What are characteristics of GREAT teachers?

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Permalink Reply by Jaime Gratton on July 3, 2009 at 5:50am

Organization, solid knowledge of the content, a good report with the students, a leader within the faculty/staff community, experience (but not necessarily a lot of it, I have met many 2-3 year teachers that are great with their students), and a love for the subject they are teaching.

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Permalink Reply by Rhonda Whittington on July 3, 2009 at 12:31pm

I just wrote a blog about a great teacher. You might like to read it. http://rhondaramblings.blogspot.com/2009/06/tribute-to-great-teache...

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Permalink Reply by greg on July 4, 2009 at 8:57am

Hi Gerry,
For ideas please see http://www.nbpts.org/. This site will give you very specific characteristics of what makes an effective teacher.
Greg

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Permalink Reply by Jade Koch on July 6, 2009 at 11:31am

Great Teachers: Do what they can to make a difference for every child in their class.

They are: organized, responsible, hard-working, on-time, creative, have excellent classroom management, and truly care about the well-being of each child in their class.

Great teachers are the first ones to arrive at work and the last to leave. They also spend their "time-off" in the summer planning for the next year, because they truly care and want to provide the best educational experience for their class.

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Permalink Reply by Denise Jeanne Foures-Aalbu on July 6, 2009 at 4:40pm

Great Teachers provide a positive commUNITY where all can learn and collaborate. I agree with what Jade has stated and they do in fact make a difference in the lives of others.

I appreciate all the Great Teachers that I have learned from.

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Permalink Reply by Gerry on July 6, 2009 at 12:35pm

These are a few of the characteristics we'll discuss next week. Thanks for your help !!!
Great teachers have high expectations for their students but even higher for themselves. They have a perpetual self improvement complex. They set a positive tone for their classes and there is a high level of engagement with the students.
They also collaborate with others and are comfortable incorporating new ideas.

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Permalink Reply by Ian Carmichael on July 7, 2009 at 1:41am

Just a few personal thoughts.
Great teacher are engaged - with education and the world. They are not, I contend, school drudges and workaholics. (Yes, they work hard, but there is more to them. Mr Chips is long gone; Goodbye. Perhaps even Mr Holland has gone.) Great teachers are called, and not driven. They are inviting and not coercing. They have a sense of balance in life, and teaching may be at its fulcrum, but it is not their universe of existence.

Thanks for reading.

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Permalink Reply by Ann Hyde on July 7, 2009 at 3:40am

I think the truly great teachers are rare. They sacrifice everything for their students. This is why so many of them burn out. I think the GOOD teachers are wiser, because they are still organized, knowledgeable, funny, engaging, caring, and remarkable people of depth and charm. But the good teachers don't give everything to their students. They keep family and work separate, and know how to replenish the reserves that students tend to deplete. In the long run, I think the students respect the distance. When teachers give everything they have to their students, there's nothing left for themselves or their families and friends.

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Permalink Reply by MaryPat Brun on July 8, 2009 at 4:44am

I couldn't agree more! I have always wondered why teachers were considered great based upon how much planning, creating, and networking they were willing to do outside of their schools and work weeks. I'm not saying that some of this shouldn't happen... I'm doing it right now. But, there needs to be a balance. If my body, mind, and spirit are not nourished through my life away from my students, then I will not be a great teacher.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Pass on July 7, 2009 at 6:36am

I have asked several teachers who I consider "great" teachers what makes them so good and I always get the same answer. They love their students. Based upon these responses, I've actually written an article on what it means to love children. Take this for what it is worth. But, I don't think that it should be minimized.

www.pass-ed.com

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Permalink Reply by MaryPat Brun on July 8, 2009 at 4:53am

I have learned about the characteristics of great teachers through the work of Todd Whitaker. He has written several books about the qualities of effective teachers and leaders. In my opinion, he is the guru on the subject.

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Permalink Reply by Gerry on July 8, 2009 at 1:03pm

I agree Todd whitaker has some great books on this topic.
In fact a lot of the discussion will center around his book What Great Teachers Do Differently

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