In at the shallow end (with armbands on)

After enrolment and familiarisation, our first group session and assignment proper. The subject?

'What makes a good teacher.. and a good teaching session'.

As you might expect, the themes were pretty consistent from group to group. Variations on Engaging, Empathetic, Confident, Enthusiastic, Inspiring, Articulate, Authoritative, Patient, Respectful and Interesting seemed to sum up all our memories of good teachers past.

Other more inspired observations included 'Challenging the thinking not the thinker' and 'Teaching the class AND the individual'.

Individuals with all these qualities are, of course, few and far between (which is why we probably all remember the teacher from our past who embodied them) and I was interested to read an advice column in the TES Online today that suggested succesful teachers aren't necessarily brilliant in all areas, but play successfully to their strengths.

So perhaps that's another one for the 'Good Teacher' column: 'Playing to your strengths'

A good session, from a learner's point of view, was deemed to be Memorable, Interactive, Challenging, Rewarding, Involving and Interesting. All the better if it was also well structured, clear in its objectives and offered variety.

Interestingly, there was a brief debate in our little group about whether an Engaging teacher automatically made for an Interesting session. In other words, was it possible to engage a class purely on the strength of your personality and enthusiasm, at the expense of the subject being taught?

Yes, probably was the concensus. So another lesson learned: You might be in the spotlight, but the star of the show is always the subject you're there to teach.