 In this episode, I'd like to explore what I think are some of the important qualities you find in every great teacher. Firstly, I believe great teachers are open to learning and improvement. They will always aspire to be the best teachers they can be. They will be open to learning, they will aspire to excellence, and constantly be thinking about ways to improve their practice. They will take their professional learning seriously, evaluating those experiences and offerings through the lens of whether it is going to lead them to changing the way they teach for the benefit of their students. Secondly, great teachers provide respectful, structured environments where learning can take place. Good teaching does not depend, as friendships do, on compatibility or preference. And the relationship is not one of mutual support. This is the basis of, and the rationale for, professional standards and the basis for ethical practices relating to a teacher's dealings with their students. That is not to say teaching is not intensely personal. It's not limited to transmission of subject knowledge, and at its best, it deeply involves the growth of the whole student as a human being. Certainly, great teaching involves having a good relationship with students. But those good relationships are based on trust, expertise and respect, on being a fair person, on being reliable, on being a person of your word, being a person who offers structure and consistency in order to provide a classroom environment where learning happens. Thirdly, great teachers are knowledgeable and passionate about their subject. Many of us in choosing to become teachers have been inspired by great teachers we had at school. People who showed they were committed to our intellectual and personal development by the way they taught. In particular, it was their deep knowledge and passion for their subject that was inspiring. In fact, it was my HSE maths teacher, Kevin Garrity, whose passion for mathematics and slightly eccentric, get highly relevant way of teaching maths that inspired the name of this blog, Founding the Flames of Wonder. He certainly found the Flames of Wonder in me as a student. And those lessons still burn bright as I progress through my career within the education system. Fourthly, a great teacher has the ability to inspire students to ask more questions, not just to answer them. Their role in leading students to knowledge is not to satisfy their desire for knowledge, but exactly the opposite. It is to make them hungrier and thirstier for more, more knowledge, more skills, more questions, more understanding. A good lesson will conclude with students knowing they have learned something, but a great lesson will conclude with students being unsatisfied with what they've learned, wanting to learn more, asking more questions. That's Founding the Flames of Wonder. That's great teaching. And the nature of those questions will branch out into an ever-widening circle of interests and concerns, which brings me to the fifth dimension of great teaching. Great teachers understand the wider purposes of education. The earliest known curriculum document in the world was a two-word inscription on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece. It read, simply, Know Yourself. Knowing yourself and examining one's life in a systematic and fundamentally honest way, so as to become wise, is the most profound outcome of a successful education. Developing in students a commitment to thoughtful, honest, purposeful human agency, respectful of others and embracing the common concerns of one's communities. This is the wider objective of the calling of a teacher, to help young people come to know themselves and the power they have to change the world. When teachers do these things well, their conversations with their students about knowledge and the world under construction will flourish from the creative and critical thinking of a new generation of lifelong learners who understand that they have minds and that they can use them responsibly for the common good. Thank you.