What Makes a Great Teacher? - From Teachers to When I Taught
I think what makes a teacher great is one who is excited to teach and passionate. I found that my favorite teachers were ones who really enjoyed the subject and wanted others to enjoy as much as possible.
I have a few examples I'll go over below which consist of childhood, graduate school, my own mother, and my own experiences as a substitute teacher.
The first teacher was an English teacher in 4th grade. She was so passionate about creative writing and becoming better at writing. She gave us assignments that really tested our creativity and our writing. My favorite project was to write a report like we were from someone in our genealogy. I wrote about my Irish ancestors. She actually inspired me to write poetry and short stories which led to the author I am today.
In high school was my clarinet tutor. She used to teach before retiring. But she was the mother to my band director at the time and wanted to give me lessons. She saw that I could be better at playing clarinet if someone were to help me through it. Once her lessons began, she gave me many tricks about playing that helped me tremendously. I found myself enjoying clarinet because of her instruction. I enjoyed marching band a lot more because of her.
A couple teachers of mine were in my graduate school studies. One taught me geochemistry. I enjoyed her lectures because she understood so much geochemistry and could explain it to where I would understand it. She worked with me on my thesis at the time and how to format it. My thesis advisor was another. You could tell he ENJOYED what he taught. He loved every moment from sampling to teaching. He wanted to inspire my work and also help me mentor others too. I felt when we worked 1 on 1, I learned a lot from him even beyond teaching.
My mother is also a science teacher for high school. Many times I ended up in her classes even out of school because I came to help. I found, even with high schoolers and their shenanigans, that she really wanted them to understand science and chemistry. Students appreciated her helping them or working through things. Even some students came back to her in other classes just because they needed a safe space to be with.
I was a substitute teacher for a few months. I taught in MANY classes and subjects. It was right after COVID and people getting ready for the holidays. So after I graduated with my masters, I taught. I found myself enjoying being in the teaching area. I wanted to help kids understand what they were learning. I wanted to help give insight to college since I was just out of it. Yes there were times I was aggravated and had some headaches, they were being kids. But some were excited about me teaching because they appreciated the insight and help. It was fulfilling for that short period of time. And I still made an impact on some of these students.
