Mr. Escalante

In my opinion there are many different aspects that make someone a great teacher.  The most important of all is a sincere desire to teach.  For example, Mr. Escalante, in the film Stand and Deliver is a great example of what I think is a good teacher, and we can see this in the scene where he creates a contract for the students and their parents to sign, allowing them to spend extra time in school and take summer classes.  The fact that he is 100% willing to take so much extra time to help these students succeed makes him an amazing teacher.  Another detail that makes Mr. Escalante such a great teacher is his ability to bring fun into the classroom while still staying on topic.  In a few scenes of the movie when the class is getting out of hand he has some sort of "chant" that all the students do along with him and it gets their focus back on what they are studying. I thought that was a really fun way to get everyone on track without the need to raise his voice, or punish anyone.

In his article, "What Makes a Good Teacher?" Dan Brown suggests that some of the criteria are; collaborating with other co-workers,  supplementing parts of different ideas into the curriculum and creating relationships with your students.  Mr. Escalante fits these criteria because he was willing to do everything possible to help the students complete their education.  We see this in the film when he is at a meeting with the rest of the school's educators and he attempts to make suggestions that will help his class's chances of graduation. He wanted to continue with his class into the summer and through the next year, and although some of his colleagues did not agree, he was able to make it happen and ultimately push the class to the top.  The contract that I spoke about in the previous paragraph is also another thing that meets the criteria of a good teacher according to Dan Brown, because this formed a better relationship with the students and also kept their parents updated on what he intended for the class.