I stumbled on this video, and it makes me angry. At no point in his video did he mention that we are working with CHILDREN, not machines made in factories. He mentions an engaging lesson, but any teacher worth her salt will tell you that an engaging lesson is just the tip of the iceberg to what a teacher does every day. A teacher isn't just going to deliver an engaging lesson and send students on their way; a TEACHER is going to deliver that jam-up lesson. Then, she's going to support, facilitate, and assess students as they work through the material. She's got to do all of this in a matter of about 30 to 45 minutes. After doing that 5 or 6 times a day, she's planning, building relationships with families, discussing children who need extra help with interventionists, etc. When will all of these people realize it is about the CHILD!!!!??? There is no one-size-fits all in education. On top of that, there is no such thing as a perfect teacher. The guidance counselors and principals have to work together to ensure that every child gets put with the right teacher. One child might need structure; another might need a more nurturing and caring environment. It goes back to the CHILD!
Don't start by blaming the teachers, start by blaming the politicians who allocate funding (or lack of) and the constantly flip flopping, rather BORING educational policies based on testing and constantly subtracting the arts and the things that make school interesting. Politicians and researchers have decided the current educational state in the US. Not the teachers.
***** I don't think that was his point. I think his message is more along the lines of "Some teachers are great - we should find out what makes them great so we can have more great teachers".
I teach middle school and do it because I care. Teaching is the hardest profession and summers are off without pay so I have to look for a summer job to pay the bills. All teachers have second jobs! Perks? What perks? We take papers home to grade evenings and weekends. Kids insult us and parents complain. No wonder people don't want to joking this profession. Bill Gates can talk because he has money!
This guy got rich and now believes he is KNOWLEDGEABLE of what it takes to be an actual teacher in a classroom. I would challenge him to teach at my school for a full day with this attitude!!
I am apparently considered very good at teaching things, and I would say that some of the most important qualities of a good teacher are to try to explain exactly WHAT it happening from the very beginning, and always make sure that the students have a good intuitive understanding of everything that happens. For example, if you are introducing students to graphs and calculus then the very first thing you should do is to explain exactly what is going on in the simplest graphs, why it is useful and how you can compare it to real-life situations. It is also very important to respect the students, and give them time to consider a problem thoroughly without rushing them so much.
I teacher chemistry at Pomona High, PUSD. You and anyone is more than welcome to visit my classroom anytime, principle too. I keep an open door policy for everyone, especially parents, anytime. Come en enjoy the magic of learning science the right way, tough discipline and lots of patience to the learning environment. By the way 50% of my students score proficient or better on standardized state test, that is a fact, title one school, low income and everything that comes along with it.
maestro bueno -- maestro malo, es absurdo, el pensamiento dicotomico aplicado a la educación siempre tiene resultados nefastos, Bill gates no tiene ni licenciatura en educación, ni maestría, es peligroso que alguien sea escuchado y tomado en cuenta si nunca ha dado clases, el entorno social, la pertinencia, bill no los toma en cuenta, la educacion no solo depende del profesor sino del alumno y su entorno social. saludos.
All we need is top teachers. The same could be said in the business world. If only everyone was as great as Bill Gates, we would all be millionaires. What is wrong with the business world that it can't create more Bill Gates?! Maybe we could have a biology teacher help the business world.
How many IEP's does the KIPP academy deal with? How many ELL learners are there? Who is allowed to attend? Does the school pick and choose their students? Are there expectations for parents to be involved. He is a great speaker, but these questions are answered. If I don't have IEP's or ELL students to worry about, If I could pick and choose my students I would be one of those great teachers, although my students always told me I was demanding and an excellent teacher.
you are great man good thinking . that is what i always keep thinkig about whether testing is benefitial or not but lets face it what would replace testing i mean come on method of teaching has not found any thing to replace testing till now
Hello Panel, Since this question was asked; "How Do You Make a Teacher Great?" I will offer my insight into this enquiry- BE GREAT STUDENTS & BE GREAT TEACHERS, thus results will appear and solutions will be at a minimal where problems lessen. p.s. Dear Bill Gates: I will paint your portrait for free because it's GEEK WEEK on RU-vid, signed, GreatestPotential
Kudos to NY! Finally somebody is making some right decisions! More testing and more data does not make students better and does not make teacher better either. Teaching to the test is a very bad practice, it destroys learning. Students need to be more engaged and teachers should be held accountable but NOT BY COMPARING TEST RESULTS. There is tons of data out there that testing hinders learning. I am sure that there are more ingredients than testing that make KIPP and other schools successful.
How to make education better? 1. Eliminate poverty. The richest guy in the world probably does not know that many students come to school hungry and some come to school just because they have no food at home. 2. Give students more opportunities to read, fund and support public and school libraries. 3. No more testing. Teaching to the test activates short-term memory, not long-term memory. 4. Implement inquiry-based learning. 5. Make PE, music and art classes mandatory, not optional.
He says that the success of the USA is partly based on the success of its education system. It is just as, if not more, based on an incredibly skewed economic and military global system which makes it very difficult for less 'successful' countries to do well, no matter what their education system.
Bill Gates has seen great teachers, he says; and he says he knows what makes a good teacher great. So: Is there any technique that great teachers use that is illustrated by this video? He's supposedly telling us how to do something. That's teaching, or it's supposed to be. So, where's the evidence that Bill Gates has learned anything at all from his studies of "great teachers" and those who learn to teach well?
I agree. It's based on an assumption, that teachers are becoming worse. He could be right... but he doesn't prove it. It's arbitrary. I expected more from Gates.
There are two major flaws in Bill's premise. 1) better teachers get better results, therefore teachers who get better results, get better results. Alistair, you were correct, this is circular logic, and is not helpful in solving America's academic problems. The second flaw is the stated in the title: How do we make teachers great? Well, you can't "make" anybody anything. You can inspire, guide, coerce, etc. this lack of understanding about how human beings learn and change is the real issue.
There's more to education than IQ and grades. Emotional awareness, empathy, social responsibility and life skills are equally important for good citizenship and social happiness.
Bill Gates is illustrating exactly what is wrong with America's schools. HE and people like him are part of the problem. The educational system has become less about the children and more about the numbers.
These guys are sorcerer's apprentices, not knowing the difference betwen alchemy and chemistry even though we are now already in the Information age. Even with all the money they have, if they are not changing the culture on education, they are not going to find any Nobel-prize winning scientists, or any other equivalent prizes for teachers, etc. (SORCERY == BLACK MAGIC) ; (I don't know if my equation is already balanced or not, so add some appropriate coefficients to either or both sides.)
. So of course students with the silver spoon in their mouth will have a higher advantage in academic success than the poor children. I feel the success of a student doesn’t just lie in the teacher, but the media, family, environment, school, income, transportation all play a role in the academic success of a student. Thank you
Here we have the gentleman discussing what makes a great teacher; from my understanding of the video one can say good teachers promote good students. Although how can one say that; because some great teachers focus on going to schools that have the most delinquent students while other teachers only want to teach at a prestige school
The drop out rate? If you graduate top of your class,(4.0) and can not afford college. You are still coming into our workforce at minimum wage, and you can't sustain a family with that. We must prepare our children to enter this society, not just to graduate from high school.
Of course a great teacher is determined by the students outcome. Being a great teacher is not a vague situation. A great teacher will have great command of subjects. A great teacher should be able to look at a student work, and tell that student what skill-set he or she needs to work on. A great teacher will explain to the students how to defend themselves against the educational system. masterwhatyoutouch
Bill, when you compare teachers to factory workers, are you suggesting the kids are objects that need quality control so they do not come out defective?
I could have been a college drop-out, Mr. Gates, just like you, but I chose to go on regardless of the walls placed before me by the system. The school system is bad, but not because of the teachers. It's bad because of the administrators, politicians, and people like you, who do not understand the system. I've been teaching for over 30 years and love it. Please let teachers bring learning back to the students. Help us remove exams and silly graphs that promote false learning.
He is right! but who is to blame? Of course the parents should be supporting their kids as much as they can. I know many 10 year olds who have never read a book at home, which is the parents fault. Those who decide who gets the PGCE and teaching jobs should be wise - hire the passionate people, who love working with kids, who genuinely enjoy teaching and like the kids in their class-rather than those who believe in control and discipline and want the kids to all be doing the same piece of work
He focuses on the shockingly high dropout rate, which seems like a real problem, but then skips to the idea that a so-called great teacher can increase test scores by 10%. But is there any evidence that these great teachers have any impact on the dropout rate?
You cannot interpret Bill's words in saying a good teacher is determined by the student outcomes merely on whether students will achieve something really beneficial for their life. In fact, Bill is trying to say,a teacher is like a bridge which connects two sides of a river, the river may be very deep and has many crocodiles in it. It depends on the students, are they brave enough to cross or not. But the bridge must be strong enough to be crossed.
As philosophy tells us via the skeptics argument, all reasoning has to be circular at some point. The size of the circle varies, but there always is one.
There needs to be a way to weed out the teachers that are only there for the summers off, holidays and other "perks". They are making the rest of us look bad and they are killing the future of America. Passion is the number one thing missing in teaching. All of the other stuff is based off of that.
The end result is that you occasionally get the people, who think that this job is easy, making sure that what they do is easy for them instead of having people who actually want to teach and teach well. In any profession there are those who got into it, because it was the path of least resistance. Teaching is no different. (See next comment)
