The headmaster sent an article from Inside Higher Education that dealt with excellence in teaching at universities.
I thought it was interesting and handed it out to my senior English class (those that were here, anyway), and after they read it, I asked them to think about really great teachers they’d had and what qualities they shared. Here’s what they came up with:
- communicate clearly
- match curriculum effectively to different students
- “a certain level of frankness”
- admit their ignorance and mistakes and then do something about them
- stimulate individual thought
- make least interesting parts of the course interesting
- are self-critical and not dead-set in their ways
- are on your side
- are well-rounded (so they can bring in examples and ideas from outside the course material)
- have a sense of humor
- match teaching style to different students
- not averse to taking risks
- show “fairness in grading”
The last led to a discussion about grading that we will continue tomorrow.
