By Scott Chu

To many Chinese parents, education is one of the most important elements that lead to a successful future. Teachers are critical in a child’s school experience. As the people who impart their knowledge onto students, their methods must be both effective and entertaining.

Throughout the years of school, a student encounters many teachers, some good and some bad. To be successful, a teacher must appeal to the student in order to become a good guide in their learning. So what does make a good teacher?

The most essential factor to being a good teacher is to be interesting to the students. Without their interest, their minds wander off and do not learn. In an even worse scenario, many students may fall asleep out of complete boredom. Teachers can keep students interested by being outgoing and being interested in teaching. After all, no one wants to learn from someone who doesn’t want to teach.

Furthermore, a teacher must actually teach the students. Many time in my years of school, teachers have gone off topic onto irrelevant topics that, although create interest, waste valuable time in which a student may learn.

An example of an interesting teacher that managed to have his students learn what he taught is my freshman science teacher. Almost everyday he would prepare an interesting, and interactive, demonstration to go with his lectures. This visual example helped students learn while having fun. Another reason for the success of his examples if that they were all very random and unpredictable. He had a different schedule everyday, which kept boredom down to a minimum.

Teachers have a very hard profession. The must keep up with the lives of their students, teach a subject, and maintain their interesting all within a short period of roughly 2 hours. They need to keep a balance of seriousness and fun in order to succeed with their students. In addition, they need to teach the subject as they are hired to do. This, I believe, is an extremely difficult task, which only few manage to accomplish.