What Makes a Good Teacher? By: McKaylee Thomas

Teachers at Hillgrove High School teach in many different ways to help students learn something every day at school despite the different ways to learn.

Teachers have been a crucial part of learning for centuries. Modern society uses public and private schools and teachers to teach generations how to learn and grow. Hillgrove's teachers use many different techniques to help all students get the direction they need to learn and grow.

Learning is categorized into four main groups. Listening, also known as auditory, visual, reading and writing, and kinesthetic which is hands on learning. According to Isabel LeMay, a senior, a good teacher does “hands on stuff, and it’s not just all lecturing, and it’s interactive and interesting.”

A 1978 study by Dunn and Dunn found that 30-40% of students are kinesthetic learners and that number has grown. Dr. McClure, an English teacher at Hillgrove, has been teaching for 13 years. Aiden Marchena, a junior, says that Dr. McClure’s ninth lit class was one of her favorite classes. She says that it was because “she specifically [gave] us room to express ourselves... [she did] different activities, group work, personal work...she made group work really fun.” Having a teacher that makes school enjoyable makes an impact. Group work is a great way to help kinesthetic learners truly understand and retain information. Dr. McClure uses techniques to help all types of learners in her classroom to help her students succeed. “I teach English, so we’re big on reading and writing, and I’m very big about making sure they do both every single day in all of my classes... [For] kinesthetic, I love to get my students up and moving around. Visual, I’m a very big [when it comes to] my directions always being on the board. I am always including pictures to help them... and then auditory, I would say, like, I don't talk a ton. So, when I am talking, I’m trying to make sure that what I say is important and relevant.” Dr. McClure uses many different techniques to help all students, but there is another part to being a good teacher besides teaching a classroom full of students.

“It’s like you learn more if you are interested.” Isabel is right, students need to be engaged in the classroom to learn and that starts with the teacher. “I [Dr. McClure] think teaching really matters. Like, every day, I get up and I know that what I’m doing makes some sort of difference, even if it’s just one individual student that day.” Teachers coming to school with this attitude truly creates a different classroom where students feel accepted and comfortable making mistakes but learning from those mistakes. Good teachers let students mess up, but even better teachers help students learn all the lessons they can from mistakes and success.

“I think part of teaching is being fun and just having an enthusiastic attitude, like, I want to be excited about what I'm teaching every day, because that is a little bit contagious.” Dr. McClure has nailed down what makes a good teacher. Being enthusiastic about the lesson and being even more excited for your students creates an environment that helps students learn and grow. Something all teachers should do is keep “in mind is that it’s students first.” (Dr. McClure) and that is what makes a good teacher.