To be a good teacher you need some of the gifts of the good actors; you must be able to hold the attention and interest of your audience, you must be a clear speaker with a good, strong, pleasing voice which is fully under your control, and you must be able to act with what you are teaching in order to make its meaning clear.
Watch good teachers, and you will see that they do not sit motionless before their class; they walk about, using their arms, hands and fingers to help them in their explanations, and their face to express their feelings.
The fact that good teachers have some gifts of good actors does not mean that they will indeed be able to act well on the stage. There are very important differences between the teacher’s work and the actor’s. The actor has to speak words which s/he has learnt by heart; s/he has to repeat exactly the same words each time s/he plays a certain part; even his/her movements are usually fixed before.
The good teacher works in quite a different way. His audiences take an active part in his/her play; they ask and answer questions, they obey orders and if they do not understand something, they say so. The teacher, therefore, has to suit his/her act to the needs of his/her audiences, which is his/her class. He cannot learn his part by heart, but must invent it as s/he goes along.
A good teacher knows what to teach, plans with creativity and innovation, employs suitable teaching strategies and activities, and teaches with enthusiasm. A good teacher considers the students' abilities and learning styles to accelerate their learning process; manages learning, instructs, facilitates, motivates and allows the students to discover knowledge and skills.
