Efficacy

I'm sure being an astrophysicist is hard, but teaching is a different animal. Self-awareness, confidence, persistence, work ethic, and belief in one's ability are all crucial to becoming a highly effective teacher. For instance, one has to be self-aware because teaching is a relatively non-collaborative profession (unfortunately). Other teachers rarely come around to critique other teachers for improvement, so you have to catch your own mistakes. Confidence and belief in one's ability are two key factors. Kids can tell when you're nervous and if you aren't fully prepared for a lesson. A teacher also has to be persistent. When a student doesn't understand something, the teacher can't just give up and walk away. The teacher needs to be patient and keep trying to help them understand, and he or she should give different explanations to help the student understand. I think work ethic goes along with persistence. Teachers should be working hard to maintain a high level of understanding from everyone in the class. I believe all of these qualities are developed by practice and time. I also believe that in the education department, we don't get enough time to practice these skills. It was mentioned that student teaching should be more like a doctor's internship, and I agree with that somewhat. I think we should be able to have more practice time, but I also think that we need to make money somehow, and I'm also a little impatient.