Every weekday for 180 days, teenagers wake up and go to school. Most of the time the students learn the curriculum and move onto the next class, typically leaving them unimpressed and often bored. 

Once in awhile, there are teachers who make a bigger impact than than usual. Although enjoying a class really isn’t an essential part of school, it is a bonus that almost every person would like to have. There are some teachers that don’t impact one specific student like other teachers may have, and this has everything to do with how the teacher connected with that student. Being a teacher is a job meant for a specific type of person because the teachers are helping to set up the kids for adulthood and they really shape the lives of many people. 

Every school probably wants to have the best teachers, the ones that get the test scores up, yet those teachers usually don’t have a strong relationship with their students. 

A study published by the journal Education Finance and Policy, stated that the teachers who were good at improving math skills do it in a way that makes students less happy or less engaged in the class. 

According to the US Department of Education,  having highly qualified teachers is one of the most important things to help students succeed in a high school where they have high standards. Having a teacher who knows the facts is always important, but many students would agree that they also want a teacher with personality, who truly connects with the students. 

Sophomore Myah Walker’s favorite teacher is Spanish teacher, Lindsay Bain. She thinks that Bain is supportive and always there for her students based on how interactive she is and how much she checks in on her students. 

“She’s a really good teacher,” Maya said. “Her teaching style is very helpful and she makes class fun by doing lots of partner work!”

Bain has expressed that she wants to be a very flexible teacher and that she wants her students to be able to do projects to have a better and more fun experience in her class and really have some creative freedom. 

“I try to come up with things students would like and are able to do, but guidelines are flexible.  If a student comes to me with a better or creative idea, I’m more than willing to change project guidelines as long as the purpose or objective of the project is met,” Bain said.  

The teacher student relationship should be one where both the student and teacher respect each other. PhD scholar, Prathamesh Churi wrote in Linkedin that teachers are losing respect in the classroom because teachers are ignoring the queries of students, cramming in only PowerPoints to learn, and acting overly professional. 

Although every student learns differently, almost all of them respond positively to a classroom environment that is interesting and enticing while they learn. Students are more likely to snap back into the reality of the class if the teacher is a fun refreshing, funny character. 

Senior Jahzara Ademodi says that her favorite teacher is Health teacher Richard Labadie. “He’s funny, the funniest person I have ever met. He’s nice too, I like the way he teaches for sure,” Ademodi said.

 His personality is the stand-out point of his teaching, but Ademodi has also learned a lot from him in health class. Labadie has said that he tries to teach in a format where there is mutual respect and that he tries to connect with students not just as a teacher but as a person. 

“I teach in a format where there is mutual respect. I try to treat everyone with the respect of a young adult as long as they earn that respect. This has helped stress the point of doing things because it is the right thing to do, not just do it just because it is a rule,” Labadie said. 

Being a teacher is a job where the adults want to be professional, but they also need to interact with students all day long that are learning and trying to discover who they are. There is a very fine line between being friendly and being professional in the setting that teachers work in. Students do respond better to having a teacher that shows some personality, and so coming up with the perfect balance is the way to make a classroom setting the best for both the student and the teacher.