Being a teacher is a challenging yet satisfying and really important mission. One should only embark upon if they feel compelled to become not just a teacher but a real friend and a guide to the children. Of course, passion for teaching is not the only thing you’ll need on your path. Knowledge and skills are essential for becoming a great tutor, and as new techniques and ideas emerge in the area, teachers need to adapt to these changes and constantly develop their skills and knowledge to become even better tutors for their students.
Pedagogy is a dynamic discipline that evolves and develops along with such fields as psychology. If you are a tutor yourself, you need to become more aware of all the changes in these fields, so you should be constantly looking for ways to improve your skills.
Teaching is a Skill
Yes, and all the skills can be improved. You need to constantly work on your skills not just to stay sharp at all times. You to be prepared for the possible challenges that could arrive without even the shortest notice. As our society progresses and evolves, so do our children. Each new generation is different and considering how much we’ve progressed over the past decade. Teaching today might be entirely different than teaching, say, 20 years ago.
That is why you need to constantly develop your skill and adopt the new techniques that can make teaching more effective such as online teaching. The development of pedagogy relies on a variety of findings in behavioral and cognitive psychology, which is why you need to be aware of the latest findings in those areas. This will boost your professional growth and deepen your understanding of how children develop and why they act the way they do.
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Technology is the Key
With the constant development of informational technologies, a professional teacher needs to know how to implement those to make the learning process more engaging and interactive. As James Hammett from papersowl.com says, “It has now become imperative that the teachers adopt the new tech. It becomes the most effective leverage for engaging the students in the learning process and encouraging them to study”. Obviously, with each child in the classroom having a literally endless source of information in their pockets, it is essential that we encourage the students to use their smartphones as such and not as toys for browsing social media.
If you are not familiar with the latest technologies and have problems unlocking your smartphone, it is time for you to learn that. This will help you understand your students better and find the ways to use that tech to your advantage. Children these days can’t go a minute without pulling their phones out and checking out their Instagram profiles. For that reason, you need to find ways to intertwine learning and social media.
Luckily, social media is not just about memes and funny cat videos. There are tons of educational content there, and you’ve got to find that content and suggest it to your students. This will make learning more interactive and exciting.
The development of technologies will surely change learning even more, and we can already see that with how the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the educators to use their laptops and social media to commute with pupils during remote classes.
Job Market is Evolving
Though some might say that teaching is not where the money’s at, you can surely be a teacher. You can make quite a sum if you are great at what you do and if you get employed by a private school. Of course, depending on where you live, the teachers’ wages might vary, but unfortunately, in most places around the world, being a tutor equals not making a whole lot of money.
However, if you are really good at what you do, as much as in any other profession, you can become a real competitor on a job market and get employed by some elite private school where you’ll be teaching children and making a good living for yourself and your family. There are elite schools almost everywhere, and if you are a true professional, you can apply for a job there.
Better Organizational Skills
Teaching is not just about understanding children and being able to boost up their academic performance. It is also about being able to manage the classroom, managing your time, organizing special events for your students. Teaching is about making sure student achievement aligns with the curriculum. You need to make sure all the students acquire knowledge and skills in a timely manner. This is why you need to organize your time in such a manner as to ensure the timely development of all the necessary skills and knowledge.
A professional tutor does not only explain stuff, they also have to make sure children understand all of that. In universities, student’s development is the responsibility of a student. However in schools, you are responsible for the proper development of pupils. The process can include parents as well. But the moment the kids enter your classroom, you are the one to manage their time and guide them in the right direction.
As a tutor, you have to make sure you spend your time efficiently and that nothing is wasted. You have to provide your pupils with tasks that correspond to their current development level. You need to find out what they find most exciting, and leverage that to accomplish curriculum goals. As a real professional, you have to provide children with the opportunity to learn while enjoying the process. Related – 6 Beautiful Educational Websites for Inspiration
Wrap Up
Professional tutors never stop learning themselves as it is essential to stay in touch with all the latest innovations and findings to improve the learning process. Constant development and learning are what make a difference between a successful professional tutor and a teacher. The teacher can constantly fail to understand their students and teach them in a proper manner. If you do not want to be the latter, you have to constantly work on your skills and improve every day.
