It seems appropriate at this time of year to celebrate the great teachers who have touched our lives and live in our memory.

Such is the reason that the influence of religious teachers survives over hundreds and thousands of years. Great teachers influence students, and students become adults who impact the world.

What are the characteristics of great teachers? Working with teachers over the past 30 years has allowed me to visit thousands of classrooms, talk with students and teachers, and observe the vast differences in materials and instructional strategies.

There is no “miracle” program, intervention strategy, new and improved textbooks, modernized technology or improved curriculum guide that can take the place of a great teacher.

My top 10 characteristics of a great teacher:

1. A passion for learning and the ability to model it.

2. Cognizant that their beliefs, words and actions influence students’ lives and student behavior.

3. Desire for professional coaching toward improving their instructional strategies and classroom management.

4. Committed to critically assessing content longevity for their students (will it matter tomorrow, next year?).

5. Able to apply their expertise and experience in assessing new materials.

6. Capable of being in “communion” with their students, recognizing when something works and when it doesn’t.

7. Able to provide meaningful explanations that relate to their students.

8. More interested in the questions students ask than the answers students give.

9. Capturing the teachable moment and taking it to a deeper level.

10. Purposeful in orchestrating their classroom for creative, innovative and focused learning.

This extensive list asks much of those who teach our children, but the truth is these “strangers” see your children for longer periods of time each day than you do. Teachers’ attitudes, character and ability to orchestrate learning have lifelong influence on how our children see themselves as learners and as people. Teaching is not easy; it is the art and science of orchestrating a classroom where knowledge and skills are presented in meaningful and integrated ways.

Twice a week, a young boy comes to my office after school. We have 30 minutes of uninterrupted time together. We have been doing this since he was 5; now he is 7. This year, he moved to a new school, which has been hard on me. The primary focus in his classroom is reading and math. Each day he has homework consisting mainly of worksheets on math computation and a language arts fill-in-the-blank. He must also read 30 minutes an evening. Sadly, what he reads, or the math he does, or the fill-ins, have no connection to one another or a topic of value. Imagine if there were a connection between what he is asked to do so he would deepen his understanding of the world in which he lives.

As I remember, one of the great religious leaders spoke in parables so his audience could relate to the lesson at hand. My young visitor is fascinated by mathematics, and when we are together, he regularly uses it to enlighten something we have read. Using a measuring tape, he determines how much space a 25-foot whale would occupy in my hallway and draws to scale a stingray. I wonder if he has time to share his number knowledge with his teacher and his classmates.

Recently, I asked what he was studying in social studies and science; he told me they don’t have those subjects in second grade in his new school. To not even offer the subjects that reveal the purpose of reading and math is a sad situation, to say the least. Our focus on literacy has been, in many cases, an isolated subject from the content areas. In reality, people read because it has value in their lives, helps inform or causes them to think more deeply about something, and/or provides relief from stress.

My young student can show me his percentage of right answers on books he has chosen to read and that have been recorded on the computer. He knows the percents have value for his teacher and his parents.

I only hope if he found a story he really was interested in, he would be encouraged to do additional research, create a diorama, interview someone who was knowledgeable in this area — then share his knowledge with his class. What a learning opportunity that would be!

Stay tuned for my next column on what makes a great teacher.