Great article on teaching and what REALLY leads to student success.
more than any other variable in education—more than schools or curriculum—teachers matter.
Parents have always worried about where to send their children to school; but the school, statistically speaking, does not matter as much as which adult stands in front of their children. Teacher quality tends to vary more within schools—even supposedly good schools—than among schools.
via The Atlantic Online | January/February 2010 | What Makes a Great Teacher? | Amanda Ripley.
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This is hard to swollow, especially if you are a teacher. No, what I mean is, yes, I believe this totally, but oh the pressure! I’ve gotten some comments from former students and their parents and it does make one feel good to hear the nice things, but still I have to remember that I am also responsible for the not nice things as well. I shoulder both, but only because I know I give my all to my students and try the best I can, knowing I won’t have 100% success, but still, succeed as much as I can.
It really is a two-edged sword, yeah? On the one hand it means that something CAN be done to help at-risk students. On the other, it means that if those same students don’t succeed, then the likely culprit is staring back at you in the mirror. Still, if a teacher is reading and considering these sorts of issues, I think it highly unlikely that he or she is a bad teacher.
It also occurs to me that “nice” and “good” aren’t necessarily synonymous.