One of my favorite sections of the paper is “My Take”. It’s kind of like the editorial section- the premise is to submit a personal essay of no more than 500 words with strong opinions. The topics are usually unlimited and offer various points of view. Combing through my articles, I found this one (What Makes a Good Teacher). Kaya McRuer summed the question up nicely when she wrote “According to my peers, favorite teachers allow for student creativity and independence in the classroom. They understand and explain to their students why it is important to learn the curriculum, challenging his or her students and encouraging inquisitiveness. Favorite teachers make every effort to give clear, easily understood instructions and explanations and provide extra help to any student who needs it. The problem is that these types of teachers are viewed as lucky breaks in education, rather than the norm.” The last sentence struck a chord of truth with me so mighty that I could still see my fading highlighter and in the margins, I had written “why” with a string of questions marks. Yes, many students feel lucky to get the popular teacher, but what I have learned as a student, tutor, and professor is the subject being taught does not define whether the students will like the class, rather it is the teacher who makes the subject interesting or not. I also knew the answer to my “why” is because the most common teaching styles are either lecture-based, project-based, or discussion-based. As I continued to read McRue’s piece she mentions this to still be the teaching style today. Therefore, it is important to for teachers to learn how to blend these teaching styles, providing every type of student a chance to learn.