What is good teaching? Good teaching for me is facilitating learning in an effective and social-and-emotional way.

I think that there are many different things that make for “good teaching”. Some aspects of good teaching include creating a positive classroom climate. I’m all about relationships, and creating a classroom climate is super important for me. Based on my inquiry research, students learn best from people that they like. There’s a plethora of positive benefits in creating a positive classroom climate! Also, I think that having a good teacher presence is an important aspect of good teaching. As a teacher, you have to be warm and caring but firm at the same time. I also believe that good teaching means being able to be flexible and make the necessary changes when needed.

We had a TRB talk a few days ago about ethics as a teacher. It wasn’t really “new news”, but it solidified the idea of professionalism. As teachers, we are professionals and thus we must behave as such. As teachers, I also believe that you have to be warm and have that social and emotional perspective. I think that being a professional and having that SEL perspective can go hand in hand in being a teacher. Sometimes it’s a fine line, the entire idea about “to be or not to be a students’ friend” was something we discussed in class. Personally, I think you can be a teacher and a friend at the same time, or at least have friend like qualities, like being caring and someone that students can trust and talk to.