Inventiveness

Inventiveness is one of the most important skills to have in the work force in the 21st century. In the book Global Achievement Gap, one of Wagner's main points is to teach and encourage creativity. Employers these days are looking for people who have creative minds and can bring new and interesting things to their business. I don't think schools are doing a very good job encouraging creativity right now. Cutting music and art programs are doing exactly opposite, they are hindering children's skills. Art is a huge way for children to show how creative they are, and by cutting that program, they have less practice at it. Its the teachers jobs now to incorporate art and music into their everyday lessons. Teachers should show art projects up on a bulletin board, so that the students are proud of their work. Creativity is so important in the classrooms, throughout all the grades, and teachers should do as much as they can do let the creative juices flow through the minds of kids.

Reflectiveness

Teacher find it hard to reflect because it makes them look back at the day and evaluate it. Sometimes you have to reflect on the bad things that happened, and that can be hard for some people. But reflectivness is a key part in the teaching process. Its the only way to look at how you taught something and see what needs to be changed. Sometimes the way you teach something didnt work, and reflecting on it, you can decide how to make the lesson better. Reflection also brings out what went right in the lesson so that you can do it again next time you teach. I reflect many times through a journal. I usually write about what went wrong in the day, its a nice way to get my thoughts out on paper. Just like i reflect on my day at school, teachers should reflect at the end of the day.

Passion!!

Passion in a teacher is what i think as one of the most important qualitys. In order to be a good teacher, you need to have the passion to teach all day everyday, and still love it. A passionate teacher loves the subject they are teaching, and loves when kids understand it. I've had quite a few experiences with passionate teachers. The best one being my 12th grade anatomy teacher. Mr. Burton was one of my favorite teachers because he was so excited to teach us about anatomy. He loved every part about it, he got us motivated to learn all the different parts of the heart and how it worked. He had us learn a bunch of different songs to learn all the bones, and he did the songs right a long with us. Mr. Burton taught with so much enthusiasm and passion, that i was never bummed to go to class, i was always very excited, and that definitly made me learn faster and better. But I've also had a complete opposite teacher. My tenth grade history teacher was about the most boring and least passionate teacher i knew. This teacher was very passionate about highschool football, but definitly not about history. He would give us a worksheet and make us watch a movie while filling out this worksheet everyday. The answers were ALWAYS in the same order on every worksheet. He would just sit at his desk on his computer, or writing out the next football play. I never really minded history, but i dreaded going to this class because it was SOOO boring! So a teacher with passion makes a HUGE difference in how a student learns and feels towards a subject, its very important for a teacher to be passionate towards their job.

Authenticity

To be authentic is to be genuine, and as a teacher, it's important to be authentic. Authenticity is on a spectrum, and you dont want to be on either extremes. If you are too authentic, you come off as cheesy, and i dont think the students will take you seriously. If you aren't authentic enough, then it seems like you don't care about the class, and then neither will the students. A student can tell if a teacher isn't authentic if the teacher doesn't have a good attitude about being at work or if they are too cheesy or boring in their teaching. There is a big change in ramification when the teacher is seen as fake. The students attitude reflects off of the teacher's attitude, so if the students know that the teacher doesn't really care about the subject, then the students don't see any reason to, therefore making their learning drop. It's important for a teacher to be right in the middle of the authenticy spectrum, not too cheesy, but not fake either.