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Go Fish
Great teachers have been arming people with knowledge all over the world for generations. An old proverb says, “Give a man a fish and he will eat for one day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.” Here are ten people who made a great impact on learners over the course of thousands of years.

CONFUCIUS:
Confucius was born in 551 B.C. in China. He became the first professional teacher in that part of the world, never turning a pupil away and accepting all forms of payment for his counsel. Before Confucius, there was no formal system of education in China, so it was his pupils who made him famous by seeking his training in reason and conduct. With the help of Confucius’ teachings – which emphasized compassion and respect for others and propriety and integrity in daily living – some of his students became high government officials and commanded large provinces.

SOCRATES:
Socrates was born in 469 B.C. in Greece. He was a sculptor first, later  known for his abilities in matters of reason. He developed a following and counseled anyone who came to him for advice. He avoided providing answers and instead emphasized nurturing a pupil’s ability to reason by asking a series of pertinent questions. This method of teaching became known as the “Socratic Method” and is widely used today. Socrates’ most famous student was Plato.

PLATO:
Plato was born in 428 B.C. in Greece. His pupils and friends made the most important contributions of the fourth century in the areas of math, philosophy and science. He himself made few discoveries, but his school was the source of many that changed the world forever. His most famous student, Aristotle, became the founder of anatomy and a trusted advisor to Alexander the Great.

HORACE MANN:
Horace Mann was born in 1796 in the United States. He developed the first state-supervised-and-funded, mandatory-attendance schools. He believed that state standards would raise the quality of education for all students. Educational standards had previously been determined for individual schools by their own communities. Mann’s theories formed the basis for the existing American public school system.

MARY LYON:
Mary Lyon was born in 1797 in the United States. She opened the first women’s college in 1837: Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary. It was Lyon’s dream to provide women with career opportunities and intellectual pursuits formerly unavailable to them. Because her views were unsupported by American society, she endured ridicule as she raised funds to build her school. Lyon succeeded beyond her wildest expectations, founding a college that has been graduating women scholars for over 100 years.

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON:
Booker T. Washington was born as a slave in 1856 in the United States. He was seven years old when Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation that freed many African Americans from slavery. From that day forward, Booker’s greatest dream was to educate himself and his fellow African Americans. He traveled far and took many jobs to pay for his schooling. He eventually started the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, devoting his life to educating former slaves.

JOHN DEWEY:
John Dewey was born in 1859 in the United States. He developed a method of teaching called “Instrumentalism” or “Pragmatism” that emphasized learning by doing rather than by instruction or memorization. He believed that thought and action were closely related and that both were essential for true understanding. His theory has been successfully tested time and again and is the basis for the development of many other methods of educational teaching and systems.

MARGARET HALEY:
Margaret Haley was born in 1861 in the United States. She became famous for rallying women teachers to fight for better salaries, higher status, more reasonable workloads, improved working conditions, and the opportunity to work after marriage. She emphasized the importance of teaching and successfully created the first teachers’ union. This union started a lasting tradition that today affords teachers the ability to effect change in the systems and standards of education.

ANNE SULLIVAN:
Anne Sullivan was born in 1866 in the United States. In 1887, she became the private teacher of Helen Keller, a six-year-old girl who had been left blind and deaf by a terrible illness. Anne began to teach Helen how to communicate by forming words with hand-letters. It took many frustrating months, but eventually Helen came to understand, and was able to communicate with others for the first time in her life. Helen was the first deaf-blind student to complete college when she graduated from Radcliffe in 1904. Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan became quite famous, delivering speeches around the world that inspired many reforms in education for people with disabilities.

MARIA MONTESSORI::
Maria Montessori was born in 1870 in Italy. She became the first Italian woman doctor in 1896 and opened her first school in 1907. She developed a method of teaching based upon the idea that children absorb information through sensory exploration without realizing that they are being taught. She emphasized creating an environment in which children learn through manipulation, order and repetition, inspiring schools around the world that bear her name.

Teach Yourself to Teach

• Work hard as a student. Listen to other people’s questions, note different teaching methods, and decide which teaching activities you like best. Keep a notebook where you record your ideas.
• When someone asks for your opinion, requests that you explain a task or tell a story, take the time to communicate well. Good teachers don’t rush through their lessons, and they don’t dismiss questions.
• Ask your teacher about tutoring programs in your school or community. Find out if there are younger kids who need extra help in the subjects that you’ve already taken and mastered. Help to coach a little league team or other extracurricular sport or become an assistant in an after-school club.
• Search the Internet under keywords TUTORING PROGRAMS FOR KIDS, VOLUNTEERING FOR KIDS, TEACHING, FAMOUS TEACHERS and FAMOUS EDUCATORS to find opportunities and information about education and teaching.
• Talk to your teacher.

Hey, Teach!
It’s important to know something well before you try to explain it to someone else, so your first step is to select a subject that you know a lot about and that you’re really interested in. It might be an instrument you play, a type of pet you love, your special trading card collection, or an interesting person in your family’s history. Once you’ve figured out your subject, you’ll prepare to teach someone else about it by making a book. Books are some of the most important educational tools we have and are simple ways to document information so that it can be shared.

Think about your subject and write down some notes to record your ideas and thoughts. What makes your subject interesting? How do you know so much about it? How does it affect or challenge you? What would someone else want to know about it and why? If you need to, find more specific information about your subject on the Internet or in the library.

Now take several pieces of paper. With a pen or colored markers, write the first point you want to explain on the bottom half of the first sheet of paper, and draw an illustration or paste a picture that demonstrates that point on the top half. Turn the paper over and do the same thing on the reverse side so that your illustrations and written sections are “back to back.”

Using both sides of every sheet of paper, continue writing and illustrating your points in this way until you’ve written everything you want to share. When you’re done writing and drawing your lesson, use a fresh sheet of paper to make a cover page with a title and illustration. Now staple the pages together in the correct order with the cover page on top. You have a book!

Test how well you’ve explained your topic by finding friends and family members (your “students”) to read your book. Once they’ve read it, ask them a few specific questions about the information you addressed in your book. Did they learn something new?

Q. What do you find is the toughest part about being a teacher? What comes the most naturally?

Sarah C. has been teaching for two years and is now teaching ninth-grade science. She says:

Most students don’t realize how much their teachers work after the school day is done. For me, the toughest part about being a teacher is all the time I spend outside of school doing “homework.” A teacher’s homework is mostly grading, planning for the next day and collecting supplies. It takes a lot of work to try to make a fun, meaningful lesson.

The best part about teaching is the kids. It is very easy and natural for me to interact with my students. That’s what makes all the homework worthwhile. I love being at school for the school day. Though there are always ups and downs, I come to school looking forward to seeing my huge extended family.