A Good Teacher or a Great One?

As I sit at my computer today, trying to gather thoughts and to-do lists into a more organized chaos to address as needed before my classes start in four weeks, I want to take five minutes to review a list of questions I found on Edutopia.org a few weeks ago "Pride of Profession: Striving to Become a Great Teacher".

Here are the seven questions the author, Ben Johnson, asks at the end of the article:

If I think of myself as at least a good teacher, what would I do differently in order to be a great teacher?

What student outcomes do great teachers achieve that I don't achieve?

What qualities does a great teacher possess?

What sacrifices would I have to make to become a great teacher? What am I willing to give up to become great?

What does a great teacher's classroom look like?

What kind of relationships do great teachers strive to create with fellow teachers and administrators?

What will be my first step toward greatness?

I'm going to answer just the first one and the third one today, because to me they work together: "If think of myself as a good teacher, what qualities do I want to develop to become a great teacher?"

I do think of myself as a good teacher. My students like my classes, parents share with me that their students come home excited and ready to go back for more, students learn something from it, and I generally have good control over a classroom. But I know of several things I wish I could improve on to become a great teacher.

• greater patience
• increased calm assertiveness to maintain/regain classroom control
• improved skills in communication and idea sharing to work with other teachers and the educational community

If I could improve those three things this year, it would be a great year.