What I Think Makes a Good Teacher...

I’ve had many teachers in my life, and most of them were alright. Standard. Not great necessarily, but not bad in any way either. However, I have had a rare few great teachers. And ironically, all of them were English teachers of mine, which happens to be my all-time favorite subject. I love to read and write. If I could have it as a job, I’d do it all day! The thing that differentiates the fantastic teachers from the average ones?: Passion. Sure, there are some teachers out there who used to love their jobs, and they were probably great at it once, but they’ve been doing it for YEARS! They just get tired of it after a while, and it becomes a means to an end.  And then there are the ones out there who just… ended up in that position. Whether it was from a lack of interest in any other majors in college, or pressure from a long line of family members who were educators. They ended up as a teacher and hated the job, hated the students, or worse yet, they’re just indifferent.

But the thing that makes one a great teacher is the passion for not only teaching, but also for the subject that they are teaching. If you would love to be an art history teacher, and you get stuck teaching social science… Are you going to be super excited to teach? Probably not. Are you going to love your job and still have the same passion for it? I highly doubt it. The trick is to not only take your passion and run with it, but also to fight for it and keep it as close to you as possible. Because the teachers who are inspired by their jobs and show that they believe in what they do... They are the ones who will inspire others with the same passion. They are the ones who truly teach.