The Best Advice For A Teacher by Thomas

The Best Advice For A Teacher by Thomas - January 2015 Scholarship Essay

In the course of my career as a student, I have come to realize that there are certain aspects that make for a dynamic, effective teacher in such a way as to create for them a name among intellectual society and more importantly among their students. After reading this assignment and doing the retrospective personal observation it requires, I have come to realize that throughout the schooling process, I have, without exception, always had a favorite teacher. As I began to think about what my past favorite teachers have had in common, I chose to weed out similarities; was it that I enjoyed the specific subject they taught? maybe it was a certain course like English or science? They obviously had a certain talent for their jobs, but there is something more than a proper education in a chosen field that makes a person able to reach their students on a level deeper than cold subject matter. Across subjects taught, age of the teacher, political association, loud voice, quiet nature-the list goes on-I have realized that an effective teacher goes beyond passion for their chosen field and spills over into passion for sharing that knowledge with students; passion is the common thread.

Mr. Cannon was my Advanced Placement English my junior year, and as a seventeen-year-old boy with seemingly better things to do with his time than think about The Grapes of Wrath and Charles Dickens. His beaming attitude toward life and class had its way of reflecting onto everyone that entered his class each morning. Aside from his attitude he had a sheer joy for English and teaching kids like myself. His joy to teach was shown in tons of ways, every week he would stand on desks and preach Shakespeare or stand behind us to whisper the tale of Odysseus, and would yell out “High-Speed” when we got something right. If you told him you didn’t know the answer he would wait for you to say something else because he commonly said, “everyone has an answer somewhere, it just takes time to find it.”

Every time I saw him in the hall or the every now and again at the grocery store he would take his time to talk to me and make sure all is well in my life, he was never too busy to hear how I was doing, especially because I was shy going into his class. He had his way of making everybody feel like somebody, he wanted you to feel valued.

The most important thing I’ve ever seen in a teacher is an element of passion, without a drive to impact students there is no way anyone will be excited to hear what he or she has to say. Mr. Cannon had passion in every word that crossed his lips and found full enjoyment in teaching others. His enthusiasm to teach has made himself an incredible at his job, a role model, and a friend to myself and many other students.