Learning Challenge: What Makes a Good Teacher?

For this week's learning challenge, I read the article What Kids Wish Their Teacher Knew. Studying to be a future teacher and then a professional counselor myself, this was something very eye opening for me to read. You always hear about the importance of knowing your students beyond just an academic level and knowing that they are all unique but there is something so special about seeing it in real words right in front of you.

It is important that teacher's know what is going on with

their students outside of classroom curriculum. Source: Pixabay

My mom is also a teacher right now in central Texas and some of the stories that she has told me in the past are unbelievable and heartbreaking. I'm not going to name names for the sake of privacy of the student's and their families but I have heard everything from kids going into foster care, kids loosing parents way too early and unexpectedly, kids being neglected and abused, and so many other things. These are the types of things that keep student's I might have in the future from giving their best effort in school that teacher's may never know about. Because of this, it is so important that teacher's both understand what their student's might be dealing with and also understand that failure to complete assignments or to do so well may not always be because of a lack of desire or effort but a lack of time, means, etc. to do so.
As far as how I could implement this into my own future classroom, I want to be the teacher that my students know that they can go to for anything that they need. While I will want them to be successful in my English classroom, I want them to know that first and foremost I want them to know that they are safe, cared for, and loved. If I can implement this type of atmosphere in my own classroom, whether I am teaching 6th graders or seniors in high school, I will be able to count my career as a success when all is said and done.