8 tips on how to become a real teacher

Published 15.06.2024 | By Йосиф

8 tips on how to become a real teacher, from Shalva Amonashvili

Until the seventh grade, Shalva Amonashvili was a poor student, and he graduated from school with a gold medal. His attitude towards studying was changed by a new Georgian language teacher, who treated the children with interest and respect. The child’s personality became the central concept of the concept of humane pedagogy, which was developed by Amonashvili.

The most important theses of a teacher about what a teacher should be:

1. Be a teacher, not a lecturer

The teacher’s task is to help and advise. Make friends with the student, love him and earn his respect. Don’t just give information, but patiently express your opinion and listen to the opinions of your students. Particularly dangerous is disbelief in a child – the prejudice that he is initially incapable of learning without a stick. In such cases, the teacher, without any reason, begins to shout at the students and threaten punishment. But for learning to bear fruit, every child must feel that the teacher wishes him well and accepts him for who he is.

“It is better for a teacher not to enter school with an embittered soul, so as not to cripple the souls of children; it is better not to enter school without a clear goal and educational intentions, so as not to impose educational improvisations on children, causing bewilderment and confusion on children; It’s better not to enter school from yesterday, without self-renewal, so as not to bring boredom and monotony with you; It’s better not to come to children without faith in pedagogy, so as not to sow in them uncertainty about themselves and their teacher.”

2. Children respond to love with love, to cruelty with cruelty.

The basis of upbringing is boundless love for children. In an authoritarian system, a teacher, even sincerely loving a child, considers it his duty to “hold him in his hands”: force him to study, behave well, ask him strictly. And more often, the teacher does not even bother to put even a little of his soul into the learning process, which should not consist only of endless homework, challenges to the board and tests. When teachers love power over students more than they love themselves, students respond accordingly – with rebellion.

“The physicist made us irritated and angry. An elderly man who imagined himself to be a famous scientist was simply mocking us. As a matter of principle, I didn’t give anyone an “A.” “A five is for me,” he said. “The other marks are for you.” It was a pity for him to give him a B. That’s why there were a lot of C and D students in the class. We were outraged by his rudeness, ridicule and threats. Therefore, more than once they boycotted his lessons, interfered with him in class, and conflicted with him. And he, instead of figuring out why we behaved this way, tightened the measures, punished us with bad grades and threatened that he would ruin everyone’s certificate.”

A teacher does not always treat students harshly out of malice. Perhaps he thinks he is doing this for the benefit of the child. But loving a child means, first of all, understanding him, being interested in him and respecting his personality. Human love for a child evokes reciprocal human love for the teacher, which is expressed in the desire to please the teacher with his knowledge and not to upset him by absenteeism. In the classroom of such teachers, it is a shame to cheat and lie about forgetting your diary.

3. The point of punishment is not to take revenge on the child.

Punishment should not be applied authoritarianly – in such cases the child does not accept the punishment and considers it unfair. Punishment in itself is not a measure of education. Its impact on the child depends on how much the teacher is loved and respected. And the purpose of punishment is not to carry out public justice or personal teacher retribution, but to convey to the child a feeling of grief from failure. The essence of punishment is that the child experiences resentment for having upset a loved one, and feels determined to live up to his expectations and trust.

And an explosion occurs in my soul. I cover my head with my hands and start crying quietly so that the person sitting next to me won’t guess what’s going on. It’s not about the A’s, it’s about the love my teacher has for me. And these deuces can harm this, the most precious thing that I have received in recent months, Love!

4. Marking and grading are not the same thing.

Marks are not necessarily expressed in numbers. They can be verbal, for example, the word “well done.” Just like a child boasting about an A, he will say at home: “The teacher said I did well.” Children are scolded for bad grades, praised for good ones – all these reactions are formal, one-dimensional. Grades spoil the child, the educational process, and relationships with parents.

“A’s are aimed at the heart because they distort the child’s morality, threes create indifference, twos cause indignation.”

Evaluation is an attitude. The way the teacher looks at the child, what questions he asks, how he points out mistakes, notices progress. With the help of a respectful, attentive human attitude, the teacher develops personal qualities in the child, and does not just teach him to meet standards. If a student did not fully understand the task and completed it in his own way, it is difficult to convey this with a mark. Instead, the teacher might say, “Oh, how interesting you write. Or maybe you’ll try this?”

“For example, when a quarter ends, a final mark is set. This is something arithmetic average. But it turns out that somewhere the child was lazy, got a bad grade, and still doesn’t know this material. And he knows where the five is. And what does the final mark influence and show? Can you stick your head in the oven and your feet in the freezer and say the average temperature is 36.6?”

5. The teacher should more often ask questions to which he does not know the answers.

The teacher’s questions in class differ from ordinary human questions in that he already knows the answer. And the students know this. When we are asked a question to which they want to hear a strictly defined answer, we feel a catch. The students feel the same. For them, every question from the teacher becomes a pedagogical trick that they must not fall for. As a result, instead of thinking about the essence of the question, they try to guess the answer that the teacher expects.

Children need to more often ask questions for which there is no known correct answer in advance. The teacher knows how much twice two is two, but does not know why it is difficult for the child to remember the multiplication table. He doesn’t know what interests him, what he likes, what motivates him to study.

“Our teacher came in with a kind, welcoming smile, greeted us in a velvety voice, told us “thank you,” and looked everyone in the eye. This was already unusual. And then – suddenly – she asked:

— Guys, do you like poetry?

Nobody instilled in us a love of poetry; The previous teacher required us to memorize a given poem and rattle it off in class. He never asked the question whether we liked these poems.”

6. Being demanding helps the teacher and hinders the child.

In the authoritarian pedagogical process, demandingness is a preventive measure towards punishment. The teacher demands that the child study hard and not break the rules. He says “rewrite this by tomorrow,” meaning “otherwise you’ll blame yourself.” The tone of such a demand is commanding, coercive. This is a pedagogical tool that solves the problems of the teacher himself, not the child.

7. A child’s life should not stop during lessons.

Lessons are the foundation of the school day, but children come for more than just lessons. They come for fun breaks, meetings with friends, conversations with the teacher, and interesting extracurricular school activities. School life is much more than a few lessons every day, and lessons are much more than sitting diligently at a desk.

A child cannot leave his impressions and experiences beyond the threshold of school and come with a pure, sterilized desire to learn

And he will not become more attentive and focused if you take away the toy that captured his imagination so much that he brought it with him to school. He will become even more absent-minded because he will be upset, and will only be able to think about the future fate of his toy.

“Let the tin soldier lie in his pocket, let the child ride a bicycle in his imagination, let him be impressed by yesterday’s grandfather’s fairy tale! Let everyone come to school with their full life. And then, right during the lesson (no matter what kind of lesson it is), the child will take his tin soldier out of his pocket. I will look at it with great interest. “I like him so much!” Do you only have one soldier? Are there others? No, you don’t have to give it to me! Bring your whole army of tin soldiers; It will probably be very interesting to play with them! “The child will be happy and tomorrow he will bring all his soldiers, and I will look for a fairy tale about the tin soldier to read it to the whole class.”

Shalva Amonashvili, “Hello, children!”

8. A good teacher is one who loves children’s “zhriamuli”

“Zhriamuli” is a Georgian word that means a cheerful noise: for example, the chirping of birds or the hubbub of children. It is different from ordinary noise in that it is filled with joy and life. To have a pedagogical ear means to be able to distinguish different notes in this noise that always fills the school, and to love it.

“And now I look at the photographs of my 36 children and I am filled with impatience to meet this children’s “zhriamuli”. I take my love for “zhriamuli” as proof that I can understand them. I am convinced: whoever likes children’s “zhriamuli” is inclined to teach, and whoever is already addicted to it finds his professional happiness.”

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