8 Basic Skills that is the Teacher Must Know

Teacher is not just a people who stand in front of the class to deliver the material, but the teacher is a people who able to directing the development of the students. Become a teacher also not very easy, because you will face with so many situation in the class, and you as the teacher must able to control yourselves, take care to the all of your student without differentiate them, and also there are so many things that the teachers should do. To achieve that, the basic skills required for the teacher in teaching. There are 8 basic skills that the teacher must know and the teachers should have:

1) Skills to open and close the lesson

To be a teacher not just to deliver the materials like I said before, but the important things that the teacher must have is the skill to open and close the lesson. This skill is very important, because if the teacher cannot have this skill, the classroom situation will be not good. The student can’t give their attention to the teacher, and also the teacher don’t know about the students feeling at that moment. To be a teacher should know about the situation in the class, and also can pay attention to the student. That’s why this skill is very important. In open and close the lesson, the teacher also can build the student spirit to start the lesson and learn about the lesson, make the situation in the class focused to the teacher and also the material. For the example of this skill are, the teacher can say greetings (good morning, afternoon, evening) to the student, and make your face fresh with smile to the student and also you ask “how are you” to know about the condition of your student, and so many ways that you can use in the beginning of the class. And for the closing, you can say “thank you, or you say have a nice day see you again class, or so many else.

            2) Skills to Ask

Ask is a way to ask the student response about the knowledge, opinions, or even just make the concentration of students. In the process of teaching and learning, "Asking" give an important role because “asking" can be an effective thing to encourage students thinking skills. To increase student participation in the learning process, teachers need to show a good attitude when asking questions and receiving the answers from the students. The teacher also need to appreciate the student who answer or give question, to make the student motivated and enjoy the class. In this skill, teacher also need to invite all of the student in the class to active, not just the student that’s smart, but also give the same chance to all students. For the example, when there are the student who don’t give the attention to the teacher explanation, the teacher can ask that student to make the student attention back again. And also when the teacher ask about something, and there are the student that the teacher things they can answer the question, the teacher can instantly ask to the student, and also give the same chance to the all student.

            3) Skills to Give Reinforcement

Reinforcement is any form of response that is part of a behavior modification teacher to student behavior, to provide information or to give feedback for the students, for his actions as an encouragement or corrections. Reinforcement learning technique that can be expressed through praise, or awards. And also reinforcement can be expressed through gesture or face expression, reinforcement by approaching, with a touch (touch the student and said that good or anything else), etc. For the example, when the student active in the class and give the participation in the activity in the class, the teacher must give them appreciate or the reinforcement to motivated them. And also when the student answer the question, the teacher must give the student reinforcement like said “that’s good answer, or what a great opinion (when you ask their opinion).”

           4) Skills to give Explanation

The basic things of the teacher is to deliver the material and give the explanation to the student. But to give the explanation the teacher doesn’t inconsequent in explaining to the students. The teacher should know about how to correlate the previous material with the material that will explain now. In the class the teacher as the center when explaining about the material, and the teacher must make sure that the student pay attention to the teacher explanation. The basic things in this skills is about, how to make the student understand about the material.

          5) Skills to Give the Variation

In the class, the student will bored when the teacher methods in teaching is monotone. Because of that, the teacher should know about the skills to give the variation in the process of teaching. There are so many ways to give the variation, like give games that’s related with the materials, or change the method of the explanation the material. For the example, teacher give the student to make presentation and give chance to the student to deliver the material, not just the teacher. This is a good way to make attention from the student and make the student not bored in the class.

          6) Skills Teach Small Group and Individual

In the process of teaching and learning in the class, the teacher can give so many variation in teaching, the method that can use by the teacher is to making small group in the class, in this skill is to make sure that how the teacher can pay attention to the student by individually with each student or in the small group. In small group, the teacher as the object, and let the student as the center. In making small group, it will make the relation of the teacher and the student and also the student with each student else will be good.

         7) Skills to Guiding Discussions in Small Group

Discussion in small group is one variation of learning activities that can be used in the process of teaching. In the discussion groups, students in each small group can exchange information and experiences, making decisions together, and learn to do problem solving. Group discussion is a strategy that allows students to understand a concept or solve a problem through a process that gives an opportunity to think, interact socially, and practicing positive attitude. So discussion groups can enhance students' creativity.

         8) Skills to Manage Class (Classroom Management)

In the classroom, the teacher must take the control of the class. It’s about the skill that the teacher must know, it is how the teacher manage the class. All of the activity in the classroom is handled by the teacher, if the teacher have this skills, the process of learning will be effective. This means that teachers must be skilled at creating a conducive learning atmosphere and be able to keep and restore the optimal learning conditions, minimizing the disruption that may occur during the process of teaching, so that students can focus on teaching and learning that takes place.

From eight basic skills that I described above, the most important for a teacher is how teachers apply these skills so that the learning process can run well. And also the students are able to understand the concepts that are presented by the teacher, then they are able to apply it in their life.