What Makes a Great Teacher?

What Makes a Great Teacher?

By Good Morning Washington, www.wjla.com

It’s really a simple question – what makes a great teacher? Everyone has a different definition of what goes into being a terrific educator, and as school resumes nationwide for the 2012-13 school year, Dan Brown, who teaches at the SEED Public Charter School in Washington, talks about just that.

Are great teachers born or made?

Until I actually joined the profession, I thought about the teachers I had as a student and figured they were born talented or clueless. Now I know otherwise.

I learned my lesson the hard way in 2003 when, straight out of NYU Film School, I joined an alternative certification teaching program. After seven weeks of summer training I found myself in charge of a fourth grade class at the Bronx’s P.S. 85.

Part of me understood that I was taking on a hard job; the program I’d joined existed mainly to fill chronic shortages of fully certified teachers at schools like P.S. 85 in high-poverty neighborhoods. On the other hand, I had always done well as a student and came to teaching with idealism and passion. How badly could it go? Continue reading…

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