'My Favourite Teacher'

I recently borrowed the book ‘My Favourite Teacher’ (ed. By Robert Macklin, 2011) from my local library. In the book, a number of both prominent and everyday Australians share their stories about what it was that made their favourite teacher so special.

Reading the stories, there appeared to be a pattern emerging over the qualities of great teachers that was common among many. Here are some of my findings:

They have a passion for learning and teaching:

Irma Gold, writer, on her literature teacher Mrs Turner –

‘Looking back it is obvious that I loved words, stories, books from the very beginning, but it is not until Mrs Turner that this knowledge emerges as something of a revelation. It is not the things she says, it is the way she says them. With passion. It opens me up.’

They have high expectations:

Jan Grainger, artist, on her grade 6/7 teacher Jack McKinnon –

‘Jack led by example. He expected so much from himself and was dedicated to inspiring us to do the very best we could for ourselves’.

They genuinely care for their students and their learning:

Dr Cindy Pan, author and physician, on her first teacher, Miss Yap –

‘I hope my sons can at least one time in their lives have a teacher that they adore who gives them the same love and warm feeling for school that I always had and which I attribute in large part to you, lovely you.’

They believe in their students:

Laura McHugh, writer, on her year 5 teacher Ms Allen –

‘I’d been a ‘bad’ kid throughout my primary school years…

Meeting Ms Allen expelled that label. She gave me a chance, believed in me, and actually, in a softer way, I think she cared for me’.

They light a fire: This is perhaps my favourite story of all in this book. Reading Michaela Habels’ (Publisher) words regarding her favourite teacher, a chord resonated with me. As Habels described the qualities that made Mrs Good so, well great, I realised that these were the traits I aspire to develop in my own practice :-)

LIGHT THAT FIRE

Michaela Habel, Publisher

My favourite teacher was Shannon Good (nee Carey). She’s the one who lived by the maxim that a child’s mind was a fire to be lit and not a vessel to be filled.

Mrs Good let us bring our pets to school. She let us talk in class: too much silence was ‘a bit weird’. If we were wrong she said ‘Pull yourself together’, or ‘For goodness sake, fly straight man.’ And we all moved on.

She coached the softball team when nobody else would; even though she didn’t have a clue! She supplied breakfast to those who needed it. She told us to enunciate our vowels and speak clearly. She let us have a disco at lunchtime. She toote

d the horn of her VW at our ‘Honk if you hate whaling’ protest signs and drove into the distance with her fist raised defiantly out that little window; because that’s what we cared about in Grade 5.

She trusted us to use her best silver and gold pen collection and allowed us to touch her souvenirs from foreign countries, brought in to illustrate some point. She taught us to love reading respect mathematics, ‘revere’ the environment and learn a language.

Mrs Good was loving, exciting and wise. She smiled a lot. If we failed she told us we were only letting ourselves down; that a good mind would always ‘out’ in the end so we might just as well get on with it. She never asked for much in return; she really just seemed to like us, she really seemed to care… and we loved her.’

REFERENCE

Macklin, R. (2011), My Favourite Teacher. University of New South Wales Press Ltd., Sydney NSW 2052 Australia.