"What Makes A Good Teacher" In-Class Assignment...

1. The thing that differentiates the fantastic teachers from the average ones?: Passion. What makes one a great teacher is the passion for not only teaching, but also for the subject that they are teaching. 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. Mr. Escalante is a great example of what I describe as a great teacher. In the scene where one of his students is writing on the board, gets frustrated and wants to give up. He tells him that he has no "ganas" (or desire). He shows his passion and basically tells the student that he doesn't want it bad enough. "If you don't have the ganas, I will give it to you because I'm an expert.".

2. According to Dan Brown, being a great teacher takes practice, patience, and determination. "It's important to unpack the recipe to see how more and more teachers can achieve sustained effectiveness-rather than depart the profession in discouragement, as I once did. And just like a recipe, eliminating key ingredients or counting on inferior-quality replacements is an invitation to disaster." Mr. Escalante definitely meets this criteria, as he continued to fight for his students. He believed in them when everyone esle had given up hope. " My kids could teach you a thing or two, Johnny.".

3. Sir Ken Robinson's criteria for teaching was simple: Always encourage the creativity of the students. He says "We are educated out of our creativity.". While Mr. Escalante doesn't necessarily stress the idea of creativity to his students, he doesn't discourage it either. He uses his own creativity to find a way to connect to each of his students. He teaches them in his own way. For example, in the scence where he's driving Pancho's car, he teaches him a valuable life lesson:
Escalante: "Right or left?"
Pancho: "GO RIGHT! GO RIGHT!"
Escalante: [Escalante turns right, screams to halt in front of a dead end]
Escalante: "All you can see is the turn, you don't see the road ahead..."
4. Sir Ken Robinson's criteria for teaching are very clear: encourage the creativity. Stop medicating the children and steering them away from a future that could be great for them. He would probably rate Mr. Escalante's teaching as good. Maybe not great, because of the fact that he doesn't focus too much on the students' creativity, but good because he DOES go out of his way to teach them not only how to do advanced mathematics, but also the fact that they are capable of doing it. You can see that in the scene where he takes Angel into the library. He gives him three copies of the book, just so that he can learn without having to worry about what his friends or family will say about him.