A Teacher Asks, "What Makes a Good Teacher?"

My conversation with Devan was very near and dear to my heart. I believe that the profession of teaching is one of the most important professions there is. There really are very few jobs that have such a global effect. So I have been pondering this question, What makes a good teacher good? I think it has to do with being passionate about your subject matter as Devan mentioned in our conversation, but it also has to do with truly loving to work with students. 

I work with six and seven year olds and while they are adorable, sometimes it sucks the life out of me. Some days I think I will never be able to do my job again. Then I go back and I will have had some small moment of connecting with a child that makes all the difference in the world. The fact of the matter is, it is those small moments of helping a child understand a concept or seeing them make gains in their reading or speech that are so gratifying. They make up for all of the challenging aspects of teaching.

Now, I know that college professors are a different beast altogether and most of you reading this are at that point in your academic career.  For a moment now go back and think about all of the teachers you had growing up. If you had a lot of good teachers throughout your formative years, then you probably have a much easier time succeeding in your continuing education. I also bet that most of your good teachers really loved working with kids.

I'd like to close by mentioning one of my favorite bumper stickers that I see on cars here in the U.S..   It says, "If you can read this, thank a teacher." Teachers are a vital part of society and they are very under appreciated. So here in my blog, I'd like to take a minute to salute all of the good teachers out there for doing great work.