Characteristics of an Effective Educator

An effective educator is a leader that successfully leads groups of students toward achieving their learning goals. The following qualities and attitudes that characterize successful and happy people and of which effective educators possess and help them succeed in teaching are (arranged in no particular order):

·         Preparedness: effective teachers come prepared to demonstrate their expertise and all the effort they invested in instructional planning;

·         Skilled management: successful teachers manage their teaching duties and administrative tasks efficiently so that they can devote as much time and effort as possible to their students’ learning;

·         Positivity & Faith: effective teachers have an optimistic view of student ability and see their students' potential as plastic, therefore they consistently encourage and challenge their students in order to stimulate their students' potential;

·         Creativity: effective teachers use available resources to create lessons and learning aids and vary instruction so that students are constantly engaged in learning;

·         Compassionate & Fair: successful teachers care for students’ well-being and display fairness and understanding in how they treat students and grade student performance;

·         Promotes a sense of community: effective teachers are skilled mediators and foster a sense of belonging and mutual respect for all students in their classrooms;

·         Humility: effective teachers are modest and comfortable with admitting their mistakes or wrongs;

·         Patience: effective teachers realize that results (i.e., students’ understanding) are often not immediate and apparent, so they calmly persist in their teaching efforts as they anticipate their students’ grasp of the learning material.

·         Sense of humor: effective teachers are mentally and emotionally flexible enough to be receptive to having fun—a valuable impetus for learning—with their students.