Teach your children well

There is nothing like a great teacher.

Who among us would be where we are today had not an outstanding teacher helped us uncover the richness within? Maybe that was as early as kindergarten; maybe as late as high school. But show us a happy, healthy, successful adult, and we'll find a teacher somewhere in that person's past who helped convert potential into practice.

As malleable education reform takes shape in Idaho, focus should remain firmly fixed on teachers, rewarding the best and helping those with passion and skill become even better. But what makes some teachers excel, and how can those with good intent improve?

We asked Dr. Lynn Gillette, an economist and higher education administrator who now is a finalist for the president's job at Lewis-Clark State College. Dr. Gillette is one of the most dynamic, effusive educators we've ever encountered. His machine-gun fast southern accented speech, the peppery blend of growing up a farmboy in Virginia to graduate student in Texas, can make it somewhat challenging to comprehend what he's saying. But it's worth the effort.

"You gotta fish with what the fish want!" he'll almost shout, with "want" heavily emphasized and sounding like "wont." His point: You've got to communicate with people at their level, not yours.

And that's one of Dr. Gillette's seven keys to being a great teacher.

1. Great teachers inspire their students to work hard, to dream, to believe in themselves.

2. Great teachers are great managers - they nail the details. They're clear about expectations, give fast feedback and again, inspire by modeling excellence.

3. Great teachers overcome obstacles. They're creative problem solvers who overcome barriers no matter what.

4. Great teachers self-assess. Gillette paraphrases leadership guru Jim Collins in suggesting that great teachers look in the mirror to apportion responsibility when results are bad and they look out the window to apportion responsibility when results are good. Great teachers adjust teaching strategies, methods, course design - whatever they need to get the students learning. And they never, ever blame the students for bad classes.

5. Great teachers connect their students with the subject matter. They remember what it's like to be young, and they make the subject matter come alive. "You gotta fish with what the fish want."

6. Great teachers are passionate. They have passion for the subject matter, for the students and for learning new ways to teach. Passion inspires, and it's contagious.

7. Great teachers love their students enough to risk being hurt or rejected. Students can tell that great teachers care deeply about them and what they learn; they can tell that great teachers believe in them. Great teachers demonstrate love and build trust. That allows them to push students to higher levels - out of their comfort zones to where deep learning occurs.

Dr. Gillette would be the first to tell you that these same traits apply to leaders of every kind - especially parents. But that's a lecture for another day.