What Qualities Are Parents Looking For In a School Teacher?

10Apr
by Monica Luna Gonzalez

Wondering who your child’s teacher will be the following year is nerve-racking. Recently I spoke with friends, and they confirmed that their nerves are there every single year. What are we so nervous about?

We came to the conclusion that we’re nervous at the possibility of not getting what we want for our children, which is a great teacher! It’s no secret that we always want the best for our children, and our parent logic tells us that the best teachers will provide the best education for our children. So that’s what we want, the best teachers. The saying “Love my children and I’ll love you” goes beyond family and friends and applies to everyone who crosses our children’s paths. And aside from parents, teachers spend the most amount of time with our children. So naturally, we want a great teacher leading our children’s classroom and nothing less.

A lot of us have experienced a mediocre or bad teacher and have seen the effects it has on our child’s entire being both in and out of school. I’ve heard of complaints being filed against some teachers, parent conferences held with the teacher to address concerns, and even children being pulled out of one school and placed in another because of bad teachers. So, my friends and I thought about this issue and made a list of the qualities that we thought were important in a great teacher.

This list is coming from a place of utter love for our children and from a strong desire to provide them with the best education possible.

We want a teacher who is…
*Passionate
*A good communicator
*A good observer
*Understanding
*Organized
*Patient
*Fun
*Nice
*Fair
*Has an open door policy both to children and parents
*Makes parents feel welcomed

 

What we don’t want is a teacher who is…
*Bored
*Hard to approach
*A poor communicator
*Unfair
*Mean
*Disorganized
or even a nice teacher who has:
*Reached a “whatever point” in their career

Is our want list a bit demanding? I don’t think so, especially when we aren’t only speaking about our children. We are speaking about our future leaders. Parents want teachers who are excited and passionate about teaching our children. We want teachers who can deliver lessons in a clear and organized manner and teachers who can approach students with respect and communicate effectively with them. We want teachers who are patient with those students who need that extra push. We are looking for teachers who makes learning interesting and fun. And we want nice teachers, since they are also leading by example. We want teachers who invite parents to get involved and lets students feel the comfort of coming to them for extra help or whatever else. Most importantly, we want teachers who are fair: professionals who want every child in their class to succeed and who want the very best for all of the children in their classrooms.

What do you think?

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Monica Luna Gonzalez

Monica Luna Gonzalez is a certified Life Coach who works with parents by helping them learn to utilize their amazing parenting skills. She began this line of work after working solely with children for over two years and learning of a disconnect between a lot of the child-parent relationships. She is a mom of two children. Her oldest is a freshman in college and her youngest is shopping for preschools. She was a teen mom who graduated from Bell High School, despite the challenges that came from being a teen mom. She wishes she would have been prepared for college right after high school, which is why she wants to help others improve their children's chances for a better education. She is a non-traditional college student as she returned to college 18 years after graduating from high school.

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