In a changing world like ours, knowing how to adapt to the times and the needs of each student is essential. Nowadays, everything happens at a dizzying pace, a pace that we must know how to control so that it does not overtake us.
Learning techniques and methodologies are changing, access to any type of information is just a click away and the resources we have today can help us evolve for the better, something that as teachers we must know how to take advantage of.
1. Education based on personal relationships
The relationship that teachers maintain with their students is an essential aspect of providing them with a good academic and personal foundation. It is essential to ensure that students feel valued and loved at school since they spend a large part of their time at school, and if we manage to ensure that they have a positive attitude, this will foster a much healthier relationship with work and study.
Do we want our students to participate only as mere spectators of the teaching they receive or, on the contrary, do we try to make them learn to create for themselves, to develop themselves and a series of skills that help them to become more independent every day? In an increasingly complex and globalized world, our students must know that they can trust us as educators while at the same time helping them to feel valued and unique. If we do not start here, none of the strategies that we are going to explain below will make sense.
2. Able to adapt to new times
In the educational world, we must be prepared to face change. This is a fact that is sometimes difficult to assimilate, especially for more experienced teachers. One may have been an excellent teacher throughout his life, but it is necessary to retrain since what was done 10-15 years ago may no longer have a place in today’s education.
The world is moving forward and we must move with it, because if we remain still, we will be left behind and our methods will become little more than obsolete. This does not mean that everything in the educational world has to change over the years. What is necessary is to evaluate our practices and the impact they have on our students to continue growing and improving.
We have new resources at our disposal, resources that we must use through the implementation of new methodologies in the classroom and also through the use of new technologies, which will allow us to involve students more and more in their learning at the same time that we continue to learn from them every day.
If we can foster critical thinking in students at the same time as we foster a mindset of continuous learning in the minds of teachers, we will have begun a journey that will take us on the right path with teachers who truly believe that they have to improve to continue growing, not because they are not competent enough, but rather for the simple fact that human beings can always go further if they set their mind to it, if they think that there is no limit that they cannot achieve.
3. Community creator
We don’t want our students to all think the same when they leave the classroom, do we? As time goes by, there is more and more room in the classroom for diversity, opinions, and reasoning that differ from one another.
Each student and each person has their own experiences, their weaknesses, a nd also their strengths, so all have or should have a place in the classroom. Each subject is different and if the teacher can create a sense of community among their students, a feeling of belonging where their concerns and opinions are heard and discussed on equal terms, they will get their students to become more and more involved. Each student is unique and we must be aware of this.
If we manage to bring each of them together in a space where they feel comfortable and useful and where they develop a need to continue learning, thinking, and reflecting for themselves, our work as teachers will be a success because we will be creating new learning experiences for them.
4. Collaborative work networking
Collaborative work is essential to achieve the change we are talking about. As we mentioned in the previous point, the concept of community is very significant in the educational world. A teacher must be able to create a network of contacts through personal relationships that allow him to grow both personally and professionally, as this will improve his relationship with his students.
The value of networking lies more in giving than in receiving, in the sense that when one can learn from others, people will begin to value not only what that particular individual does, but also who that individual is and the value that he or she has for others.
We currently live in a world of relationships and through them, we can give the best of ourselves, which in turn will allow us to develop our full professional potential focused on promoting the teaching we offer our students.
To create experiences, we must have access to great ideas, and these can come from very diverse people, so we must have an open mind in this matter. By creating a community, encouraging networking and collaborative work among students, we will be able to achieve these goals that we talk about, as it will allow us to learn from others while continuing to educate ourselves and have a positive impact on future generations.
5. Innovative
Sometimes accepting change is necessary as long as it is for the better, but we must also be aware that we are the ones who can bring about that change.
The skills that students need today in a changing world like ours are increasingly complex. As teachers, we need to find out the needs of our students and create opportunities for them to make a difference and know how to handle themselves in different areas. What is needed today is that they are interested in evolving and innovating by seeking new opportunities, learning from their mistakes, or being able to correct them.
6. Leader
Being a leader does not mean being a boss. A leader must be able to motivate and guide his students. What is crucial for a leader is that he has the ability to positively influence them, giving them the necessary tools so that they can advance by showing them the opportunities they have so that, in this way, they can continue with their personal growth.
A teacher must know how to lead his group of students by giving them guidelines to follow, teaching them to be decisive,e and, above all, providing them with the necessary confidence so that they can develop their ideas and projects independently.
7. Storyteller storyteller
The concept of a theoretical class has, in many cases, come to have a negative connotation in the educational field. If we were able to change this mentality and try to make students see that, rather than giving a simple class, what we are doing is telling them a story, their preconceived idea of a conventional class, where the teacher explains and the student listens and learns, could change.
If we want to have an impact on them and achieve significant change, we must first reach them, involve them, and then achieve a much greater connection that makes them part of the stories we tell. Sharing information without looking beyond can be counterproductive, as we will not achieve the connection we are talking about.
In a world full of information, getting our students’ attention and interest is paramount. The stories we tell will stay in their minds much more clearly than if we simply exchanged ideas, data, and explained concepts. We must make the information we share with them memorable, which will encourage them to remember it and, in addition, become interested in it.
The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell them how to think, but to get them interested and ask questions that make them reflect and reason for themselves.
8. Design learning experiences
The environment also plays a very significant role in learning. The space in which our students study every day can affect their performance by making them feel one way or another.
The experiences we create in these spaces will be the ones that make the difference and will positively influence their learning. Through creativity, the passion of the teacher and also using the resources that we have at our disposal today, we can design great learning experiences that we can then offer to our students, thus satisfying their educational needs in which they are the participating actors.
A teacher must provide the tools to future generations so that they can achieve what they set out to do, fostering in their critical thinking, a culture of effort,t and the desire to continue learning.
As teachers, we have to be aware of the world we live in and how important it is to be able to generate experiences for our students. If we achieve this, our work will have made sense because, as the Italian poet Arturo Graf said, “An excellent teacher is one who, by teaching little, creates in the student a great desire to learn.”