What qualities make up a good teacher?

To new students, teachers are simply people who teach. However, the more they get to know their teachers; they start to understand them as a person instead of a teacher. They even go further to say that their teachers are good teachers. But what is a good teacher?

To know what makes a good teacher, there are three things students look for: personality, teaching methods and leniency.

For personality, students look for a variety of things. For one, they look at the teacher’s attitude toward the class as a whole. Then they look to see how the teachers act toward individual students. Finally they look to see how the teacher feels towards teaching and if they enjoy it or not.

For sophomore Carolyn Cain, she finds a caring interactive personality is what makes a good teacher.

“A good teacher doesn’t make you feel stupid,” Cain said. “Instead they are caring toward their students and their study. They should also interact with students as well as keep up with current events.”

For teaching methods, students try to understand how their teachers teach. They look at the teachers layout of the day and if it is organized. They also look at the teachers way of teaching is appealing or distracting. Not to mention that students study the papers that they receive and the amount of homework they get.

Sophomore Taylor Stewart thinks a good teacher’s teaching method should be around helping the students.

“Teachers should be direct to students,” Stewart said. “Teachers who help students all the time make connections and relationships that will help that student succeed. Teachers can further expand this field by challenging their students and apply what they learn to real world scenarios.”

Lastly, the leniency of a teacher is simply studied on the behavior of the classroom. Students look at how the teacher reacts to a loud and a quiet classroom. They also study how teachers are as a person, whether kind or strict. Students even focus on the teacher’s rules for the classroom and how they affect the classroom.

To sophomore Daniel Adeniji, a strict teacher is a good teacher.

“A teacher should respect his/hers responsibilities,” Adeniji said. “They also should have knowledge that we do not have and also be loyal to the school. Teachers can become a good teacher by being friendly, but strict. They can also talk straight to a student and have a writing background.”

So what makes a good teacher? It is hard to have a complete answer. Each student reacts differently to the many things teachers do. However, it does not mean that anyone teacher is a bad teacher, for there is at least one student who finds a teacher a good teacher.