The Privilege to Teach
By Peter W. Cookson, Jr.

Each year we are given an amazing opportunity to work with children as they enter into the adventure of leaning. As a new teacher, you are also beginning a new adventure. Teaching is unlike any other profession because leaning is a continuously creative activity that has at its heart relationships that matter for a lifetime. Your relationship with your students and with yourself is the fundamental foundation of all that will happen in the coming year. You are the instrument of your own professional development. If you fully embrace the possibilities of growth, you'll never fail your students and you'll grow into a great teacher.

What makes a great teacher?
It's difficult to identify what makes a great teacher because there are potentially as many great teachers as there are teachers. Here are a couple of my observations:

• Great teachers care deeply about the welfare of their students. They understand that no two people learn alike. They understand that children may come to school with all kinds of family difficulties. They understand that children may suffer illness, and they believe that all children can learn. The heartbeat of any great classroom is the empathetic, nurturing and loving teacher.

• Great teachers are intellectually curious and demanding. When we begin to teach, it's natural that we want our students to like us, but if we try to make students like us by not providing them intellectual leadership, we become little more than caretakers. Children need role models. Imagine your students catching you reading a book. The image of you reading a book is an informal leaning experience for your students that sends a message about the importance of literacy. Imagine your students being dazzled by your understanding of history, mathematics, English or science. Intellectual excellence if essential us education is not to be mediocre. A great teacher also knows how to shape and direct a classroom of students who are ready to lean by challenging them, by holding high standards and by being an intellectual and moral leader.

Informal leadership
It's difficult as a new teacher to think of yourself as a leader, because school systems place leadership in the superintendent, in the principal and in the senior teachers. But formal leadership in a school setting is no substitute for the informal leadership that you exercise as a member of the faculty of your school. When you demonstrate professionalism in the way you speak, dress and approach classroom learning, you are already a school leader. Leadership and self-discipline are both essential if you are to model for you colleagues and your students a level of performance that says the work that we do is joyous but it's also of utmost importance.

Smiling in the face of difficulty
Great teachers instill pride in their students. To be a real learner, one has to have pride in oneself and classrooms require a sense of collective pride. There are numerous ways to create a sense of esprit de corps in your classroom. You could, for example, visit your students' community before the start of school. Take pictures of the community and place them on your bulletin board so that the children will see themselves in their classroom immediately. They'll also see that you care about their community. No matter how you feel on any one day you should be positive, upbeat, and enthusiastic. Smiling in the face of difficulty is an attribute of all genuine leaders.

Great, not perfect
Does this mean that to be a great teacher you have to be perfect? Of course not. A great teacher isn't a perfect teacher. A great teacher is a real teacher. Real with him or herself, real with his or her students, and real about leaning. Our culture today is in love with fantasy and illusion. Your classroom should be a place where authentic and real relationships develop, where children can express themselves freely and where you can be yourself.

From a learning theory point of view, your authenticity is literally the spark that will ignite the cognitive fires in your students. There is no more depressing sight than to see a young boy or girl in school who is withdrawn and bored. All great teachers reach out to that student and find a way for them to become wide-awake, alert, and eager to learn. This mission is not easy because many students are struggling with personal problems that are far beyond their psychological level of development to adequately resolve.

Know your students. Many of them are suffering from real deprivation: emotional and physical. The more you know your students the more you will be able to reach out to them, to understand them, and to help them find a way to become genuine learners.

No matter how difficult your experiences may be this year, don't forget that the work you do with your students will resonate in their hearts and minds. Teaching is a big responsibility, but it is also an amazing privilege.

Peter W. Cookson, Jr. is the founder of TCinnovations and the Dean of the Graduate School of Education of Lewis & Clark College. He is also founder of the Center for Educational Outreach & Innovation at Teachers College.