10 Qualities That Make A Good Teacher (Richard M. Reis)

• Article - What Makes a Good Teacher

GOOD TEACHERS?

1. Really Want to Be Good Teachers.
2. Take Risks.
3. Have a Positive Attitude.
4. Never Have Enough Time.
5. Think of Teaching as a Form of Parenting.
6. Try to Give Students Confidence.
7. Try to Keep Students-And Themselves-Off Balance.
8. Try to Motivate Students by Working Within Their Incentive System.
9. Do Not Trust Student Evaluations, Neither do bad teachers.
10. Listen to Their Students.

"The trouble with good teachers is that, finally, they won't be contained in a corral labeled "good teachers." The trouble with exciting teachers is that they are almost always mavericks, trotting blithely off into some distant sunset where no one can brand them. The trouble with inspiring teachers is that they won't stay put long enough to be measured, perhaps because they know that if they did they would be expiring teachers."

What a great article! Thanks Richard M. Reis (PhD, Stanford University) for sharing your experiences and thoughts about some of the qualities that make a good teacher. I suppose we will not understand how good this reflective article is before we read and reflect the full story. Otherwise, it will be like memorizing PowerPoints without understanding the underlying stories (substance) supporting them. Yeah, we are kind of genetically and mentally engineered to digest stories. Stories that are memorable often hang around us for life. Please click here (or the above link) and reflect.

Yeah, it is easy to read about it. What about applying some of these qualities, or characteristics to our own teaching/coaching/facilitating/training/mentoring/nurturing/guiding... :)