A GOOD TEACHER AFFECTS STUDENTS
A Good Teacher Can Affect Students in Significant Ways
A student may like a teacher for a variety of reasons: the student identifies with the teacher and thinks the teacher is cool in appearance or dress; the teacher has a friendly personality and remembers the student by name, or the teacher exhibits fairness in discipline and grading. Conversely, if the teacher elicits a negative response in the student in any of these areas, the student may develop a dislike of the teacher, which can adversely affect the student’s performance.
Teachers can be remembered for their traits, positive or negative, for years to come, but a student’s subjective feelings can be trumped by a good teacher who is able to do two things: exhibit a love of their subject and explain that subject to their students.
For example, a student may not care anything about American history, but if the teacher is enthusiastic about the subject, the student stands a better chance of listening and remembering salient points. The ability to teach comes into play, especially with subjects like mathematics and science. Lucky is the student who has teachers who can adequately explain each successive step in math, from fractions and multiplication tables to geometric shapes and algebraic equations.
Teachers who, by being good at their jobs, cause students to pay attention and grasp concepts are giving students the building blocks of learning and success in the classroom. The most ambivalent student remembers a time when they correctly answered a question in class or when a teacher praised them for their work on a project. Good teachers recognize the power of positive reinforcement and use this to the student’s advantage. The adage that “success breeds success” comes into play and can encourage a student to achieve at a higher level than they would without the teacher’s recognition and reinforcement.
A GOOD TEACHER AFFECTS STUDENTS
When this success strikes a chord of personal desire and interest, the student is on his way to discovering what may become the basis of a career or beloved avocation. Possibilities open up and, based on his successes in the classroom, the student can begin to see himself as a doctor, astronaut, teacher, or author.
The good teacher is a visionary who sees potential in the student and is able to help the student embrace that potential. If also humble, the teacher knows it is a magical mixture of his own expertise and the smile of the education muses that light the fires of curiosity and accomplishment within the student.
Given time and life experience beyond the classroom, it is this teacher the student remembers as having affected him the most. The student realizes his path in life has been shaped, in part, by the teacher who loved and his subject and helped him experience some measure of success.
It is this teacher who Oscar and Pulitzer Prize winners acknowledge from the podium; it is this teacher the student visits on trips home; it is this teacher the student tells his grandchildren about.
