Our discussion in class about the two books this week (Improbable Scholars, Confessions of a Bad Teacher) had me wondering about two things. The quality of my public school education, and what it really means to be a great teacher. As I was trying to fall asleep last night, I was recounting my experience top to bottom, and I came to the conclusion that in my 12 year public school career where I had roughly 40 teachers (one a year in elementary school, and 5 or so a year from middle school on), I can honestly say I had at 2 that flat out, should not be in classrooms, and maybe half a dozen that may have just been in the wrong classroom.
As far as the two teachers go, one was a middle school spanish teacher who played favorites, publicly ridiculed students, only graded certain kids assignments, rarely taught, constantly made kids cry, and he was inclined to be much sweeter to the members of the fairer sex. The other, a math teacher I had in high school, once literally video taped herself teaching a lesson at home, her hand being the only thing in focus, and made us watch it as she sat at her desk with her feet up. She did this so students would not be inclined to ask questions, and she would not have to teach the same lesson multiple times a day. There were other things, of course, but this was the most prominent.
Then I thought about the truly great teachers I've had. Out of the same 40, I had close to 10. I'm lucky- I went to a top 400 United States public school, so I had opportunities I am aware other students definitely do not have, but 10 truly great teachers and I'm beginning to paint a picture of the traits they held in common.
The first being, excitement. I mean this is multiple ways; them excitement about the lesson, instilling excitement about the lesson, and just being excitable people. Of course, this trait has it's time and place as well. I definitely had teachers that were bubbly to the point of ridiculousness, and to the point where it deterred you from thing (who can really get excited about fractions- come on stop playin'). For the great ones, it was always a time and place thing. For Mr. McKillop, it was rewarding students with basketball shots for good grades, the whole class to watch and if you hit yours, you were rewarded with a slurpee at the end of the week (fourth grade). For Mr. Stapleton, it was providing us with creative writing prompts every morning, first thing, and if you liked yours enough, and were brave enough you could share yours in front of the class. Eventually the stories even started to play off of one another (sixth grade). Mrs. Madonia in middle school also somehow managed to make math fun, the woman used to bellow "HAPPY HOLIDAY's, YOUR CHILD IS FAILING" as a joke right before holiday breaks, but her voice was her strength. She wasn't afraid to yell at you in a playful manor should you make an error. This wasn't necessarily a youth thing either, it was just teachers truly passionate about their subject.
After the excitement, and the personification of these teachers rather than them standing in front of the class and scaring you, they were real people as well as teachers. I can still go back to my schools, sit down, and have a conversation with these people because they were people, not educational machines. Their involvement in my life, their interest in us allowed us to know their door was always open and they wanted us to succeed.
I think one of the traits I cannot really talk about with great strength would be the empathy that Alina had. I was never in a situation where most of the kids in my class were ESL, hell I am from one of the least diverse places on the entire planet (95.5 white), but this doesn't mean I don't understand the importance of empathy. When you understand circumstance, you can understand a person, when you understand a person you can teach them. Not only that, they'll respect you more and that will make them actually listen. It is key for teachers to know their student body, it will help them react to things more appropriately, it'll help them understand why they're coming up short in some places while seeing great success in others and they can build off of that.
The last is the natural ability to explain things. It's a trait that makes teaching so difficult, and is hard to learn. It's a matter of having a way with words, I guess. It takes experience first and foremost, knowing what questions students will ask so that you can frame the original explanation in a way that it won't even need to be asked. This is my biggest problem with teaching to the test, it encourages teaching us how to do things, but not why we need to do things. You hear kids so often say, "when will we use this in the real world." And yes, the answer is not always clear, but they have the right to know that physics will be used by potential engineers, and cell biology will be used by doctors, and english literature will be used by no one (just kidding).
In short, a passion for teaching and the right subject placing is the first step to being a great teacher. The question is how do we a) get enough of this in education and b) convince people it's actually there?
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