What Kind Of Teachers Do You Remember?

How many great teachers have you had throughout your school years? How many people truly had a huge impact on your life as a person? My bet is that it was only a few teachers in school or professors in college. I know that for me there have only been a handful who truly impacted my life and I am grateful for them each day.

How about teachers that you have had since you graduated? Have you noticed more or less truly great teachers? Again, it’s most likely a small handful of people.

So how can you identify the great teachers? Well for me, I recognize that they take the way of teaching that’s typical and go the other way. They do things differently and are often a lot more effective at teaching because they take the different approach to teaching. These people are true leaders and recognize the need to not live by the status quo but to live extraordinary. It is often these great teachers who truly influence your life and cause you to become a better person because of their teaching or mentoring. You change your outlook on a subject or a sport and seem to have a greater sense of appreciation for that thing. True teachers are far and few between, sadly.

But why is this? Why aren’t there more great teachers out there, how come its only a few of them?

The simplest answer to this is that many teachers aren’t great leaders. You can easily identify this because they won’t have true passion for their work, they won’t glow with enthusiasm when speaking of their subject and they won’t get you excited about learning or doing. Great leaders/teachers are the ones who can inspire you to be great, can inspire you to step outside of your comfort zone and become better, and the people who take you from ordinary to extraordinary.

Can you become a great teacher or is it a waste of time for you? Well, the only thing that determines a great teacher is the person who is that teacher. They take the time to learn about leadership as well as take the time to research and become experts at their field of choice. This isn’t the only thing they do though, you can start to expand your thinking by increasing your creativity, learning new teaching techniques that are far-fetched for typical learning of a said subject and even find that by teaching this way, you learn more about yourself and the subject.

You want to also learn how to inspire. You want to learn how to create the feelings and emotions that are important for your said field of teaching. Also, you must lead by example and this means that you can’t be slacking off because no one is watching you. It’s at these times, when no one is watching, that you truly take the next step to become the leader/teacher you want to be.

By taking this next step, you are doing something significantly different from the rest of the teachers in the world and this is what will make you different. This is what will cause you to go from an average teacher to a true leader and someone who inspires true change in students.

-Chris Hughes