Category Archives: 1 Prof. Values & Personal Commitment

Skills and Values of a Teacher

As a teacher there are many skills and values you need to consider when presenting yourself in a professional manner. Five of which you may consider would be honesty, patience, fairness, respect and integrity in order to become the best possible teacher.
Honesty: The true meaning of honest is free of deceit; truthful and sincere. All of these contribute to becoming an honest teacher; children each day will look up to you as a role model and highly view your opinion. Therefore, giving an honest opinion or answer is always best. As children view the world around them each day a new subject may arise where certain situations may need to be discussed within the classroom, and as they say “honesty is the best policy”.
Working with children of all ages can be very stressful and tiring on occasions, especially when working in the early stages of education. Each day brings a new experience and new challenges so patience is a key skill to have. You must understand and take into account that children are still developing and still need time to learn and understand. Supporting children throughout their learning will build a relationship between the teacher and the child to help them to develop to the best of their ability.
Today the consensus seems to be that fairness and equality are two of the most important factors in a classroom. As a role model treating everyone equally and not judging demonstrates a high quality of professionalism within your class. In today’s society it is very easy to judge those around us but as a teacher it is vital that you treat everyone around you fairly, no matter their background, gender or religion.
Certainly there is no shortage of disagreement that respect is a positive feeling of admiration and this can be strongly linked to the teaching environment. Nowadays, respect is necessary for building rapports with pupils, fellow colleagues and parents, all skills that are essential in the classroom. In order to gain respect you must give the respect you wish to be given. As a professional, having an open mind is key to building a respectable, trusting relationship.
It can be argued that having strong moral principles and integrity is one of the most important factors of being a teacher today. By setting aims and targets for yourself, you are able to follow a pathway that demonstrates care and compassion, all assets that are necessary qualities for a teacher to have. Someone with strong morals represents a good role model to the children for them to look up to.

Welcome to your WordPress eportfolio

Welcome to your eportfolio. This is where you will document and share your professional thoughts and experiences over the course of your study at the University of Dundee and beyond that when you begin teaching. You have the control over what you want to make public and what you would rather keep on a password protected page.

The eportfolio in the form of this WordPress blog allows you to pull in material from other digital sources:

You can pull in a YouTube video:

You can pull in a Soundcloud audio track:

You can pull in a Flickr page

Teacher, Lorraine Lapthorne conducts her class in the Grade Two room at the Drouin State School, Drouin, Victoria

You can just about pull in anything that you think will add substance and depth to your writing.