There were several points that I took away from my interview that are instrumental in being an impactful teacher. First and foremost, the one that hit home a lot for me was the fact that to be impactful, you must have a constant wanting to learn for several reasons. One of those comes from a great point that the teacher I interviewed stated: “You wouldn’t trust a doctor if they hadn’t learned a single thing since they graduated, would you?” The same concept applies to teaching. Regardless of how long you’ve been teaching, it’s one of those professions where you will not be perfect, certainly not on the first day, week, month, year, and most likely after many years. So, if you learn nothing, or very little, that’s a red flag that you aren’t maximizing your potential as a teacher and you probably need to view your experiences differently, and perhaps you need to ask more questions and look for more growth opportunities. That’s something that this teacher drove at, is that you must constantly be wanting to learn more. It can be seen in professions of all kinds; those who are the best at what they do are always learning. Another concept my teacher drove at was the idea of “your learning for theirs.” The point she was trying to make here was that as an impactful teacher, you should want to learn more so that your students can be better in the classroom and outside the classroom as well. This is important because, at the end of the day, this profession revolves a lot around the kids. A major reason why people get into this field is because of the kids. It is very important to understand that the work you put into this will have a significant impact on the students in your classroom. You should have a high desire and a sense of urgency to learn so your students can be the best versions of themselves, both inside the classroom and outside.
Another thing I realized impactful teachers do after reflecting upon my teacher interview is that they work very hard to build relationships with their students. They try hard to get to know them as people. An impactful teacher does this so they can relate better to their students and it makes the students feel good because they now have this feeling of, “Wow, the teacher must care about me because they are talking to me about things that I like.” This helps build the character and reputation of the teacher to make them a more impactful figure in the eyes of the students. One concept that my teacher laid out for me was that some kids on the outside seem a lot different than who they are. They might seem down, angry, or disinterested in anything else going on outside of them. But, when you try to get to know them better as a person and who they are, this is when you can see who this student is. You can see the real side of them. You get this out of the students because you took the time to be intentional about getting to know them better on a personal level.
A third idea that was driven home with me by my teacher was the idea that passion about what you are teaching will naturally make you more impactful. Whether that’s a specific content area or multiple content areas, having a passion for what you teach will make you impactful because you care about that content. Also, if you are passionate about what you are teaching, this will mean that there is a better chance the students can feed off of that passion and enthusiasm too, meaning that their learning will be enhanced as well. Passion is a driver across all professions and fields. If you are passionate about what you are doing, this will automatically increase your performance and productivity, because it is something you truly and deeply care about. Doing something that you don’t have as much passion for means you won’t be as motivated to learn more and ask questions about the content. Ultimately, this leads to undesirable performance and productivity levels. Passion in the field of education is important because as a teacher, you are essentially educating the future of America. You hold the ability to have a direct impact on the future of the country. If you truly want to get the best out of students, want what’s best for each of them, and care about them deeply on a personal level, the passion for this will be directly reflected in the students.
All in all, a combination of these ideas was what I thought to be the main points of being an impactful teacher driven by my teacher interview. I think that in short, it comes down to caring about what you’re doing and wanting to learn more. It is a very simple concept but hard to act upon every day.
