I've been known to say "There's 1 great teacher for every 10 teachers." Not to throw shade at 90% of educators, but to acknowledge just how ridiculously demanding this profession is and to give proper credit to those who have truly cracked the code.
Recently, a friend asked me something that, surprisingly, no one had ever bothered to ask: "Well, what exactly makes a great teacher?" I had one of those moments where my brain flooded with answers but my mouth couldn't keep up. So here's my more thoughtful take on what sets the awesome educators apart from the rest.
An Awesome Educator Knows Who the Real Customer Is
Let's be real—schools exist for students, not the other way around. Awesome educators get this at a bone-deep level. They're constantly tuning in to what their students need, collecting feedback (formal or just paying attention), and adjusting their approach accordingly.
If you're teaching the exact same way to every student, every year, without considering the humans in front of you... well, that's like a chef who never tastes the food they're serving. How would they know if it's any good?
An Awesome Educator Leaves Their Ego at Home
The classroom isn't a stage for adults to perform their expertise or demonstrate their amazing crowd control skills. It's a laboratory where young humans should feel safe to create, experiment, make glorious messes, collaborate, and learn through the whole chaotic process.
When a teacher's primary concern is looking smart or maintaining iron-fisted control, students get the message: this room isn't actually for you—it's for me to feel important. Awesome educators flip this completely, making themselves vulnerable first so students know it's safe to do the same.
An Awesome Educator Refuses to Get Comfortable
The phrase "tried & true" might be the most dangerous words in education. Awesome educators are relentlessly creative—they're iterating, experimenting, and sometimes scrapping everything to start fresh. They know that what worked for students last year might not work for the ones sitting in front of them today.
The moment you hear a teacher say, "This is how I've always done it", you can almost hear innovation packing its bags and sneaking out the window.
An Awesome Educator Knows Collaboration Beats Competition
The old model of one teacher + one classroom + door closed = education is as outdated as chalk dust. Great educators are collaboration machines—they share ideas like they're giving away free ice cream, and they're hungry for feedback that makes their work better.
They know that hoarding their brilliant lessons in a carefully guarded binder helps exactly one classroom of kids, while sharing and improving those ideas collectively could transform education for students they'll never even meet. And isn't that the whole point?
What we're really talking about here isn't just being a competent teacher. It's about being a classroom rebel—someone who's willing to question deeply rooted beliefs, put students at the center, and continuously reinvent what learning can look like.
If this sounds like you, or anyone you know, we'd really love to hear from you.