This is a very brief summary of what we believe makes a good ESL teacher.
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A good teacher is prepared
It’s obvious when your teacher is prepared. They have thought about how they will use the whiteboard (or smartboard) and they will have a defined objective for the class, i.e. when this class is finished, every student will know how and when to use the present perfect tense.
An unprepared teacher is quite easy to spot. They are the teachers who simply go through the class text book, page by page or they will jump randomly from one area of the language to another, with no obvious objective.
A good teacher can work without a textbook
Sometimes we all need to follow a textbook, but a good teacher is one who would be able to survive without it and still deliver a clear and easy to follow lesson.
A good teacher makes his/her own materials
This is a sign of enthusiasm for the job. A good teacher will take the time to design and produce unique learning materials such as a quiz, presentation or even a fun idiom story for the class to read together.
A good teacher can admit they don’t know the answer
Sometimes a teacher might be bombarded with various grammatical questions (or other questions) that they don’t know how to answer.
A good teacher will slow down, and decide whether they can answer the question effectively or not. If they can’t, they will apologise and admit it, but make a note to prepare a new lesson on this area.
Other teachers will try and explain something they don’t know, and confuse the class further, losing the confidence of the students.
A good teacher will be prepared to make a change to the original lesson plan
Not every lesson plan will work. A simple example would be starting a lesson and realising that it’s just too advanced for your class. A good teacher will recognise this early, and not be afraid to give up on the original plan.
Other teachers might stubbornly refuse to change, and end up with a wasted lesson and frustrated students.