What makes a good foreign language teacher?

        The bell rings, a smiling woman wearing a neat dress comes to meet you, she takes your hand, and you feel warmth and softness of her touch and her tender voice is like music to your ears. Did I manage to describe a teacher of your dream? Maybe you had a figure of an old lady wearing glasses in your imagination. Whatever you picture, most likely it coincides with image of your mother of another beloved person. But very often we face another kind of man and have to spend long years with a teacher who partially or at the worst entirely failed to correspond our ideas.

        You know in my childhood I thought that a teacher was such kind of person from a special stratum of society who are born already grown-up possessing all professional skills and holding a pointer in the hand. A kind of conveyer, you know. And of more over I couldn’t image them caring for husbands, children, cooking in kitchen or crying at night. But with time I understood that teachers were the same people as you and me but a little bit different. They are parents, grandparents but a little bit different. They are consumers, passers-by but a little bit different. So what makes them different? What qualities or traits make them different? Sense of humor is the first thing I want to mention. Learn to laugh at yourself, smile and be free to admit mistakes. The teacher has to be a broad-minded person, develop his or her knowledge and not only to be aware of the new trends in methodology, but also in common life, in new technologies, in short she has to be in the main stream. Teacher’s lessons have to meet the requirements of modern life. Pay a little extra attention, a hug, a query as to how the student is feeling today. Try to motivate the students. A good teacher helps the child realize her strengths and encourages and challenges the student to learn. Never speak negatively about your students and never gossip about someone of them. Maybe the lesson plan can be more effectively learned if the students stand and move about, play a game with the information or talk about something else that is important to them at that moment. Manage the time, speak to the back rows, don’t be monotonous, listen to your students and reveal their talents. Be tolerant!

        So all this qualities and traits make a good teacher, differ his of her from people of other professions. Don’t be afraid of such a long list of requirements. It is easy to follow them if you feel that teaching is your destination, if you love children, if your heart starts beating quicker because it is filled up with love to them and you feel happy.