(l)Study after study shows the most important thing deciding the quality of the education a child receives is his teacher. Teaching has become one of the most difficult jobs today. But what makes a great teacher?

(2)Responsible teachers set high expectations for all students. They expect that all students can achieve in their classroom, and they don’t give up on those who do poorly in study.

(3)Great teachers have clear teaching goals. They have lesson plans that give students a clear idea of what they will learn, what the homework is and what the grading standard is. Homework bas learning goals and gives students enough chances to practice new skills.

(4)Being prepared and organized is another good quality that great teachers have. They are in their classrooms early and ready to teach. They present lessons in a clear and structured way. Their classrooms are organized in such a way as to minimize distractions.

(5)To become great teachers, they should engage students and get them to look at problems in all kinds of ways. They use facts as a starting point, not an end point; they ask “why” questions, look at all sides and encourage students to imagine what will happen next. They ask questions frequently to make sure students are following along. They try to engage the whole class, and they don’t allow a few students to control the class. They keep students active with many different and lively ways.

(6)Besides, great teachers have strong relationships with their students. They are warm, kind, energetic and caring. Teachers with these qualities are known to stay after school and make themselves available to students and parents who need them.

(7)Great teachers also communicate frequently with parents. They reach parents through conferences and frequent written reports home. They don’t hesitate to pick up the telephone to call a parent if they are concerned about a student.

Anna Steed doesn’t look much older than her students, but she is a practitioner of behavioral and motivational science, a shoulder to cry on, and the high school debate coach. Her class, which began as an elective class to give students exposure to skills that prepare them for college, has become the class on campus that creates winners.

Speech and debate test the teenage character perhaps more than any other activity. The shy and the unsure often have no desire to look up from their screens and engage in the oldest human interaction: persuasive oral arguments. It’s dreadful territory for the average teenager. Research, writing, delivering a speech in front of your peers --it all sounds like the kind of class students would be most likely to skip. But Anna draws them in.

Classroom 161 is always full. Anna’s debate teams have a case full of medals; most importantly, they have gone on to become leaders of their communities and examples to their families.

“This activity has changed my life. Just building connections with people I never, ever imagined building connections with,” relates Alexander Hernandez Gonzalez. Alexander suffered from social anxiety throughout his childhood. Then he discovered debate as a freshman, and it changed his life.

What drives young people to stand up and passionately deliver a speech in front of a crowd full of strangers, a panel of judges and opposing teams from more privileged high schools? The person who will always have their back: Anna Steed.

“I want them to just have the memory of making it through, succeeding in a place like that and expressing a story that leaves that place better,” Anna says.

That better place begins in room 161 when unsure and nervous students enter for the first time. After setbacksand adjustments, a lot of hugs, encouragement, and hours of late-night study and practice, they roll out a few years later with their shoulders back and a full tank of confidence, ready to take on the next stage of life.

I was sitting in math class; my teacher, Mrs. Gratz, was trying to get the attention of everyone arriving before the bell that would start the fourth period. As most of my classmates sat down and waited for our teacher to begin the lesson, a student walked in right after the bell rang. He was a real troublemaker. It was painfully obvious to anyone who knew him that he didn’t care much about school or authority. He continued walking through the classroom, sat down next to one of his friends and began talking loudly with him. At this point our teacher had attempted to quiet everyone down several times, succeeding with just about everyone except for him. By him arguing with a teacher for seemingly no reason and causing a scene, I could see on my teacher’s face that she was getting more and more upset as time went on, because her class time was being wasted.

It’s important to present yourself in a positive way to people that can have an effect on your life. Parents, police officers, teachers. Those in positions such as these are the ones who should be respected most, even if you don’t think so. Watching a young man argue back and forth with a teacher, a person of authority, taught me a valuable lesson about how to act when in a situation like this. If you disagree with someone, you should find the proper time and place to deal with it. Truly, the time for wasting time is not during school hours and the place for disrupting (扰乱) a teacher’s lesson is not in school itself.

I try to respect all figures of authority, especially when they treat the people under them fairly and with equal respect. Back in this 7th grade, this event changed my life, and that’s the reason why I still remember and learn from it to this day. Sitting in class and listening to the teacher every day can get boring, but it is also worth quieting down for, because of what you can take away from the class, and what you can gain from just showing some respect.