The rueful situation: what do you do when you don't know what characteristics define a good teacher?
Read about teachers and their experiences. Watch them teach. Observe and analyze.
I read an article in the NYTimes called Building a Better Teacher. My impression is that the teaching techniques are for elementary school-aged children. From the videos I've watched, short clips of teachers of different grades, much of the techniques could work for any class, even for adults. In any group, disruption can slow down the lesson, which in turn reduces the amount of material being learned. Discipline is important at any age, especially when you have groups of people. I learned a few different techniques for keeping people on task.
The investigator of the question that is posed at the beginning of this post is writing a book, namely "Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College" to help teachers learn to be the best in the classroom. The book is relatively inexpensive. In America, my impression is that there is a disconnect between what is taught in the teacher training lessons and what is expected of the teachers in the classroom. This disconnect has worried me in the past. As a teacher, I've taught sports and academic subjects, along with corporate training courses in terminology. Everyone I know thinks that teaching is straightforward, only those who have never been dropped in front of a classroom full of students. With friends who have taught before, the war stories lend themselves well to an evening full of discussion in teaching methodology.
I'm interested in teaching math, computer studies, and ESL. I have long way to go, but I have to start somewhere. I plan to volunteer at Overland as an ESL instructor: ESL for Sewing and ESL and Word 2007 (business apps). I want to observe more than one teacher before I teach ESL or any other material.
