Nowadays, scientists, educators, psychologists repeatedly address the problem of the teacher, adding new meaning to this concept, such as “competencies”, “professional qualities” of the teacher. This question remains relevant because the state and society are changing over time, which means that the requirements of the state and society to the teacher are changing.
What teacher qualities (or “competencies”) should be timeless. And what qualities should be necessary for a teacher-educator due to the demands of the “new” time.
In drawing a portrait of the modern teacher, I believe that: first of all, he should love children on the simple grounds that they are children. The teacher should not be an unfair, unkind, cruel person, because most of all this hurts the child.
A teacher is a vocation, teaching is a ministry, not a job, he/she lives, experiences everything that happens every day together with children, combining into one whole and painstaking invisible creativity in preparation for lessons, and extracurricular work on the subject, shows the desire to work creatively. The creative activity of the teacher, which involves the development of the child, is built on anticipation, on a constant creative search in all kinds of interaction with students.
A real teacher is interested in the process. He is not concerned with intermediate results. He is interested in the changes of the child, and the teacher is surprised and delighted by these changes. The child trusts that the teacher is really interested in him.
What else should a good teacher know and be able to do? Of course, he must necessarily know child psychology, understand the child’s soul and be able to ask himself questions: “Am I always right?” If the teacher is indifferent to the inner world of the child, to his experiences, he does not belong in school, even if he knows his subject perfectly well.
Moreover, any teacher must follow the basic tenets of pedagogy. A good teacher must be a model of manners and culture; rudeness, yelling, and insults are not allowed in school. It is also difficult to imagine a teacher who has a poor culture of speech, not able to express his thoughts competently.
The teacher must keep up with the times: to use in his work innovations, various methods, must have a perfect command of the taught material. We must leave the negative at the doorstep of the school, and bring kindness to children and sow the reasonable, eternal, no matter how hard it was on the soul. It would not hurt to remember the folk wisdom in the form of proverbs and sayings: “The way it bites, the way it responds. It depends on us what we will hear back in the not-too-distant future. We are afraid to think about the future, so maybe we should think about who we educate and what we want to achieve.
The teacher today should not only be a source of knowledge, but also an active participant in the learning process. It is the teacher’s job to involve every child in the learning process, to be able to listen to him, to make him his assistant, to look through the pupil’s eyes at the problem that concerns him. Only a teacher who is good at methodology can properly organize pedagogical activities and prepare for the lesson.
The profession of a teacher obliges you to be young, active, and restless. Teachers must teach their students to research, cultivate in them respect for the experience accumulated by mankind, love of the world and life, learn together with them, have a solid knowledge, the teacher has all his life in order not to withdraw from the positions once taken. You can’t go far with the old baggage! Authority must not only be earned, but maintained throughout life.
I sincerely hope that the 21st century educator will finally become a highly paid professional. The degree of dedication inherent in people of this profession will sooner or later be deservedly appreciated by the society of the future.
