My Favourite Teacher

What makes a good teacher?

We've all had favourite teachers over the years I'm willing to bet. Everyone, for the most part, has experienced that one person who really pushed them or encouraged them, and it is my belief that it is people like this that make us the people we are today! Is it any wonder then, that the characteristics that these people possess are the very ones that we as future educators strive to achieve? Or that it was them that probably made us want to be teachers in the first place?

When I was in high school I loved to play sports. Given that I lived in a small town, most kids who liked sports took part in everything, not just one or two specific sports. When I started grade nine, I joined the volleyball team. Me being all of 5 feet tall, the coach at the time basically told me that there was no way I could play in the front, and therefore stuck me in the back once in awhile just so he could say he had included me. Even though I didnt enjoy it as much as I had hoped, I stuck it out. When I entered grade eleven, we got a new coach. She took me aside one day and told me that because I was short, I was very quick, and that I had great soft hands. She made me a setter, and really encouraged me to become the best that I could be. I LOVED volleyball that year, and not only that, but I learned a ton and improved leaps and bound over the other years. I may not have got to spike the ball, but what was most important to me was that she gave me a role, and made me feel like I belonged. From that year on, I was our setter, and I was proud of it!

I think that this is a great example of some of the characteristics that made her a great teacher. She not only got to know my individual strengths, but she focused on those positives, instead the negatives, or things I couldn't do. She was funny and personable as well. Some other traits that I also feel are important as an educator are patience, flexibility, organization, kindness, warmness, sense of humour, energy & a passion for teaching. I think that we need to speak to kids on their level instead of talking down to them, and I believe that if you foster good, personal, realtionships with kids, they will most likely feel comfortable coming to you with anything! You never know the impact that just the smallest of your actions as a teacher can have on a childs life forever. For me, this is the reason that I remembered this teacher today. It is also the reason that I coached volleyball myself years later!!! None of my kids were too short to contribute..lol.