Running head: GOOD TEACHING

Good Teaching: Mastering Content with Human Connection

Melissa N. Koroleff
Michigan State University

GOOD TEACHING

The field of education is ever changing, as it seeks to adapt to current demographics and
populations of students through the contributions of committed teachers, innovative technology,
and new policy reforms and national standards. Amidst all of these facets in the field of
teaching, what really makes the profession is the quality of teachers. There are countless ways to
define a good teacher. However, what remains at the core of this question is the fact that
educators are the advocates of academic and personal growth for their students. Good teachers
must utilize their mastery of content as well as their mastery of human connection to better reach
the young adults they are pushing to reach their potential.
Memorable teachers are successful in maintaining a healthy equilibrium of passion for
content as well as passion for building relationships with students. Having this combination of
being a professional and being a mentor, coach, and role model all in one is indicative of a
teacher who is fully dedicated and committed to serving his or her students. Good teachers have
a plethora of favorable qualities. Nevertheless, Darling-Hammond (1998) proposes that A
professional learner is one who learns from teaching rather than one who has finished learning to
teach (p. 7). This profound statement truly illustrates the mentality of an educator. We
approach learning as a lifelong process or journey and, ultimately, strive to transfer the same line
of thinking for our students.
To personally illustrate Darling-Hammonds argument, I can recall the most influential
undergraduate teacher preparation instructor I had. She is a wonderful living example that
represents the constant flow of learning and teaching. While she certainly was a master of
content and opened our eyes to educational topics both in and out of textbooks, she never
stopped learning with and from her students. She planned thought-provoking lessons, asked
challenging questions, and assigned involved assignments. She began with objective-based

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instruction that expanded our own developing content mastery. However, what set her apart
from other teachers were her moments as a student, right beside us. She actively put herself in
positions where she observed our conversations, participated with us in heated discussions, and
asked honest questions about our teaching experiences to gain authentic insight as to how she
could better prepare us to teach. She herself was the ultimate model of the lifelong learner.
In addition to embracing this state of mind, successful teachers utilize a wide variety of
teacher and content knowledge to enhance curriculum and the experiences their diverse students
have with it. Good teachers know their content inside and out. However, we have to remember
that we are teaching this curriculum to growing young adults with big personalities, hopes and
fears, strengths and weaknesses. Ravitch (2010) cleverly reminds us that teachers are the best at
knowing their students the best. We know our students in terms of what skills they dominate and
struggle with in class, in addition to where they come from and what they do after school. So,
logically connecting the two, the more effective and impressive teachers manipulate and
differentiate curriculum as well as use creative and innovative ways of reaching students and
accomplishing objectives.
To better demonstrate the relationship between content knowledge and student
knowledge, my mentor teacher during my student teacher internship comes to mind. She was the
epitome of the zealous high school English and journalism teacher and yearbook advisor. Her
unique combination of content expertise really connected with students on a personal level
because she was so invested in daily student life and wanted to represent her school pride in
student publications. English classes were no different; she wanted to be as close with those
students as she was with her publications staff.

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She observed what was important to those students (friendship, relationships, coaches,
sports, competition, etc.) and incorporated those interests into more authentic instruction. She
and I implemented literature circles for the sophomores, for whom we taught concepts such as
indirect vs. direct characterization, imagery, types of conflict, and figurative language. First
semester we read The Hunger Games, and for the second semester we read Tuesdays With
Morrie. Both experiences with novels were successes for several reasons. First, the students felt
a sense of ownership in their work as a result of their individualized job roles (student chosen,
student led) within each literature circle. Second, they felt active in class and that their opinions
and interests were listened to and valuable in our class environment. The content of each novel
was engaging and set the stage for students to easily connect with the curriculum-related
material. Lastly, they were pleasantly surprised that reading for fun wasnt so bad!
Lastly, with the help of educator Rita Pierson (2013), she reminds us that what drives
meaningful education and student-teacher relationships is the value and importance of human
connection. Aside from delivering information and assessing learning, good teachers genuinely
seek to understand their students as young people coming of age so that they may better guide
them. Pierson articulates that curriculum may not dictate for us to listen to, counsel, encourage,
mentor, and coach our students; yet these are the stepping stones for building trusting
relationships which allow our students to flourish and come into their own.
Along these lines, I recently had a new experience with one of my students. He is a
junior in my Spanish 1 class; however, this new experience happened after school in an ACT
writing preparation class. I was excited to see his work within the context of his persuasive
writing skills in English, not his Spanish vocabulary or grammar knowledge. The prompt that
students were writing about revolved around the question Are second chances a good thing?

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This teenager pronounced that second chances are privileges we may earn to show the better side
of ourselves that may not have appeared the first time. I was struck right away with the voice he
had already developed. I could hear his character come through, and he sounded much wiser
than most in that room. He went on to give personal accounts of how he has matured from his
own mistakes and has developed a stronger work ethic and appreciation for forgiveness. He
wrote a few funny comments in the margins to me (I had asked them to highlight what they were
most proud of and to ask questions to help my grading), but that was not what made me re-read
his essay a few times.
He chose to write about his biological father who was a homeless drug addict for much of
his childhood. He went on to explain the power of second chances, as his father got help, has
now been sober since, and is living in a shelter. I was speechless at first, and he was dutifully
looking at me for feedback on his paper. At first, all I could say was that I was so proud of him
for everything, for his maturity, honesty, responsibility, and strong character at 16 years of age. I
was reminded of Pierson (2013) and her declaration that Every kid deserves a champion. It is
moments like these where human connection is stronger than any objective, lesson, or book.
Teaching is all about creating positive human relationships. In the profession of teaching, we get
to witness champions emerge in students. If you are a lucky teacher, you are there to cheer them
on and let them know that you can also be their champions too.
Can anyone be a teacher? Perhaps. The real question should be what do we do to
become one of these exceptional teachers we all hope to be or hope we had? It is difficult to
answer, but a good start lies with having brains and heart. We are not teaching empty
classrooms. What good will content knowledge do if we cannot affect the human beings sitting
before us? Good teaching grows strong minds and compassionate individuals.

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References
Darling-Hammond, L. (1998). Teacher learning that supports student learning. Educational
Leadership, 55(5), 6-11
Pierson, R. (2014, March 2). Every kid needs a champion. TED Talks. Retrieved March 2,
2014 from http://www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion.html
Ravitch, D. (2010). The death and life of the great American school system: How testing and
choice are undermining education. New York: Basic Books.