Dispositions

Dispositions cannot be taught. I believe that dispositions can be gradually changed over time, but cannot be taught by anyone other than the person experiencing a certain disposition. There is no step by step process to have a disposition. A disposition is a "person's inherent qualities of mind and character." In other words, it is how they think, so I would relate this closely to someone's personality. You cannot change a persons personality over night. Someone can watch another person that has certain dispositions and notice what it is that he or she does to exhibit those behaviors. However, a person needs to learn for themselves what does and does not work in their life and teaching style in order to accommodate a certain disposition.

I would recommend that education students get more experience working in front of classes in order to find their own dispositions. Being able to explain yourself through words and actually performing and demonstrating a disposition are two completely different things. Being in front of a group and leading a classroom somehow, someway, sometime would greatly demonstrate the dispositions of an education student. This may also really show the student if he or she can imagine teaching. Many education students do not get a good chance to find their own dispositions in action until they student teach. If they then realize that teaching is not for them they would seem to have very few options as to where to go from there.

Resilence

To be resilient means to recoil or spring back into shape after having been compressed, stretched or misshapen. So how does this apply to teaching? Teachers will often be stressed with their work load, the constant stream of parents asking about their child's performance, and the behavior of the students. A teacher needs to be resilient in order to deal with this.

First of all, a teacher needs to love teaching in order to effectively bounce back from any stresses. They need to know they are making a difference in the child's life and be passionate about their job. Teaching should be about reaching every student and making a difference in their life, but this is very tough and impractical to do. A teacher needs to have realistic expectations for their students and their own performance. To deal with the stress of being a teaching, they should take some time for themselves and relax and do something they enjoy outside of teaching. Too many constant stresses will break a teacher down so that they are no longer as effective as they can possibly be. A teacher will impact a students life the most with the time spent in the classroom. So instead of staying up all night to grade papers and tests, it is important for a teacher to relax some. The students can wait a day or two to get their papers back. Plus if you take you sweet time on papers and grading you will be spending more attention to detail and probably give more quality feedback to the the student than if you had done them all in one night. Overall, a teacher needs to love what they do and know their limits as to what they can reasonably accomplish. There will be stresses, but a teacher needs to be resilient in order to bounce back and be the most effective teacher they can be.

Humility

I make quite a few mistakes in my everyday life, but I am usually able to laugh at them. There is nothing worse than a stubborn teacher. A teacher needs to realize that they will make mistakes in class. When they do make mistakes it is important for them to realize that and laugh at them and fix the situation. Teaching has a lot to do with building relationships with students and having students that can trust you. Students will question the confidence and intelligence of a teacher that makes mistakes and will not admit to them. Instead, if a teacher is able to laugh at themselves and admit to a mistake, then the student is reassured that it is okay to make a mistake. It is important for students to realize that it is alright to make mistakes in the classroom. Kids are participating less in the classroom for fear of giving a wrong answer.

In the event that a teacher does make a mistake, it is important for them to be real about it. Kids learn from their teachers a lot, so a teacher should not be overly apologetic, sarcastic, or defensive of their error. They should take responsibility for their mistake but not bring much attention to it.

I'm beginning to think that teachers should purposely make mistakes on occasion in the classroom. If they make a mistake on purpose then the students should notice that mistake if it is something they have already learned. If the teacher admitted to making a mistake then they could ask the students where the teacher messed up. I feel like this strategy would keep kids engaged in the classroom and help them to sort out the important information and learn listening skills.

Being humiliated is not a bad thing. People just need to learn how to laugh at their error and be respectful of people that are correcting them. Everyone makes mistakes, but schools today seem to punish mistakes. Nobody is going to be perfect. Teachers can help shape a child's view on humility by accepting their error and reiterating that it is not a bad thing to be wrong on most occasions.