My lunch date yesterday asked me "what makes a good teacher?", and I am ashamed and embarrassed to report that I did not have a succinct and brilliant response! All my years of teaching, and more recently, drilling the value of just such a response into my student teachers, and there I was, floundering for the right words to describe the incredibly complex and important work we do each day!!!
Hindsight is always 20/20, so after reflecting all evening and into the night, here is what I've come up with:
Effective teachers are combined servants, scientists and artists. A "good" teacher posesses a servant heart; he strives to understand, and is not "above" serving the specific needs of his students, their parents and his colleagues, indeed, he lives for it! In addition, he has grasp of a decent instructional repertoire and a reasonable understanding of how the brain works, so that he knows when to paint with which colour in his pallette.
For some, the results of such characteristics may appear to come naturally, however it is critical that we can articulate the traits of a good teacher, so that we can constantly strive towards excellence.
Teaching is an important and often lonely profession. We need to know why we do what we do, and how to do it well.
Hindsight is always 20/20, so after reflecting all evening and into the night, here is what I've come up with:
Effective teachers are combined servants, scientists and artists. A "good" teacher posesses a servant heart; he strives to understand, and is not "above" serving the specific needs of his students, their parents and his colleagues, indeed, he lives for it! In addition, he has grasp of a decent instructional repertoire and a reasonable understanding of how the brain works, so that he knows when to paint with which colour in his pallette.
For some, the results of such characteristics may appear to come naturally, however it is critical that we can articulate the traits of a good teacher, so that we can constantly strive towards excellence.
Teaching is an important and often lonely profession. We need to know why we do what we do, and how to do it well.
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