There might have been an edge to her. She might have made you uncomfortable. She might have said: “You can do this” when you said: “No, I can’t .” She believed in you more than you believed in yourself. So she put some pressure on you. And she got your effort because she asked for it, and you met her demands because she won your trust. Because you realized, “She cares about me enough to push me.” And she pushed you into places you didn’t think you belonged. Great teachers don’t just teach you; they change you.

When you think about what made your teacher so good, you can’t explain it with just tools and techniques; it was also his or her judgment, creativity, and personality that pulled you in and helped create the whole bond you had with your teacher.
Great teachers don’t just teach you; they change you.

The heart of learning is this connection between teachers and students. That is the centerpiece of school success: a teacher forming a bond with a student, triggering the student’s hunger to learn, and guiding it in the right way.

Teachers have always played an integral role in my life, and I’ve been fortunate to have strong bonds with teachers who believed in me, made demands of me, and lit up my hunger for learning. And when I became a teacher myself, my colleagues provided mentor-ship, taught me the value of collaboration, and showed me the fierce dedication the teaching profession demands.