What do kids need in a teacher

As I sit at my desk this summer, my focus has turned to what sets apart the teachers that are truly great in the classroom from those who can teach the curriculum, but students must want to learn in order to really take something from the class.  Sure, every student can learn something from every teacher, but what is it that the great teachers do that allows them to almost draw the students into such an educational hypnosis that they have no idea they are learning as much as they do? 

In today's world you will find that most teachers have very good knowledge of the content they are teaching.  In fact, I would go out on a limb and say that most teachers probably have very similar knowledge of the content they are teaching if you were to quiz them.  As we all know, it's not what they know, it's how they get their knowledge into their students' minds that counts.  

In a typical classroom Marzano would say you would want a bell ringer to start the class.  Something to possibly connect yesterday's material to today's material.  Something to get their mind working. After the bell ringer, a teacher should introduce the learning target and integrate the lesson to attack the learning target.  There should be check for understandings throughout the lesson and an exit ticket at the end of the class time in order to review the learning target and show mastery of the learning target if possible.  Everything I have stated above is what you would see in any of our classrooms if you came to my school.  Now, what sets teachers apart from one another?  It's the dynamics of the lesson.  

Great teachers develop the body of their lesson upon student self investigation.  They apply real world ideas into their lesson and allow students to discover and uncover the topic you want them to learn without being in front of the room talking to them while having the expectation that they are learning what you are talking about.  Instead great teachers develop a lesson that is student led.  They introduce the concept and then have activities built into place to allow self discover and peer teaching possibilities.  Be fearless and allow students to work together on a difficult problem geared around the learning target.  Develop different pods in which groups of students can solve different problems together or discover different things together and then rotate them after a certain period of times.  In summary, great teachers allow the students to use their minds to discover instead of standing in front of the room lecturing while they are taking notes and expecting them to learn, be captivated, and be inspired after you are done.  You want them to learn and be inspired, then you must inspire them and push them to learn.  The ideas are endless, don't get caught in the daily rut of lecture.  Find ways to allow students to discover and uncover!