Teachers

William Arthur ward once said, “ The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” [This is an excellent way to start off your essay! This quote is sure to grab your readers’ attention.] William Arthur Ward greatly inspired the classifications I chose to use in this essay; dedicated teachers or “ great” teachers, typical or “ good” teachers, and undedicated or “ bad” teachers. While there are many qualities of a dedicated teacher; the one quality that stands out is their unshakeable passion for their work. These teachers are often referred to as great teachers; this is because great teachers are dedicated teachers. Teachers that are dedicated set a positive example for their students. [When you’re talking about a person, it’s better to say who than that.] This is the teacher that motivates his or her students, making them want to succeed in the classroom. This teacher has to be a problem solver and understand the students helping students with their daily lives. He or she also sets out to broaden their student’s perspective and often succeeds because he or she has the respect of his or her students. A dedicated teacher never lets a student’s limitations to stop them from succeeding and reaching their goals and full potential creating high expectations for his or her students. A dedicated teacher has an impeccable understanding of the subject he or she teaches. This is likely the subject he or she majored in in college. The typical teachers are teachers are “ good” teachers. These are teachers that like their job. They do their job well and enjoy their work; however, unlike the dedicated teachers they do not go above and beyond their job. [Can you give your readers an example of what going above and beyond the job might entail?] The students learn the material; although, this type of teacher does not try to create fun and creative ways for the students to learn. The students of a good teacher are generally well behaved. A typical teacher does not get too involved in a student’s life and is only concerned with the student during school or class hours. A typical teacher will set common goals for his or her students, pushing them to be good, but not great. A typical teacher will stick to the lesson plan, often times not taking the time to teach students lessons about life. [Would you say, then, that one of the important characteristics of a very good teacher is that he or she teaches students about more than just the subject matter? That would be a very good thing to talk about in your introduction and conclusion.] Typical teachers have a good understanding of the subject they’re teaching. Undedicated teachers often referred to as “ bad teachers are simply not dedicated, often seen as lazy, unconcerned, or uncaring. [I’m not sure about the word undedicated–it is a real word, but it sounds a bit awkward. Could you substitute a different word instead?] This type of teacher sees teaching more as occupation seeing it as just a paycheck. Teaching is not where these teachers passion is. They went into teaching for all the wrong reasons or lost their passion for teaching. Teachers that are undedicated do just enough to meet the criteria, but do not go above and beyond. Teachers that are undedicated do not push their students and do not have high expectations for their students. They also do not help their students with problems in or outside the classroom. [This is something that you also mentioned when talking about good teachers. It would be a good idea to take a moment in this paragraph to set down exactly what the difference is between a good (but not great) teacher and a bad teacher is.] These teachers often have very few or no rules that they expect their students to follow. The undetermined teacher presents the information to his or her students, but not in creative ways to get the student interested. Undedicated teachers often leave their students uninspired or uninterested feeling as if they have wasted their time being in class because the teacher has failed to inspire or interest them. Undedicated teachers may just be undedicated because they are not passionate about the certain subject they are teaching. Teachers can be dedicated, typical, or undedicated. Dedicated teachers are passionate about teaching. Typical teachers enjoy their job, but do not go above and beyond. Undedicated teachers see teaching as more of an occupation instead of a passion. Based on these qualities, what teacher do you have?