1 Million Dollar for World's Top Teacher

Top Teacher's Prize

A competition to find the world's best teacher is to be launched next year, with a prize of $1m (£620,000).

It has been announced by the Varkey Gems Foundation and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, United Arab Emirates vice-president and ruler of Dubai.

The foundation is the charitable arm of an international chain of private schools, which recently published a report into teacher status.

Teachers are the "real agents of change" said Sheikh Al Maktoum.

Details of the competition are expected to be announced early next year - with nominations to be opened at the Global Education and Skills Forum to be held in Dubai in March.

There will be nominations from individual countries and then an international judging process.

Here are the qualities to be a most to a successful, durable, and happy teaching career:

1. Successful teachers hold high expectations:

The most effective teachers expect great accomplishments from their students, and they don't accept anything less. In education, expectations form a self-fulfilling prophecy. When teachers believe each and every student can soar beyond any imagined limits, the children will sense that confidence and work with the teacher to make it happen.

2. They think creatively:

The best teachers think outside the box, outside the classroom, and outside the norm. They leap outside of the classroom walls and take their students with them! As much as possible, top teachers try to make classroom experiences exciting and memorable for the students. They seek ways to give their students a real world application for knowledge, taking learning to the next action-packed level. Think tactile, unexpected, movement-oriented, and a little bit crazy... then you'll be on the right track.

3. Top teachers are versatile and sensitive:

The best teachers live outside of their own needs and remain sensitive to the needs of others, including students, parents, colleagues, and the community. It's challenging because each individual needs something different, but the most successful teachers are a special breed who play a multitude of different roles in a given day with fluidity and grace, while remaining true to themselves.

4. They are curious, confident, and evolving:

We're all familiar with the stagnant, cynical, low-energy teachers who seem to be biding their time until retirement and watching the clock even more intently than their students. That's what NOT to do.

5. They are imperfectly human:

The most effective educators bring their entire selves to the job. They celebrate student successes, show compassion for struggling parents, tell stories from their own lives, laugh at their mistakes, share their unique quirks, and aren't afraid to be imperfectly human in front of their students.

6. Successful teachers emphasize the fun in learning and in life:

The teachers I admire most create lighthearted fun out of serious learning. They aren't afraid to be silly because they can snap the students back into attention at will - with just a stern look or a change in tone of voice. শিক্ষা সংক্রান্ত খবরাখবর নিয়মিত পেতে রেজিস্ট্রেশন করুন অথবা Log In করুন।

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