What Makes a Great Teacher?

I recently came across an article in Scholastic Administrator magazine that asked several superintendents to opine on the characteristics of great teachers. Their responses are interesting and, in my opinion, right on.

"A great teacher must be resilient." Gregory E. Thornton, Milwaukee Public Schools

"A great teacher invites every child to join a community of learners." Maria Goodloe-Johnson, Seattle Public Schools

"Much of what makes a great teacher today is the same as it has always been. It's a passion for a subject, an inherently caring attitude, the ability to trigger receptiveness to learning in children, and a knack for coaching kids in fun ways...Good teachers are able to sift though a world of information and weave it into new lessons for 21st-century minds, while also teaching children how to do the same." Art Jarvis, Tacoma Public Schools

"Great teachers are instructional leaders and curriculum designers." Suzanne Freeman, Trussville (AL) City Schools

"Great teachers love what they do and perceive teaching as their calling." Neil Pedersen, Chapel Hill - Carrboro (NC) City Schools

"Great teachers are empathetic and engaged...They are also flexible, able to multitask, and willing to collaborate in professional learning communities." Keith Lutz, Millard (NE) Public Schools

"Great teachers seem to capture the artistry and the science of teaching." Jose Torres, Elgin (IL) District U-46

"A great teacher needs to excel in five key areas...comprehensive knowledge of subject matter...good communication skills...demonstrate to students that they care about them...have to be lifelong learners...must have outstanding interpersonal skills." Gene White, Indianapolis Public Schools

I might add that great teachers are infinitely patient, as good with parents as with children, never complacent, and tireless workers.

What's a Teacher Worth?

I've watched the fight in Wisconsin between the governor and the public employees' unions with fascination and without knowing exactly how I feel about the whole thing. Have unions in some cases protected poor performing teachers to the detriment of students? Certainly. Is Wisconsin going broke because teachers are soaking the system and getting rich in the process. Certainly not. While I've always seen teaching as a calling, a path one chooses for its intrinsic value, I can't help but wonder what education would look like if teachers were paid more. What if our best and brightest could envision a comfortable life as a teacher instead of in law, medicine, or investment banking? Nicholas Kristof's recent New York Times op-ed piece , Pay Teachers More, points out that we pay for what we value in this country, and it's clearly not teachers.

Raising Our Children to Leave Us

The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children is a book from which any parent can learn a thing or two. I recently saw author Wendy Mogel speak at the Nation Association of Independent Schools Annual Conference. She's quite entertaining and sensible. Although her talk didn't seem to offer much of a message to teachers, her advice for parents is right on. I was inspired to buy her book (my first e-book purchase on the iPad) and have found it to be filled with good practical keys to raising well-behaved, responsible, and grateful children. The book's "aha" moment for me was a short subsection of chapter four titled, Raising Our Children to Leave Us. While this simple phrase makes perfect sense, I'd never really thought of it before. As the parent of a high school senior, I'm mere months away from this very reality. In truth, though, this is exactly what we've been doing, whether or not we realized it or embraced it. The extent to which our daughter is successful on her own at college will depend on the competencies we've build in her, or more accurately, allowed her to develop over the last seventeen-plus years. Dr. Mogel's advice to parents reminds me of what I always say about  dieting: it's simple, not easy.