10 Essentials Traits of Effective Educators – Paychecks of the Heart
Effective educators are effective for a reason. Whether the educator teachers online or offline, effective educators contain 10 traits that make them successful. When you see an effective educator in action, you will see the following traits in action as well.
1. Effective educators know their content and continue to learn new things in their content area. They are life long learners and are not afraid to say they don’t know something and know just where to go to find the information they are lacking. This could be an online resource, colleague or someone from their own personal learning network.
2. Effective educators take learning risks and create an environment where students feel comfortable doing the same. Asking questions of the teacher in front of the class or answering a question posed to the class and risking getting it wrong are encouraged and students aren’t afraid to take those risks. Students know that failure means a First Attempt at Learning and aren’t embarrassed if failure happens in the classroom.
3. Reflection upon lessons and a determination is made about what went well and what needs to be changed or eliminated. Reflection is a natural part of the learning and teaching process for effective educators.
4. Consistency is key to success. Consistency with rules, procedures, and routines is essential to a positive climate in the classroom. Teaching styles and lesson implementation can vary but the foundational principles and expectations must be consistent.
5. Lesson styles vary when delivering course content. Technology, science probes or a variety of things are incorporated to differentiate learning and meet the different learning styles of the students.
6. Classroom climate cultivates and reflects mutual respect and dignity. Student to teacher and student to student interaction is positive and respect is modeled and practiced.
7. Flexibility and organization are two traits that are apparent and students are guided in how to organize themselves according to their personality and learning styles. Organization is extremely important to success and effective educators model organization strategies and are flexible enough to be able to reach a variety of students’ needs.
8. Effective educators employ strategies to include parents, the community and a variety of educational stakeholders in the lessons and events occurring in the classroom.
9. Teaching course content is enjoyable and rewarding to effective educators. They enjoy what they teach and have limited misbehavior or discipline issues. Behavior problems are lessened when learning activities are hands-on, interesting, engaging and meaningful to the students.
10. Effective educators connect and collaborate with other educators to learn and share teaching ideas, strategies and resources. Effective educators know when to reach out to share strengths or seek help for a weakness and strive to increase the learning potential of each student in the classroom.
Truly effective educators are a rare breed. Student achievement in their classrooms are phenomenal and top the charts. Effective educators are not perfect with perfect students but the negative issues are greatly outweighed by the positive things happening in the classroom. Effective educators strive for greatness not for the monetary paycheck, but for paychecks of the heart by seeing their students achieve their maximum potential.
What other traits do effective educators exhibit that I did not include? I would love to hear how you earn ‘paychecks of the heart’ from your students!
