Comments on: What Makes A Great Teacher (Part One)

By: Taping My Teaching, and Thoughts on Evaluation | A Patchwork Life

Taping My Teaching, and Thoughts on Evaluation | A Patchwork Life — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:32:14 +0000

[...] bonuses, teacher tenure and the impact good teachers can have on students, but how do we know what make a great teacher and also, how can we see how to improve [...]

By: 2010: A Recap | A Patchwork Life

2010: A Recap | A Patchwork Life — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 14:55:40 +0000

[...] me set some trends for the year as I moved into more teaching-focused posts like my series on what makes a great teacher. I also joined some conversations about working moms and leisure time, as well as overscheduled [...]

By: What Makes A Great Teacher, Part Four « A Patchwork Life: writing, teaching, learning more each day

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:16:54 +0000

[...] pm · Filed under conversations, education, teaching I thought this series (which I did in one, two, three parts already) was over, but then another long-form article on how to make great [...]

By: jackie

jackie — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:26:19 +0000

Hmmmm. I think I would not like going to school if I taught at a different kind of school, which I think would say more about their culture and my personality than whether I had the potential to be a good teacher somewhere I was better suited to be. I agree with you about staying late, though– being a good teacher means being aware of the incredible time it requires to be a good one and to be a valuable member of your school community.

I’m curious about the idea of “liking school”–I loved school as a kid, but I wonder if it’s possible to have hated it as a kid, and be a teacher who wants to make school better for all the other kids who might hate it, for whatever reason.

By: Tammy Gillmore

Tammy Gillmore — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:55:52 +0000

Good teachers: ones who like going to school and ones who do not might staying late. All these teachers do not use the same methods, but they are good at what they do use, for they like school.

I really think liking school is a definite pre-requisite to being a good teacher.

Maybe?

By: jackie

jackie — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:06:54 +0000

Becca, you are anticipating some of what I’m going to post tomorrow! But I completely agree– student engagement only happens in concurrence with teacher engagement, and both are symbiotic and thrive in connection with each other. And your example is also one reason why I will always be in favor of class sizes that are as small as possible–juggling the macro and micro is easier when there’s fewer students.

By: Becca

Becca — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:34:40 +0000

These days I’m feeling like it’s like porn: you know it when you see it. Actually, I do think I can name one characteristic: a good teacher is aware of everything that is going on in her classroom at every moment, from how engaged each student is, to how much of the content each student is grasping (and as you know, those are two different things), to how she needs to shift her teaching moment by moment to engage everyone and help everyone grasp the content. That is the weakness of my worst teachers: they are unable to see thebig picture and balance the macro and micro at once, that is, to engage with multiple students on multiple levels at the same time, while simultaneously keeping track of the group. I see this with both bad teachers who are strong on content and bad teachers who are weak on content.

By: jackie

jackie — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:34:08 +0000

I think that technology is like a foreign language– immersion is key, to help you get over the initial awkward and unfamiliar stage! I’m lucky enough to have access to a lot of technology and support when it comes to technology, but I still am sometimes wary of jumping in head-first.

I’m going to talk about this more in my next post, but one of my mom’s constant sayings was that you have to love teaching to keep doing it, because otherwise, it’s just too hard!

By: geekymom

geekymom — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:01:38 +0000

I’m currently teaching teachers right now. In theory, I’m teaching them about how to use technology effectively in their teaching. I think of it more like an immersion course. They’re embedded in the tools right now so that when they get in the classroom, they’ll have some things at their fingertips that they can use. I’m not a great teacher. I’m a good teacher. I don’t know what would make me a great teacher. Practice, certainly. But I also think a certain joy in teaching, in seeing students succeed, of really connecting to them. I have had that. And when I do, I am getting closer to a great teacher. I think that joy, that connection is also about really hearing your students, really accepting their contribution to the class, letting those contributions inform your practice in real ways that students can see.

My mom, too, was a great teacher. Her students loved her. She had a real enthusiasm for teaching. My enthusiasm waxes and wanes depending on the group of students.

I’m looking forward to your next installment.