Inspiring tomorrow’s leaders – Five ways to inspire today’s students
One of the most gratifying and rewarding things about being an educator is seeing your students progress and become a source of change in today’s real world.
Knowing you had a hand to play in their development and growth makes being a teacher incredibly rewarding. Being a teacher is more than just giving homework; a teacher showcases leadership qualities students aspire to.
Therefore, by inspiring change and leadership in students, teachers influence many decisions students make in their lives long after they graduate. Building the leaders of tomorrow starts at the school level, primarily inside the classroom.
For students to be leaders in their field, they require experience and knowledge. The process doesn’t end because leadership involves learning emotional, problem-solving, communication, and critical thinking skills.
With that said, let’s look at a few ways teachers can inspire leadership in today’s students.
Become a leader yourself.
Regardless of what your students learn from you, your lessons probably won’t do them any good if you don’t show your own leadership skills inside the classroom.
It is a well-known fact that your students will follow your example. Therefore, you need to ensure that you’re an example of what to become.
Moreover, your teaching style also affects your students’ ability to understand you. For instance, if you’re a special education teacher, a typical teaching style won’t work on them.
Special students need a leader who can understand them and look after their specific needs. If you’re interested in pursuing a career as a special education teacher, you’ll need to enroll in a Special Education online Masters in Teaching degree program.
Furthermore, be confident while you’re teaching inside the classroom. One way you can achieve this is by being well-prepared for your lessons. After all, if you’re stressed and unsure about what you’re teaching, your students will pick up on it.
Build your students’ self-confidence via positive reinforcements.
There is no doubt that confidence is a leadership quality that makes or breaks a leader. As an educator, you’re expected to help your students see the light.
However, if you’re not confident in your abilities, your students won’t confide in you either. As a teacher, it’s your duty to build self-esteem in your students.
How can you do that? By being mindful of the language, you utilize inside and outside the classroom. Moreover, avoid speaking harshly with your students, mainly if someone hasn’t performed well on an assignment or test.
In addition, don’t forget to identify your students’ abilities and set goals according to their skill sets while identifying those with low self-esteem and speaking to them in person.
In the end, whenever you set short-term, realistic goals for your students, they’ll be easier to achieve, and your students will get a much-needed boost in self-confidence.
Encourage students to participate in collaborations and team activities.
An essential trait in a teacher is working well in a team and motivating everyone involved.
An excellent technique to instill this trait in students is to involve them in group assignments and class projects. For example, create a team, select a team leader, ask them to choose their team members, and assign them a task to complete within a time limit.
The team leaders will then have to delegate tasks to other team members, consider their suggestions to guide decision-making, and motivate them to perform at their max.
In addition, this activity will teach students about being accountable for their actions, time-management, and collaboration skills.
In the end, the important thing here is to allow every student to lead a team within the classroom. Who knows, maybe an introverted student might turn out to be an excellent leader in the future.
Encourage your students to take risks.
While risk-taking might be challenging even for adults, encouraging your students to take risks, make mistakes, fail, and learn from them is vital to building leaders.
This will increase the likelihood of students becoming leaders in the future, but it will also allow them to learn that success doesn’t come easy.
If they understand that winning isn’t easy, they will be willing to take additional risks, make more mistakes, and find success in their professional lives.
Give students a choice to learn whatever they want.
It is a no-brainer to give students choices based on topics of interest, learning levels, and much more. Moreover, these choices can be conveyed verbally or digitally, allowing students to select the activity they want to participate in and the objectives they want to achieve.
This way, they will become more self-aware and decisive while becoming leaders in their own educational journeys.
Conclusion
Student leadership is crucial for student development and growth, especially when entering the real world. If students take accountability and ownership of their school, work, and personal lives, they will be better equipped to live meaningful lives.
So, consider the tips mentioned in this article and incorporate them into your teaching style. You’ll definitely see the results in a few years.
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