A teacher is a professional educator who educates, guides, gives assessments, and evaluates students. Teachers are a determinant of the quality of the nation’s education. Teachers not only teach formal education, but also other education and can become role models for their students. So we can understand that the role of the teacher is very important in the process of creating a quality next generation, both intellectually and morally.
A teacher must be able to educate his students to become a generation that is ready to compete and has good morals. Meanwhile, being a teacher in today’s era is not easy because currently, teachers have their own challenges. Teachers are not only required to be able to adapt to the behavior and attitudes of the students who are the millennial generation, but also related to the current rapid development of information technology.
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Therefore, teachers must be able to innovate in creating a learning atmosphere that is comfortable, fun and has a positive impact on student development. Therefore, as a solution to this problem, here are some tips and tricks for becoming an innovative teacher:
- Understanding the Character of Students
Character education in the digital revolution era is very dependent on the internet. The challenge going forward is character education will be faced with the internet where students are very dependent on the internet, so with this phenomenon, the community or students should be improved spiritually as a generation of morals and character, parents need help to supervise their sons/ daughters in using internet. - Always Upgrade Yourself
A teacher needs to continue to update the knowledge they have. We must continue to learn to make changes and better improvements. Every year, students come with a variety of new faces and new terms. They come with the influence of technology and information trends that change at any time. Therefore, a teacher needs to adjust the disciplines based on current conditions that occur. Starting from the delivery of methods, how to communicate with students, to the types of activities. - Utilize Digital Learning Systems
The digital learning model was developed to address educational disparities and to improve the quality of education. Digital competence is built so that human resources, especially teachers and students, master digital technology. Therefore teachers must be able to maximize the use of technology to support digital learning systems. In the digital era, teachers must have the competence to be able to access the internet, use various internet-based educational applications. - Improving Intrapersonal Ability
Interpersonal skills are indeed very important for a teacher to have because these skills include several abilities such as warming relationships, making an easier approach to students, building relationships constructively, using diplomacy, and techniques to dilute learning situations in class. In the revolutionary era 4.0, the teacher no longer functions as a center in learning or teacher-centered, but has changed to become student-centered where the teacher becomes a facilitator for providing students’ learning needs. - Make Interesting Learning Media
As the main component of learning, teachers and prospective teachers are required to be skilled in creating interesting learning in class, the goal is that students won’t be bored with the material being explained. In addition, the learning media created must be able to make students understand the real picture of the material being conveyed. Through their creativity and skills, teachers can create interesting learning methods using visual, audio and audio-visual media. Teachers can take advantage of various learning platforms that are easy to use.
- Have High Creativity and Innovative Ability
As a teacher, they are required to master the substance of their field of study and scientific methodology and be able to package it into learning materials following the mandate of the curriculum and the character of students, be able to design learning and its learning tools, by applying innovative learning models that can improve soft skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity or invention. - Oriented to High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)
The teacher must give everything to provide this hots-oriented learning. However, we can’t go there directly without going through low order thinking skills (lots) first. This means that a teacher should not only be complacent when students have reached the minimum point but must be even higher in order to achieve maximum competence in a lesson. A student will never be able to analyze a problem without an understanding of something definitive. - Sharing, Discussion, Collaborative
As teachers, we need to open a sharing space to listen to what students have achieved with their own creativity. The teacher must be a loyal listener. By listening to their feedback, reflections and new ideas, it is hoped that students can develop more. Dare to express opinions and speak in public will educate the mentality of students. After that, we respond to what they get discussion by giving input or appreciation. Praise and suggestions that build the development of their potential will have a very positive impact. The teacher can also provide a trigger as a trigger for the depth of students’ analysis of this sharing space. The third is collaborating with students. Students are given a place to collaborate with each other. This is expected to foster an established social attitude.
- Growing Student Confidence with Discovery Learning
Giving trust to students means freeing them to develop creativity. By freeing students to be creative, discover new things, and learn on their own, they will no longer make school the only learning center. The teacher’s task in this case is to always accommodate and give the widest possible space for what they find. If it’s still lacking, perfect it. If it’s not right, complete it. And when there are interesting discoveries, they are immediately developed into masterpieces. That way, many innovations will be created from various characters and backgrounds of different students.
Those are some tips for being an innovative teacher in the digital era. Being an innovative teacher is not just using sophisticated tools, but also a combination of creativity and innovation in the learning process that suits the needs of students. Creative and innovative teachers can be the answer to the difficulty of conveying material in a fun and easy-to-understand way for students.
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