to change their way of teaching to meet all of their students needs. This teacher will be able to offer group work, as well as individual work into the classroom.Also someone who able to incorporate both curriculum as well as life skills into the classroom. I think that this is important because, you are not just preparing students with the content of your subject; you are also a role model in some way, shape or form. Being able to give them those life skills such as good public speaking skills, and something as simple as a hand shake will help throughout there life; outside of school.  Another value would be the teachers ability to allow critical thinking in there class, not making everything black and white more of a gray. Students need to be able to think for themselves and come up with there own ideas, as well as backup those ideas with research.  A good teacher should also be able to keep the classroom at a positive end, this making the learning environment easier for the students to learn in.  Allowing students to create there own values as well as beliefs and ideas and then helping that student understand why they think that way.


If students are able to work both in a social learning environment, as well as individually. Then they are able to grow both socially as well as being able to internalize information and make their own ideas. Students who are given the opportunity to work collaboratively with other students are able to learn from there peers, as well as take away others ideas and form their own opinions. Vygostky has the social development theory, he believes that much of our education is done through through a social atmosphere. For example with his idea of ZPD (zone of proximal development) he says that through the guidance of another; a student can go from the unknown to known and during that time learning occurs.  On the same hand he says that also through internalization higher learning is achieved, by allowing the student to take in information and then giving them time to process that on their own; it will lead to higher thinking.  I believe that both social interaction among students is a great learning tool to have, just as much as the individual thought process. I think that through others you can learn different ideas and hear about their experiences and take away from them. Also that being able to take the time to step back and think about the different ideas you have learned that day, will allow you to make your own assumptions and ideas about that particular topic.  Although working in a group and taking ideas form others is a way of forming your own ideas and values, it is important for a student to have there own value system.  Being able to understand why you think a certain way is important for students to know because then when they get into that big group, they are able to defend why they think a certain way and why there beliefs differ from others based on there values.