Teacherscribe's Teaching Thought #2 (in-service week)

Inservice Teaching Thought #2 –

What it means to be a great teacher.

Since we all had to answer the question what is good teaching, I thought I’d share thing interesting read, The Heart of Teaching: What it Means to Be a Great Teacher.

This is what the article states are the key traits of great teachers: you are kind, you are compassionate, you are empathetic, you are positive, you are a builder, and you inspire.

This is how those traits break down for me –

Kind – Kindness is the easiest way to win over kids.  As the iconic Rita Pierson once said in her TED Talk – “Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.”  Practicing kindness is the most effective way to show kids you care.

Empathy – Empathy is, of course, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others.  This is exactly what Atticus personifies in To Kill a Mockingbird.  Lord knows empathy isn’t always easy when I am working my ass off to deliver content or I have worked my ass off to design an interesting lesson plan and I look up and see apathy in the form of yawns or blank stares or students staring at their cell phones.  But every time I try to design a lesson plan or a discussion, I try to view it from their point of view.  It doesn’t always work well for me, and God knows it’s hard at times when I see apathy every day from a student, but I know that – thanks to empathy – that I was once much like this.  If I can turn things around and change, then there is no reason that my students can’t do the same thing.

Positivity – I’ve written about this so many times.  Positivity is the key to so many things, not just being a good or great teacher.  How can you not get fired up for your job when you look out at the students in your classes or your colleagues in school and not see the potential and hope?

Builder – Great teachers and coaches do this.  They make connections and they build relationships.  If I can do anything, I can do this.  A few years ago when Coach Mumm had his Honorary Teaching Night, where a senior football player selected a teacher who had impacted them, I knew there was going to be one reason I was picked (if I was to be picked, that is).  And that’s because of the relationship I built with one of the seniors.  Not because of an assignment or lesson.  When Derick Newland selected me, I was proven right.  It was because of the relationship we had built over 36 weeks of College Comp I and II.

Inspiration – That’s why I have dubbed myself “Chief Inspiration Officer.”  If someone comes to me – student or colleague – and I don’t offer them a little positivity, kindness, and positivity, then I need to find another field of work.