3 Signs You've Found a Good Teacher

Three traits that students value in a teacher:

Integrity, patience, and a good sense of humor.

Integrity means that the learning process is built on a strong foundation of trust. When students know what to expect, and trust that each lesson and program will be a safe container for their own growth and development, that means more brain cells are available for absorbing and integrating new information. 

Patience means that the learning process is flexible, adaptable and always planned with the student's unique gifts, talents and personality in mind. Some days will be better than others, some days there will be progress in leaps and bounds; some days it's best to focus on reviewing and reinforcing previous material. A patient teacher knows this and doesn't take it personally when a student is tired, distracted or feeling down.

A good sense of humor means that the learning process can be fun, emotionally engaging and memorable. I cannot count the number of "inside jokes" that have developed between me and all of my students through the years, funny memes that get shared, slang and funny expressions that students love to adopt and then use in everyday conversations. 

Learning any language isn't just about memorizing lists of vocabulary and grammar rules - it's about building new neural pathways in your mind while building rich relationships with the people you meet in your life, across borders, in the office, at the shop on the corner. 

Learning, growing and building community together - this is what I love most about my students and it is what I prioritize when creating personalized programs and curricula for clients, or when I am consulting on strategies for building new tools in EdTech and AI. 

It all starts - and ends - with kindness. You can't have integrity, patience or humor without it.