After doing a teacher interview, and having background from previously talking to teachers I have found it to be most impactful when students can tell that the teachers care. Impactful teachers need to demonstrate to students their passion for both the content and the students as people. For starters, when a teacher is enthusiastic and excited about a lesson and teaching it is more inviting and makes it easier for a student to want to learn. Furthermore, when kids see that even the teacher is bored by what they are learning, they are much less likely to want to engage and participate. Being a teacher, you are setting an example for the students. Students know that a lot of the content learned before high school is not very applicable to life so without showing passion for the subject it is much harder to get them to want to learn. Secondly, it is important for students to see that teachers care about them as people and not just their performance during school. When teachers overlook students because they continually show that they don’t want to learn or because a student doesn’t need help with a material, it can make it harder for students to connect with a teacher. School is so much more than just pushing content and it is important that teachers are able to form connections with their students. For some students, school is an escape from the responsibility and heaviness of their home lives and when teachers disregard how students feel, whether or not it relates to the class, the student no longer has an escape from reality.
Another quality I have found to be impactful teachers is the concept of lifelong learning. When a teacher makes it apparent that they are learning from the students as well as the students learning from the teacher it opens up a two way street. When teachers just continuously talk at their students as a way of “teaching” it can sometimes make students feel like they are alone in the process and causes a type of disconnect from the teacher as they feel like teachers don’t understand them. However, if a teacher shows that they can also learn from the students it can show that they are learning with the student and not simply helping the student. For example, I had a teacher that would openly admit when she didn’t know the answer to a question asked by a student, but she would then write down the question, research it, and help us find the answer to it. It was a subtle reminder that she doesn’t always have the answer but is willing to put in the time to help us find it. Therefore, speaking from my experience and the interviews I’ve done, two qualities that make a teacher more impactful is showing that they care as well as being a lifelong learner.
