Good teachers are made by their circumstances

Waiting for my first-year Latin class to start this morning, I was thinking about the number of times I've taught this course. I haven't always been superlatively successful (meaning good evaluations). One time, in grad school, I had a Latin class that absolutely adored me. And I think that hurt my efforts to be a consistently good teacher of Latin.

First, when I ran into those students outside of class I was afraid of any cracks showing in my "fun teacher" persona. Second, after I finished that class I was officially a "good Latin teacher." But the problem was that most of the things I did with that class have not worked with subsequent classes (aside from obvious activities like translation and form review, I mean).

My "good class" was small (13 students) and came the year after my first TA year as a Latin teacher. My ratings that first year were mediocre. So I had the automatic advantage of a small class (you can personally interact with everyone, hand tests back right away, etc.) I had the further advantage of a self-selected group who wanted to study Latin even if their instructor had so-so reviews (not always a given).

So I treasure the memory of those students and that class, but I try to remember that, contrary to popular wisdom, good teachers are made by their circumstances.

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