What makes a teacher great?
The answer to today’s prompt also prompted a return of the Rod Stewart earworm from a few weeks ago.
“Passion.”
I always read my student evaluations, and of course always reacted poorly to negative comments. I think most college professors are more sensitive to those than the positive ones. We could have 95% favorable comments, and then there’s that one comment that says that one thing that only that student would complain about is wrong, and we’re in a tizzy over that, and that’s all we can think about for days.
So let’s slice that negative sign ( – ) vertically and turn it into a plus ( + ). The consistent favorable comment I received over the years was for my, yes, you guessed it! Passion. I was passionate and enthusiastic about my field of theatre and that excitement fueled my attitude in the classroom and allowed the students to experience it as well. I would recommend that students find professors (and that administrators hire professors and teachers ) who display a passion for their subject and for teaching.
So: funny story (at least to me). A few years ago I was asked to teach Shakespeare because the person who usually taught it was going on sabbatical. I agreed; I had taught it before, and I enjoyed teaching it—I liked bringing the theatrical perspective to what was normally a literature class. Shakespeare intended his work to be performed, not just read and studied, and so I liked exploring the plays from that angle.
Some time after that, I was at a campus retreat and at the table sat the professor who normally taught the class. At one point he made reference to that semester and my “frighteningly high” evaluation scores. The scary part must have been that the students that semester liked the class (with me as instructor) more than any class liked his version.
When his next sabbatical came around, I was asked to teach the course again, and agreed. It was my last semester before retirement and I wanted to go out with something I really liked. As it turned out I had a large class of very engaged students, including the nursing students whom I had been worried about. But they found their way into the texts, and the discussions were always lively. After the semester ended, I received a report on my evaluations, and discovered the highest overall scores of any course I had taught in 31 years.
Talk about going out with a bang! And: Passion.
Your thoughts? Inject* them into the comments, and please like and follow!
* I thought “inject” was a more passionate verb. And every time I write “was” I wonder if I shouldn’t be using a more exciting verb…
MUSOFYR 
You were my teacher for several courses. And you were, by far, the best teacher I ever had in the arts. The first thing that absolutely set you were part from all others was this: you had a very clear plan. Few things were more frustrating than the professor of theater arts who preferred to just let the course “evolve”. In practice that actually seemed to mean “let’s see if I can maybe accomplish something by pure luck because I do not know what the fuck I am doing”. Another aspect of your teaching that I really appreciated was this: you had a very clear mastery of the material without seeming the least bit arrogant about it.
The last thing that comes to mind when I recall being your student was this: you were not afraid to say “I don’t know”. I recall asking a question about absurdist theater and you didn’t know. Email was relatively new then but we emailed back-and-forth about it several times and it was one of the most enjoyable learning experiences I ever had.
I have been very grateful that we could be part of each others lives over the years. Thank you.
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Thanks. I truly appreciate this.
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I have a new passion for KEY GUITAR. Great song!
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