A Celebration of Teaching: Dr. Jody Jessup-Anger

By Sally Doyle

On May 19, 2013, I graduated with a Master of Education degree from Marquette University. Dr. Jody Jessup-Anger is at the top of a long list of individuals to whom I owe a debt of gratitude. Without her support, wisdom, guidance, advice, and care for me as an individual, I would not have remained in the EDPL program. In fact, I almost left—twice.

For the past four years, I have been a nontraditional student. As a full time working professional, I returned to graduate school after many years of educational hiatus. My classmates were young; many were fresh out of college and some were probably half my age. Needless to say, finding common ground and integrating were very difficult for me. I felt neither connected to, nor a part of, the class. I did not feel as though I belonged. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was a minority.

Beginning with the first day of class, Dr. Jessup-Anger, or Jody, as she is known to her graduate students, took an interest in me as a person. She took time to ask me how things were going, how I was feeling, and whether I was having any difficulties. She noticed that I was struggling—not with classwork, but personally. She worked to develop a strong bond with me. Rather than simply encourage me to stick with graduate school, Jody patiently explored the sources of my discomfort, inquired about my thoughts, offered perspective, and ultimately, encouraged me to remember the reasons why I began graduate school. As a result of her kindness, I felt comfortable seeking her out for discussion and counsel, even in semesters where she was not my professor. She always welcomed me to her office with great enthusiasm.

Jody understands that teaching goes beyond the textbook and the classroom—it involves touching the lives of your students. As I studied student development theory, I began to realize that Jody is a living example of applied learning. She embodies the Jesuit principle of cura personalis that is part of our Marquette culture. I’m not certain she knows that her gestures, both large and small, made such a positive difference in my life. She has been a role model and a mentor. Because she made me feel special, I persisted to graduation. If I had to guess, I would say that I was not the only student impacted by having her as a professor. I venture to say that she touches almost every student in her class. I wrote many papers in my graduate program, yet I struggle to find the right words to summarize what Jody has done for me. She not only made me a better student—she made me a better person. I am now challenged to make my students and colleagues feel as special as she made me feel.

Both of our graduation speakers, Dr. Bill Cosby, and Dr. Cynthia Ellwood reminded the Marquette community that we can make a difference in the lives of others by the small things we do every day. The ultimate goal of a Jesuit education is to become men and women for others. As graduates of the College of Education and as graduates of Marquette University—educators, teachers, counselors, and student personnel administrators—we are challenged with making a positive difference in the lives of our students. Dr. Jody Jessup-Anger made a positive difference for me. SHE is the difference; she is Marquette. She has taught me to never underestimate my ability to positively impact the life of a student or a colleague. I challenge all of you to do the same. Thank you, Dr. Jessup-Anger. You have changed my life.

Sally Doyle is the Director of Academic Business Affairs for Marquette University. She has earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Marquette University.

Expressing Thanks

By Bethany Neubauer – Many of us learn at an early age when it is customary to send our thanks via formal correspondence.

Emily Post’s Etiquette, for example, indicates that thank you notes be written for all gifts not opened in the presence of the sender.  My grandmother was always a stickler for this rule during my childhood.  Now that I am older, I find myself teaching students how to pen thoughtful notes after interviews.  In both situations, formal thank you notes are expected as a part of good manners.

Thus for me, it is the unanticipated thank you note that is quite often the most memorable.  This has become particularly true as a new Career Counselor at Marquette.

Over the course of the past semester I have met with numerous students.  Many have visited with me just once or twice.  I presume they received what they needed and have continued on with their busy lives as students. This is of course what students do after all.  Nevertheless, I find myself wondering how they are doing.  Did they land the interview for the internship they were dreaming of?  How did their first job interview go?  Were they accepted to graduate school or the post-graduate volunteer program they applied to?

I am curious.  I want to know if my work is making a difference, yet the reality is most of the time these questions go unanswered. I cannot always know what will be of the seeds that I have sown, and I have had to learn to be okay with this ambiguity.

Not all hope is lost, though. From time to time, I receive a thank you card or email update from a student – sometimes months later – thanking me for my assistance and providing me with an update.  Social graces do not require these students to write and that is precisely what makes these notes so meaningful.  They are tokens of thoughtfulness that (forgive me for being cheesy) speak to my heart.  I actually keep all of such correspondence filed away in a folder labeled “Pick Me Up”.  When I’ve lost perspective or need to be reminded that the work I am doing is important, I turn here.

This all forces me to reflect on my own experiences as a student. There have been countless times when I have mentally given thanks to a former educator or mentor but rarely have I written to express my thanks directly.

Mr. White my sixth grade teacher needs to know that I recently presented to a crowd of 100 plus people without batting an eye, a task that wouldn’t have been possible had he not required me to confront my fear of public speaking.

Ms. Vondruska and Mr. Opbroek need to know that their “three ring binder method” kept me organized beyond their high school science classes through undergrad and now graduate school over a decade later.

Although our roles are different, we are all educators and I imagine these teachers appreciate such thanks as much as I do. Time to break out the pen and paper!

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This summer, we’ll be taking time here on the blog to give thanks to some of the great teachers and counselors who’ve made a difference in our lives.  Watch for the posts under the moniker “Celebrating the Profession.”  And if you’d like the opportunity to thank someone in the field of teaching or counseling who’s made a difference in YOUR LIFE, email Lori Fredrich at lori.fredrich(at)marquette.edu.  We’d love to feature your post!

Giving the Gift of Time

By Nick McDaniels – Last week, as you know, was teacher appreciation week. Like every year, I got a new t-shirt, candy in my mailbox in the mornings, a lunch on Friday. The administration and faculty at my school do a good job during this week and I enjoy all the gifts and the kindness.

However, this post is about one of the the best gifts I have ever heard of a teacher receiving. The gift of time. In a conversation with a few great principals, they told me about the gifts they give to their teachers. And one gift they talked about was the gift of time. Every year the principal gives teachers a gift certificate for an hour or so of time to use as they please. They cash in this certificate (with advanced notice of course) and the principal teaches their classes for them. The teachers then are free to do as they please, go out to lunch, get a massage, etc.

Teachers, under all the pressure to run data, call parents, get professionally developed, grade papers, attend meetings have a dwindling amount of time to complete their work, and most teachers, as we all know, take home hours more work. That is why this gift of time is so important to teachers. It doesn’t necessarily help them to get any more work done, but it does remind them that someone notices how much time is being put into their work. It is this type of gift, something that really reflects the work that teachers do, that makes a great teacher appreciation gift.

Unfortunately, my school is probably too large to pull off something like this with well over 100 teachers. However, if you are a principal or teacher in a small school, recommend or suggest it next year for teacher appreciation week. This type of thoughtfulness and mutual respect can really energize a staff in a positive way.

Why Devaluing Teachers Hurts Everyone

By Peggy Wuenstel – I have been spending many angst filled evenings over the last two years, trying to get a sense of when things went off the rails.

I have been in this business for 30 years. There are some things that I knew back at the beginning that are still true today. Teaching is hard work. Educating children is a team sport. You will never get rich working in public education if your bank account is the measure of your success. The days will be long and the summers will be short. The intangibles will always trump the measurable in making you feel like you earn your paycheck, and even though it’s not all about the kids, it is certainly mostly about the kids.

Some things have changed radically, at least here in Wisconsin.

Showing up every day, doing the best you can, keeping your skills current, and volunteering for extra duties will not make teaching a secure job anymore. The majority of Wisconsin taxpayers don’t view the public money they spend to compensate teachers as the good investment that they have in the past. In a consumer-driven society where we’ll upgrade our phones, order the pricey wine, and stay in the four star hotel, the adage: “You get what you pay for” doesn’t seem to apply to the education of our children.

There is now a marked difference between what we can afford to pay as a society and what we are willing to pay. Where the stereotype of the teacher in the past was (and certainly not universally true) the patient, kindly public servant who never lost their temper or expressed discontent about their working conditions, today’s image is just as likely to be a militant public employee who is overpaid, with an attitude of entitlement. Neither is accurate.

What has also changed is the way we connect the dots between our democratic government and the aggressive capitalism that drives the American economy. I am married to an economics major, and we have had three decades of conversations on where our money comes from and where it goes. I have come to understand that there are two essential components that drive the creation of prosperity and fuel the engine of American success:  Capital and Labor. Both are necessary for the creation of products, the provision of services, and the rise of small businesses, cottage industries, and multi-national corporations.

We have historically believed that Americans value the labor of their fellow citizens. We express our appreciation for the actions of first-responders in a crisis like the Boston marathon bombing. We covet the skill of the engineer, the cabinetmaker, or the cake decorator that create the items that enrich our lives. We are grateful for and dependent upon the services of those who transport our goods cross country, diagnose our illness and treat those maladies, deliver our mail, and cut our hair. We dream about being in the same league as the pro athletes, musicians, or actors that entertain us in our leisure time.

But things have changed in my lifetime.  We seem to value what people HAVE far more than what they DO. Celebrities like Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, and Honey Boo Boo  are not particularly gifted in actions other than commanding our attention and accumulating wealth. We know more about athletes’ contracts and salaries than we do about their statistics on the field. It is now as important to be the highest paid player as it is to have the most passing yards, home runs, shots on goal, or won/loss percentage.  This appears to reflect the value system of our society in general. Those who have the capital command the respect. Capitalists have so devalued the labor of our fellow Americans that their jobs are exported overseas where they can pay even less so that capital grows at a faster rate.

As you can imagine, this puts educators at a great disadvantage in earning and keeping public respect. We have never, as a group, been about having things. The fruit of our labors does not fill warehouses, power automobiles, heat homes, or satisfy that chocolate craving at the end of the day. We fill minds, power aspirations, kindle fires of enthusiasm and ambition, and satisfy the needs of children to feel loved, valued, and capable of meeting the challenges of the future.  We help parents, clergy, community leaders, and others willing to invest in the future, to shape people who aspire to DO things as much as to HAVE things.

If we still value the work that we do for each other, the communities that we build, the wounds that we heal, and the knowledge we accumulate, then teachers are essential to the future of this country. They deserve the return of the respect, in both financial and standing realms, to this honorable profession. Until we do so as a society, we will undervalue many, many people whose contributions are essential to our collective American dream.

Many of my friends and colleagues remain mystified by what has happened. For the most part, we haven’t changed. We still come in early and stay late. We carry piles of papers home and carry our students in our hearts. We haven’t gotten rich, and we’re not sure of the retirement plans we made when started out as novice teachers. We worry about health care, about students who come from unsafe neighborhoods and homes with empty cupboards.  We try to live the Marquette mission every day, to Be the Difference, all in a time the difference between what our fellow mortals feel we are worth and what we know we contribute to the students we love is as large as it has ever been.

Have a great summer, and I’ll see you on these pages in the fall.

A Shoutout to my Elementary Teachers

By Matt Olinski – I had been thinking about this topic for awhile and then ironically enough, as part of an in-service it came up again.

Who was my favorite teacher?  That is a tough question, which I’m not even going to answer; however, it got me thinking, and I began to remember as many of my teachers as I could. I can clearly remember all of my elementary teachers. I can even remember my principal, Mr. Pautz.  I can remember a few of my middle school teachers. I can remember all of my high school social studies teachers, which isn’t too surprising seeing as that is now what I teach.

I think my elementary teachers, and all elementary teachers in general, have a major impact of the early education of students.  My mom retired from the Milwaukee Public Schools as an elementary teacher of deaf and hard of hearing students.  I admit this, even being a high school teacher, that these elementary teachers taught me and had an impact on me to a degree that even 25 – 30 years after being in elementary school I can remember specific things about those teachers.

This is my chance to say thank you for those teachers in a small way, something I encourage everyone to do sooner rather than later.

My first grade teacher, Ms. Bushier was new to the school and new to teaching at the time, yet she taught me the basics of reading through phonics and math. I also remember sitting on the ground while we read stories.

My second grade teacher, Mrs. Obst, who was a veteran teacher when I was in her class, apparently was teaching long after I had already left her room. I remember having a really messy desk in 2nd grade and I remember a jar of Jelly Bellies on Mrs. Obst’s front desk.

I have to admit that my 3rd grade teacher was really good. 3rd grade is when I had to start wearing glasses for the first time and I dreaded it. It was not the fashion statement it is now to wear glasses. I was horrified.  I found out from some of my friends later on that Mrs. Strong had made sure that I wasn’t teased for wearing glasses. I really appreciate that now, and I appreciated it back then.

Mr. Garvins was my 4th grade teacher. I got my first perfect report card of all A’s in his class, and believe me, that was not an easy task. I also remember going to the computer lab for the first time, which was a novelty if you take into consideration that this was 1986.

In 5th grade I was in Mrs. Collins’s class.  I remember being one of those students who some of you might get frustrated with, and my desk was moved a few times during that year. I also went to Mrs. Bennett for my reading class. Looking back, and even at the time, I knew that this was the upper level reading class. Mrs. Bennett was a tough teacher, but she really had an impact on us for learning reading.

For all of you elementary teachers out there, know that you have a larger impact on your students than you may ever know, and even the screwball kid who gets his desk moved a few times really looks back in fondness for all the learning that took place.

Great School, Right? Not So Fast

By Bill Henk – Apart from truly grateful parents and students, very few people would appreciate a great school  more than me.  It’s been my dream for every child to profit from one of these treasures since I became an educator almost four decades ago.

As a teacher I wanted to work at a great K-12 school.  As a graduate student in literacy, I researched what made schools great in reading and writing,  and as a faculty member and academic administrator, I’ve tried to contribute to the creation of great schools in whatever way that I could.

In my current role as the dean of an education college at a major university, I’m often asked — or told — about great schools in our region and beyond.  The “local” questions or advice come as no surprise to me, because Milwaukee stands out as an educational landscape for K-12 schooling unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.  It’s as mysterious and complicated as they come.  In our city,  most people struggle to determine which schools are great ones, although there are some who claim to know those answers, rightly or wrongly.

As for me, I won’t pretend to know with absolute certainty.  Oh, I definitely have my ideas, but I respect the fact that schools rank as extremely complex organizations.  Judging their relative greatness amounts to risky business in my book.

Still, as a blogger, I’ve written more than once about the factors that I think contribute to great schools.  The single most important factor in determining a great school is its culture, a multifaceted construct that includes elements like exceptional leadership and teaching, collaboration, parental involvement, professional development, governance, extended school days and years, and student voice and responsibility among others.

Most of the well-intended (but perhaps mistaken) individuals who try to alert me to great schools start with standardized tests scores as their litmus test.  I’ll spare readers my typical diatribe on why standardized test scores alone represent a very narrow view of exceptional schooling.  But for the sake of argument today, I’m actually going to use them to make my point.

So you think grammar don’t matter?

By Lisa A. Mazzie, J.D. – Educators are on the front lines of any discussion on grammar.

Those who teach students of any age are assumed to bear some responsibility for making sure those students learn and use proper grammar.  Too often, I fear, at some point in many children’s primary and secondary education, a teacher at some point said, “He was supposed to have learned that before now; it’s not my job to teach him.”

Consequently, I see students in law school (a graduate-level education in the United States), who even after “successful” educational experiences at the secondary and undergraduate levels, show up in my classroom with some basic deficiencies in grammar.  Like the student who said to me, “When you talk about nouns and verbs, I don’t know what you mean.”  And the far too many students who throw apostrophes rather willy-nilly into words that end in “s” because those students are not exactly sure whether and where an apostrophe belongs.

As one of my recent posts on the Marquette University Law School blog notes, grammar does matter.  And increasingly so in a world where most of the younger generation communicates solely by email, text, and social media.

But not only are educators responsible for teaching grammar to students, educators are responsible for modeling proper usage for students.  And that modeling may be most important of all.  Too frequently, we as educators (and as parents) adopt the “do as I say, not as I do” attitude of educating.  Even the youngest of children pick up on the hypocrisy of that method.

But more than that, for educators it is a question of legitimacy.  How can one claim to be someone from whom students should learn if that person cannot show her knowledge worth learning?

To read the entire post, click here.

Their Fight is Our Fight: Why We Should All Support the CTU.

By Nick McDaniels – First, let me say that I am excited and honored to be invited back for another school year of blogging for the Marquette Educator.

I am in my fourth year as an English teacher at Baltimore City’s biggest high school and am enjoying the wisdom I have received from the bumps and bruises of the last three years. I am teaching 10th grade, a tested grade level, this year after three years with freshmen, have switched classrooms, am now expected to use the common core curriculum, and am in my second year as a co-teacher. All of this gives me plenty to write about, particularly for a first blog post of the year.

Fortunately, there are more pressing matters to attend to.

As many of you know, especially those readers in Wisconsin and Illinois with an ear to the ground for rumblings of government attacks against workers, the Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis and the membership have submitted their strike date, Sept. 10th. The CTU has been at a negotiating stand still with CEO Brizard and Mayor Rahm Emmanuel for quite some time, with Brizard trying to push forth new initiatives that will keep students in classrooms longer, continue the process of allowing private operators to run our public schools, and continue the national trend of teacher-blaming, union-busting, and over-testing the students who most badly need to learn instead of be tested.

As Brizard and Emmanuel attempt to force corporate education reform on teachers with contract elements that are either untested or failing in other parts of the country, the CTU membership, fortunately for the students, parents, and communities, has saved money, stocked the cabinets with non-perishable food items, and has readied themselves for a strike.

It is important to know why the CTU may strike. A fair contract is essential to any labor negotiation. After watching “landmark” contracts in urban areas around the country fizzle out because the districts do not have the infrastructure to implement them fully, the CTU is rightfully hesitant to ink a deal that would put teachers, who are already under considerable stress and scrutiny, in a test tube of education reform that would directly affect their livelihoods.

However, the pending strike is about more than a contract. The CTU is the first big teachers union to actively fight back against the ed reform movement, setting a precedent very different from the one set by the collaborationist fat cats at the parent union, the AFT, who have actively forced these types of contracts down the throats of teachers all across the country, including Baltimore. The CTU wants a few clear things for the schools. Smaller class sizes, fair compensation for paraprofessionals, and fair compensation and evaluation structures for teachers. What may be more precious, but is not receiving as much attention, is the CTU’s hope to reduce privatization in the schools, preventing corporate interests from skimming huge amounts of money off the top of our public education budgets.

The reasons we all should consider CTU’s fight as our fight are just as clear as the negotiating goals:

1. We should consider preventing growth of the business model of education which allows CEOs like Brizard, and former CEOs Klein and Rhee to hand out huge contract to private vendors who are finally seizing an opportunity to tap one of the last untapped markets in the American financial system, our public schools.
2. We should consider that CEOs like Brizard have a singular goal, to educate as many students as possible, as well as possible, and as cheaply and/or as profitably as possible. These types of reforms require the demonization of teachers and public relations campaigns that divert attention from the real problems facing our schools, widespread poverty. It makes sense that CEOs like Brizard would not want to take a stand on issues like the poverty of Chicago’s youth, 84% of which receive free and reduced lunch (all of whom Brizard will not feed in the case of a strike). There is a lot of money to be made as a result of this poverty by corporate ed reformers like Wendy Kopp, major textbook and testing companies, charter school vendors, and let’s face it, the bloated leadership of national unions like the AFT.
3. We should consider that in no way can we support working-class children by allowing attacks on workers. Teachers, paraprofessionals, school nurses, office assistants, related service providers, custodians, and others are working people earning their living by helping students. We cannot accept that anyone who loves children as much as reformers like Brizard, Klein, and Rhee say they do, can dislike those that work with children so much.

If you are not convinced that attacks on organized labor, high-stakes testing, privatization of schools and pay for performance contracts are bad for students and bad for schools, I encourage you to do some more reading about it. Or, better yet, go to an inner city school, where great teachers are forced to teach less and less, test more and more, and worry every day about losing their jobs, getting bad evaluations causing them to eventually leave the students who need them the most. All of this solves the problem for corporate ed reformers of educating children as cheaply as possible and reduces the work-force of teachers who may be willing to take a stand on behalf of children, the experienced, tenured teachers.

If you are convinced, I encourage you to tell your friends and colleagues about CTU’s fight. Because if we don’t support CTU, the fight will come to our doorstep before we know it. Offer your pledges of support to the CTU and send them messages of solidarity. Their fight is our fight.

Celebration of Teaching: Mrs. Tanzer

By Claudia Felske – She only taught me three things:

1. I’m smart and creative.
2. The world is an infinitely interesting place.
3. Life’s about learning and growing and never stopping either one.

I’m smart and creative.
The second youngest of 8, called “Klein” by many instead of Claudia, I was expected by my teachers to be a good student and an even better athlete, a mini-version of my older siblings.

Mrs. Tanzer, however, saw me as an individual, not just as a Klein. She marked my essays with phrases such as “lovely metaphor,” “profound!” “interesting perspective” unlike my previous English teacher whose sole aim was to circle every punctuation error. Reading her comments made me feel interesting, insightful, witty, and I proceeded accordingly.

My family’s expectations molded me into a 3-sport athlete though Mrs. Tanzer saw in me a glimmer of creativity, asking me to do the publicity for her drama productions. Though I wasn’t one dubbed “the artist” in my family, she complimented me on my precise lettering and artful arrangements of shape, color and text for the actor bios. It was the first time I felt the least bit artistic, and I liked the feeling.  Seeing my interest sparked, she encouraged me to participate in Forensics, something that had never been on my radar, but ended up being my favorite high school activity.

Under her direction, I went from being a wiggly-voiced introvert to being a power round orator.

The world’s an infinitely interesting place.
I first met her in the guidance office after I’d been kicked out of Sophomore English class for “reading upside down.” My teacher at the time had been reading A Separate Piece aloud at a pace I found excruciatingly slow. To keep my brain active, I followed along, with my book flipped upside down: an act he viewed as insubordination and I viewed as mental survival. When he told me I’d never get an A in his class because of my attitude, I left, and there was Mrs. Tanzer who just happened to be in the guidance office. In hindsight, it seems a fated meeting as within a few short years, English went from upside-down reading to my career of choice.

I’d listen to her in class, mesmerized, as she described the Dionysian rituals of the Greek theatre, as we picked apart “Ozymondias” and Antigone. These weren’t just stories and characters; they were opportunities for us to think about life, to talk about why we’re here, to marvel at the artistry of words.  I’d jot her words and phrases in my notebook margins, wanting to make them my own, wanting to command words and ideas and stories like she did.

Her “tangents” as a few of my more no-nonsense friends called them, to me, were windows to the world: its ideas, its contradictions, its stories. They married my learning to the interesting. “Bibliophile” sticks out in my mind as my favorite Mrs. Tanzer word and tangent and not just because I am one. “There are two types of bibliophiles,” she declared, ”those that write in their books because they love them so much, and those who can’t write in their books because they love them so much. I am the former; my husband’s the latter.” She went on to describe their book habits. I loved knowing this insider info, and forevermore the word, its roots, and that quote would live in my head.

Life’s about learning and growing and never stopping either one.
She taught me to do my best, always. She encouraged us to write and rewrite. And for her, I wanted to turn in nothing but my best. And so, senior year, the last day before Christmas break, I sat in the cafeteria, alone, revising an essay while the rest of the school was at the talent show. She accepted my revision after school, but then lightly scolded me for missing her performance as Cyndi Lauper singing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” – ironic since that’s precisely what she wanted me to have. She wanted excellence, but she also wanted us to enjoy life.  It’s what we now call teaching the whole child. Her lessons extended far beyond the classroom walls.

When we were Seniors, we went to see her act in a community play. What couldn’t she do? What wasn’t she reading or trying or talking about? I wanted to be this alive.

When I entered college and she became a mentor and a friend, the teaching never stopped. She asked me to coach forensics when I was still an undergraduate. It was during those coaching experiences that I knew I’d become a teacher.

When I dig to the roots of the most worthwhile professional paths, there stands Mrs. Tanzer. When I began teaching AP English, she encouraged me to join the AP listserve, where I became one of a large and generous community of learners. Later, she encouraged me to become an AP reader, describing it as the best professional development out there.

She was right. A few years ago, the phone rang, and she asked me to co-author a book for AP English Teachers with her. Under her tutelage I went from developing a new AP English class at my school to writing the book for it.

She keeps growing; it’s what she does. Just this year, she started taking dance lessons with her husband, and performing competitively. She has never stopped learning, and now, in “retirement,” she’s teaching as much as ever, proposing new curriculums, spearheading several writing projects. She’s more vital than ever.  An unwavering commitment to life and to learning.

That’s really all she taught me.

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2010 High School Teacher of the Year, Claudia Felske, graduated from Marquette with a bachelor of arts degree in Writing Intensive English. She earned her teaching certificate and a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  A Nationally Board Certified Teacher and published author, Felske teaches grades 9-12 English and serves as English Department Chair at East Troy High School in the East Troy Community School District. 

5 Characteristics of a Great Teacher

By Micah Russell – Great teachers.  They’re hard to come by.

Out of four to six classes you take a semester, you may receive one good teacher, one professor who you enjoy.  However, the great teacher is one who really speaks to your learning style, your values, your soul.  They are often uncommon, but you will recognize them and remember them from that first day.

I can hardly remember the names of my other teachers…heck, I can hardly remember what I had for breakfast this morning, but I can list off the names of ever great teacher I’ve had since gradeschool: Mrs. Nishi, Ms. Rydlewicz, Dr. Laats, Mr. Kearney, Mrs. Bonesho, Mr. Prosser, Dr. McBride, Fr. Coutinho, Dr. Tate, and the list goes on.  They’re immortalized in my mind because they taught me more than most.  They inherited the important characteristics of a great teacher.

Well then, what are those traits?  When thinking about what each of these individuals had in common, I came up with the following five characteristics:

• Expertise – Have you ever listened to an expert talk?  It is fascinating to hear what they say.  When a teacher is an expert in their subject, it shows through their passion and desire to share it with you.
• Humility/Empathy – It doesn’t matter if you are Queen of England.  If you cannot speak to your students on a common level, you are doing them a disservice.  There is a great power dynamic between teacher and student, and if the expert cannot effectively check themselves, the student will check out.
• Humor – The teacher doesn’t have to be a stand-up comedian, but when they feel comfortable enough to crack a joke in class, the student feels more involved and interested.  Personality is necessary.  Otherwise we’d all be learning from robots.
• Activities – Talk about engaging an audience.  I am baffled by professors who lecture for half of the semester and then are surprised when no one wants to participate in an exciting group activity.  The best teachers engage their students on the first day and continue that precedent.
• Commitment – This is a broader term, but it is meant to define the commitment of the teacher to their students.  A teacher may post his or her office hours on the syllabus, but great professors are those that put in the extra effort for their students.  In this case, actions speak louder than words.

Each of my great teachers had these qualities.  They may express them differently and to different degrees, but they all work, and that is most important.

So take great teachers, even if they are difficult graders.  And if you get the chance, tell them how much you appreciate them.  The school may reward them by not firing them, but the students make all the difference, particularly in their eyes.  I credit where I am today to my greatest teachers.

And if any of you are reading this, thank you.