Essential Qualities for 21st Century Teachers

1. Responsibility: The state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one’s power, control, or management.
2. Healthy Choices: Wise choices we must make to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. As the saying goes, health is wealth. These involve the steps, actions, and strategies put in place to achieve an optimal lifestyle and good health.
3. Civic Duty: We must be responsible and attend to our social and societal responsibilities, such as paying taxes and abiding by the law at all times.
4. Community Service: We must make our communities inhabitable for ourselves. The quality of our communities is a direct result of our collective actions.
5. Trust: A firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone. Are we, as teachers, trusted by our students or boss? Are we approachable? Can our students confide in us? Can parents discuss a child’s mental health with us in confidence, knowing we will treat the information with the respect it deserves?
6. Self-Esteem: “A teacher’s reward is in heaven” — an old saying. But we must wake up to our responsibilities and impact lives with good values so that we can enjoy rewards and benefits here on earth and in heaven. When you add value to lives, you can negotiate and decide how much you want to earn, thereby increasing your earning capacity.
7. Develop Your Listening Skills: This is crucial for every teacher in the 21st century. There is no such thing as a child talking too much. If a child has something to say, we must listen. Paying attention to pupils helps us gain their attention. Listening skills involve paying attention to and effectively interpreting what others are saying.
8. Fair Sense of Justice: A teacher must not be biased in dealings with any student, pupil, or child. Maintaining a fair and just relationship with pupils is essential.
9. Humility: The quality of being humble. We must be modest and free from arrogance and pride. Remember, pride goes before a fall.
10. Leadership: The ability to command obedience or influence others’ behaviors. A teacher is not a boss but a leader who imparts knowledge by setting an example. A teacher as a leader gives direction, guidance, and support.
11. Self-Discipline: The willpower to control one’s actions, impulses, emotions, anger, and desires.
12. Honesty: Honesty is the best policy. Teachers must be honest in all dealings with their pupils. We should exhibit utmost integrity in dealing with pupils and their parents, avoiding falsifying academic records for financial gains.
13. Problem-Solving Skills: This is a fundamental reason we are teachers. We should not frown at challenges but see opportunities in them. Sharpening our problem-solving skills makes us assets to ourselves and our organization.
14. Tolerance: The ability to endure the most annoying, restless, and troublesome pupil in the class. It involves a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions, beliefs, and practices different from our own. We must tolerate all children, regardless of race, tribe, culture, or religion.
15. Self-Control: The ability to control oneself, particularly one’s emotions and desires, especially in difficult situations.
16. Determination: The strong willpower to do what needs to be done. It is the quality of being resolute and having a firmness of purpose.
17. Learning to Learn: Teachers in the 21st century must be ready to read, learn, relearn, and unlearn.
18. Charity: The practice of being benevolent, giving, and sharing to aid the poor, ill, or helpless.
19. Teamwork: Nobody is an island of knowledge. Teachers must leverage the ideas and knowledge of others to make learning fun and effective.
20. Digital Literacy: As a 21st-century teacher, you must be digitally and computer literate. Utilize social media, the internet, and online resources to enhance your lessons. Maintain a blog to keep personal records of events in your school. Remember, you are reading this from a teacher’s blog.

Wake up!

Evaluation

1. Responsibility is defined as the state or fact of being __________ for something within one’s power, control, or management. a) confused
   b) accountable
   c) reckless
   d) uninterested
2. Healthy choices involve the steps, actions, and __________ one puts in place to achieve an optimum lifestyle and good health. a) excuses
   b) delays
   c) strategies
   d) mistakes
3. Civic duty includes responsibilities such as paying taxes and being __________ at all times. a) indifferent
   b) lazy
   c) law-abiding
   d) careless
4. Community service requires us to make our communities __________ for us to live in. a) unbearable
   b) inhabitable
   c) problematic
   d) dangerous
5. Trust is a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or __________ of someone. a) weakness
   b) disloyalty
   c) strength
   d) dishonesty
6. Self-esteem for teachers involves adding __________ to lives and being able to negotiate and increase earning capacity. a) confusion
   b) values
   c) problems
   d) doubts
7. Developing listening skills is crucial because there is nothing like a child __________ too much. a) crying
   b) talking
   c) listening
   d) laughing
8. A fair sense of justice means a teacher must not be __________ in dealings with any student. a) biased
   b) fair
   c) strict
   d) patient
9. Humility is the quality of being __________ and free from arrogance and pride. a) aggressive
   b) humble
   c) rude
   d) dismissive
10. Leadership for a teacher involves giving direction, guidance, and __________. a) pressure
    b) punishment
    c) support
    d) criticism
11. Self-discipline is the willpower to control one’s actions, impulses, emotions, and __________. a) desires
    b) mistakes
    c) failures
    d) successes
12. Honesty is the best policy, and teachers must exhibit utmost __________ in dealing with pupils and parents. a) dishonesty
    b) fear
    c) confusion
    d) integrity
13. Problem-solving skills allow teachers to see __________ in challenges rather than frown at them. a) obstacles
    b) opportunities
    c) failures
    d) distractions
14. Tolerance involves having a fair and permissive attitude toward opinions, beliefs, and __________ that differ from one’s own. a) similarities
    b) practices
    c) backgrounds
    d) disagreements
15. Digital literacy for a 21st-century teacher means being literate in using __________ and online resources to enhance lessons. a) books
    b) newspapers
    c) social media
    d) blackboards

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