What makes a good teacher?

I'd like to bring your attention to two recent articles that reflect on themes I find myself returning to periodically.

The first speaks to the importance of providing teachers with meaningful opportunities for collaboration with their peers: Teaching Commission Pushes Collaborative Learning Teams.

The second article talks about the value of incorporating the arts into daily teaching and learning: Teachers take center stage. 

The first brought to mind a conversation I had this week with a seventh-grade teacher from Alabama who was distraught that her district was abandoning the team concept in her middle-school, apparently with little regard for the input of teachers.

Regarding the second, I'm thrilled that the thinking in State College is evolving from STEM to STE(A)M; that is, in the direction of Science, Technology, Engineering (the Arts) and Mathematics. Students need to see creativity and good design as essential components of good engineering.

That article also highlights the idea that effective 21st-century communication is about more than reading and writing, as essential as those skills are.