Paper #2: Comparison on What Makes a Good Teacher

Paper #2: Comparison on What Makes a Good Teacher

Having finally completed my kindergarten through twelfth grade education and starting on to college, I've taken many different classes from all kinds of different teachers. As a result, I have experience with great teachers, terrible teachers, and everything in between. The good teachers - the ones whose classes I enjoyed being a part of but also taught me a lot - left a lasting impact on me as a person and on my educational life. The bad ones were generally an unpleasant learning experience, where I usually learned less about the subject, and more about the qualities which make a bad educator. As a result of all of my years as a student, I have come to learn that these three qualities are crucial to being a good teacher: dedication, the ability to engage students, and an adept knowledge of the subject being taught. To demonstrate the importance of these qualities, I will use two of my previous teachers as examples: Mr. Carnegie, a Spanish teacher with whom I took three years of Spanish classes, and Mr. Nelson, who was my instructor for Geometry, Pre-Calculus, and AP Calculus. One of these teachers unquestionably possessed all three of the above characteristics which make a good teacher, while the other was lacking in one area, but his ability to excel at the other two still made him what I consider to be a good teacher.

Dedication is vitally important to being successful in any profession. Teaching is no exception to this rule, in fact, it is quite the opposite; dedication is perhaps the most important aspect of being a teacher, and a teacher who isn't dedicated to their job simply cannot be successful. Additionally, a teacher who is dedicated can make up for lacking in other aspects, enough to at least make the class a positive experience for both the instructor and the students. Mr. Nelson and Mr. Carnegie were both very dedicated as teachers. Each of them made it very clear that they cared about the success of all of their students, and much of their time, both inside and outside the classroom, was spent on their work. As the time to take the AP test was approaching, Mr. Nelson really showed that he was dedicated by scheduling times to refresh on concepts and study outside of school - time for which he received no pay, and could have spent it doing anything else he wanted to. Mr. Carnegie showed his dedication to teaching when he made sure to try speaking to his students in Spanish in the halls, or at lunch, or at any other time he saw them outside of the classroom. Without the dedication and enthusiasm each of them showed for teaching every day, they could not have been successful as teachers.

Being able to engage one's students is another essential quality of a great teacher. Many teachers can struggle in this regard, and as a result, students will be bored in class, unfocused, and unwilling to work. An instructor who cannot get his or her students involved in the class results in a bad educational experience for everyone, no matter how intelligent the teacher may be, or how dedicated he or she is. From my high school experience, this is easily the characteristic which most bad teachers lack, and no matter how hard they work and how much they know about their subjects, the students are bored and uninterested. Both of the two teachers I've used as examples here are extremely proficient in this matter. My Spanish teacher was known by most students, even those who never had a class with him, to very light-hearted and fun teacher. If taken out of context, Mr. Carnegie was sometimes closer to being a comedian than a teacher. Mr. Nelson on the other hand was always focused on the math, but his invariably upbeat and relaxed mood made his classes enjoyable to everyone. Also, he taught to all types of students - from a "Math Support" class for students who struggled to grasp basic math concepts and algebra, to AP Calculus, in my case. And in all of those different environments, and with students who ranged from completely novice in mathematics to taking college-level Calculus, Mr. Nelson was able to get all of his students to participate and be involved in the class.

The last aspect of a good teacher is something that many would think to be intuitive or perhaps just a given: knowledge of the subject. To be able to teach something, one would assume that a masterful knowledge of it would be necessary, but it's definitely the least important of these three characteristics. A decent understanding of the subject is required, certainly, but anything more than that can easily be made up for if a teacher is motivated and dedicated enough. That is why I would still consider Mr. Carnegie to be a good teacher. He really wasn't all that fluent in Spanish - I probably could have learned more from someone else, but all of the students in his class still learned a lot, and because of his proficiency in the previous two qualities, everyone enjoyed his class. His dedication and ability to get his students engaged in the subject were enough to overcome not being a native Spanish speaker, and because of his good teaching, I and many other students were encouraged to take a third year of Spanish, instead of just the required two. Mr. Nelson, on the other hand, excelled in this just as he did in the other two areas. He was really a genius when it came to math. This is demonstrated by the fact that he is very capable of teaching all levels of high school mathematics - many math teachers will only teach one part of it, such as only teaching algebra, or only geometry - in the same way a history teacher will only teach about a specific time period or geographical area. That wasn't the case with Mr. Nelson - as a mentioned, he was my teacher for both geometry and calculus, and was good enough in both to prepare me for high level math courses in college.

Throughout my kindergarten through twelfth grade education, I was fortunate enough to have some great and inspirational teachers such as Mr. Nelson and Mr. Carnegie, and I wouldn't be the person I am today without them. I unfortunately also had plenty of teachers who fell on the opposite end of that spectrum; terrible teachers who really could make me hate school at times. From analyzing both kinds of experiences, I determined that the three most important qualities for teachers to have are dedication, the capability to involve and engage students, and knowledge of their subject. Mr. Nelson, my math teacher for several years of high school, is a perfect example of a great teacher who has all of these qualities. Mr. Carnegie's Spanish classes, on the other hand, proved that he was able to be a good teacher despite lacking a bit in the third of those three characteristics. Both were great teachers and I was lucky to be placed in their classes.