http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Teachers-t.html?em
"Building a Better Teacher" talks about the comprehensive study of 1.200 schools to find the "best teachers in America" and the attempt to find what qualities they have and whether their skills can be taught. Some excerpts:
"....But what makes a good teacher? There have been many quests for the one essential trait, and they have all come up empty-handed. Among the factors that do not predict whether a teacher will succeed: a graduate-school degree, a high score on the SAT, an extroverted personality, politeness, confidence, warmth, enthusiasm and having passed the teacher-certification exam on the first try. When Bill Gates announced recently that his foundation was investing millions in a project to improve teaching quality in the United States, he added a rueful caveat. “Unfortunately, it seems the field doesn’t have a clear view of what characterizes good teaching,” Gates said. “I’m personally very curious.”
When Doug Lemov conducted his own search for those magical ingredients, he noticed something about most successful teachers that he hadn’t expected to find: what looked like natural-born genius was often deliberate technique in disguise. “Stand still when you’re giving directions,” a teacher at a Boston school told him. In other words, don’t do two things at once. Lemov tried it, and suddenly, he had to ask students to take out their homework only once.
It was the tiniest decision, but what was teaching if not a series of bite-size moves just like that?
..."The findings were posted on a website with videos, strategies, etc. of these "effective teachers" at http://uncommonschools.org/usi/aboutUs/taxonomy.php
Jeff Green, veteran history teacher at Vista High School, told me last semester that teaching is one of the few professions that requires you to grow into your own voice, and to have a healthy sense of awareness and acceptance about yourself. In light of "subversive teaching," I think this is very true. After we have awareness of our subject area, hope, enthusiasm, humor, and all of those things, however, there is still quite a bit a teacher must have to succeed. After re-reading my letters of recommendation from a few teachers, I realize it also has to do with these interstitial, spur-of-the-moment, spontaneous planning moments, too. Or, as my 7th grade French teacher Anne Marie Godfrey put it (she's now at Torrey Pines High School), "the most important qualities of a teacher are a sense of humor, strong organizational skills. a strong sense of self, and the flexibility to adjust to plan A or B. And an appreciation of our increasingly diverse population."
We must always keep the seed of reflection, subversion, activism, etc. within us. I like the idea of "learn the culture, be the culture, change the culture." These ideals are the lanterns that we must always keep lit, even if the environment around us seems dark and murky.
Developing a voice and strong sense of self...it is certainly good to know that these are key characteristics. But there is no 24-hour or year-long plan that will magically produce this in people. I have spent years trying to solidify my sense of who I am and using my own voice as a writer and speaker. I don't think I could even attempt teaching now if I hadn't started working on these core traits years ago. But what if someone doesn't have it? Can they grow into it in time? Or is this also part of the "you either got it or you don't" package?
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