Last week, I started a list about the 10 personal qualities students learn from their teachers. There was so much information that I decided to break the post into two! If you missed the first 5 qualities, you can catch up on them right HERE!
#6. Perseverance
If there is one thing that I value as an educator, it is my ability to show students how to persevere when it comes to their individual learning paths. Perseverance is not a skill that students accept right at the beginning of learning a new task – and therefore they need to be shown how to persevere. As teachers, we gently guide our students through the process of sticking with a task until they “get” it. Getting our students to this level of thinking takes plenty of patience and time – and just the lesson in learning how to persevere is a life lesson in itself.
#7. Responsibility
When students enter our schools and classrooms, they are taught the codes of conduct for both places. These “rules” and expectations speak to the standards of behaviour that we expect from our students, we show our students that they are responsible by following those rules. As well, by giving students classroom jobs, having them run “errands”, setting up morning routines for showing agendas and homework, etc… we are providing our students with opportunities to feel the intrinsic goodness of being responsible and practicing responsible behaviour.
#8. Good Manners
Please, thank-you, excuse me… as time goes by, teachers have been noticing that children are not using basic manners. Since we cannot guarantee that our students are learning or using proper manners at home, teachers provide several daily opportunities for students to practice and reinforce their manners. We expect our students to be polite and use their manners all day every day!
#9. Integrity
School is a wonderful place for students to learn about integrity and practice how to develop it. In the classroom, out on the playground, on field trips… there are various teaching opportunities for students to show how their integrity plays an important role in their lives. We provide students with opportunities to “do the right thing” and to reflect upon their decisions – way before they make their way out into the “real world”.
#10. Self Confidence
Besides parents, teachers have an enormous amount of influence when it comes to the self confidence of their students. It is in our classrooms where students learn to trust themselves, to push themselves to their limits, and to jump out of their comfort zones. They do all this under the caring, watchful, and guiding eyes of their teachers. Teachers have an amazing ability to build up their students, to make them feel special, and to make them feel that they can accomplish anything they put their minds to. Each pat on the back, each positive note home, each genuine smile, each thumbs up, each “I know you can do better”, is another drop in a students heart! Once they believe that your believe in them, their self confidence soars!
And there you have it! These qualities as well as the ones listed here are what I feel all students learn from their teachers. If you have anything that you would like to add, please feel free to add them to the comments below!
Have a great day!
Leave a Reply