Engagement and Caring Make A Good Teacher

 



I covered a class I am unfamiliar with today and was nervous.  The teacher did not leave me a topic to teach or work to go over.  He said the class was good and they would provide the problems.  Still, I picked up the book last night and went through some of it today.  When I got to the college, I expressed my concern to the secretary and the chairperson.  The seemed to have more confidence in me than I had in myself.

Well, the class went great.  The students stayed for most of the two hours, asked lots of questions and some even thanked me when they left.  They said I clarified topics that would help them on their final.

While returning the text, I again ran into the chairperson.  She asked me how it went and said, "see, they stayed for the entire class."  She said I was great but when I contradicted her she said" a great teacher cares and knows how to engage a class".  We talked about some of the former Packemin teachers that are currently at the college and how good she thinks they are and how awful the AP at Packemin considers them.  She said, no one is perfect, but caring and engaging are what counts. Stats don't mean anything.

I love this woman and I love the atmosphere in my department at the college.  It is nice to be able to do a job without constantly being put down.  It is nice not to be told to go observe and learn from the 20 year old teacher with 30 minutes experience.  It is nice to know that the job we have been doing has actually been a job considered well done.