Two of my tutors have helped me in understading the importance of a good teacher.
First the worst case - When I joined college to study biotechonology, we were exposed to all engineering subjects during our first year. The tutor was his late 50’s who was teaching engineering students - Enginerring mechanics course - all this life. Since he was to retire in a year or two, he was enlisted to teach us - biology students - the same course. Most of us were not interested in the course but he failed to notice this and ‘taught’ us for almost 6 months. He made no attempt to check if we interested nor he interacted with us during the lectures. Even though I was interested in the subject, I did not learn much from this course.
Second - the good one: During my last 3 years in school, my zoology tutor introduced biotechonolgy to me, even though it was not a part of the course. He interacted with us and understood the level of interest each student had for his course. He did not ‘force’ the subject, but helped students who had no interest in the course to learn what they need to pass the course. At the same time, he helped the students who were interested in the course to learn more. He did all this within the course time schedule with all the students in the class.
From these two experiences, I experienced the power of tutor in helping the students. And this has motivated me to become a good tutor and not just a tutor.
There is nothing I would have changed to make this better in the past, but I can take these experiences to heart when I teach students.