George Pawlas's
PR for PRincipals...

What Makes Super Teachers Super?

Perhaps the most obvious quality that super teachers have in common is their ability to make all children feel their worth. "When children believe in themselves they start to learn better," one of the super teachers I worked with always said.

Some people who knew that super teacher might say that she was tough. She had that reputation because she insisted on follow-through. She required her primary-level students to read and to complete special projects. She had high evaluation standards that included no excuses for not doing homework assignments.

That teacher always told parents that she had such high expectations because she wanted her students to learn. Students with the skills and self-confidence she taught would be successful as they moved up the grades, she said.

Did such high expectations and standards turn off parents who thought the teacher was putting too much pressure on their children? Not at all. Many parents made specific requests that their children be placed in her classroom.

That same teacher was as enthusiastic about life as she was about teaching and her students. She said the enthusiasm she saw in the new teachers who joined our school "family" was giving our school a new life and personality, and that those new teachers also stimulated her to do her best.

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