When it comes to teaching academics, stereotypes do not rule. The teachers who teach the hardest classes, the administrator’s pet and the know-it-all aren’t really present in a teaching staff. However, there is a basis for what makes a teacher good. Unlike students, they need specific characteristics. What does it really take to be considered a good teacher?

Senior Vanessa Solis and Assistant Principal of Student Services Omar Rodriguez tried to identify what it means to be a good teacher.

What makes a good teacher?

Solis: “[A good teacher] needs to know what they’re teaching, be able to deal with different kids with different personalities, have an emotional aspect with their students, needs to put others before themselves and make students enthusiastic and learning fun.”

Rodriguez: “[A good teacher] needs to be extremely caring and needs to build relationships; to have patience; to be resourceful [when teaching lessons]; needs to know what to say and how to say it in order to capture students’ attention; and to be thick-skinned.

Does a “good teacher” have to be liked?

Solis: “No, everyone will have their own opinion on a teacher and everyone likes to be taught a different way; you cannot please everyone.”

Rodriguez: “No, I think a good teacher may not be liked in the immediacy of it but in the long run that good teacher is remembered, respected and eventually liked.”

Being well-liked is not everything. It is how a teacher handles different situations in the classroom and the kind of long lasting impact they make on a student that matters most.