歪歪漫画

What makes a winning coach or teacher? Sports radio shows and fans forever discuss the characteristics of winning coaches.

We enjoy talking about why teams win and why they don鈥檛 win. Wouldn鈥檛 it be interesting if we spent as much time talking about what makes a winning teacher?

Some years ago, I was busy conducting workshops for teachers in Wisconsin and Minnesota. I told the teachers about a colleague who was responsible for organizing the Wisconsin Teacher of the Year award, similar to what we have in Minnesota.

He said that one of the perks was being given the opportunity to travel to Texas to be with all of the state teachers of the year winners. Imagine having all of those winning teachers in one room.

I asked him if he could glean anything from the teachers they all had in common. He said they all agreed that winning teachers possess three qualities: 1) They excite their learners. 2) They challenge their learners. 3) They never gave up on their learners.

How is it possible to do this?

Whenever I write or speak about what it takes to be an effective teacher, I remember what business guru Tom Peters said about effective managers: 鈥淚 can tell you how to be an effective manager in one nanosecond. From this moment on, stop doing anything less than excellent.鈥�

Excite, challenge and never give up. That鈥檚 what it means to be an excellent teacher, and everything teachers do should be considered in this context.

This is what winning coaches do. They try to be excellent in all aspects of coaching, from practice to playing the game.

My mentor practiced excellence. Whenever I did a project for him, he always said, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a good start.鈥�

I would return to do it again; without exception, it was better. My wife, Kathy, is the same way. I will spend time writing something and feel that it can鈥檛 be improved because of my rewriting and rewriting, and then I will give it to her.

Like my mentor, she adds some finishing touches that make it better.

When it came to keeping the house clean, my mother practiced excellence. If there was one speck of dust remaining after she cleaned the house, she would hold up her dust cloth and say, 鈥淪ee, you wouldn鈥檛 believe what I just found on top of the china cabinet.鈥�

For her, 鈥淐leanliness was next to Godliness.鈥�

I鈥檓 unsure if winning teachers, like coaches, are ever satisfied. There is always something they wish they could have done better.

Maybe there was a student they couldn鈥檛 quite reach. Maybe one lesson they presented was not as good as it could have been. Perhaps they could have planned for the day better than they did.

Winning teachers challenge themselves to do better.

One thing that teachers need to remember is that they never can be sure when their influence stops.

They may not have felt they reached their students until one day when a particular student they had approached them and said, 鈥淵ou know, Mrs. Jones, I sure learned a lot from you. I appreciate what you did. Thank you.鈥�

This is the value of striving for excellence. There are always students we don鈥檛 think we reached, but we do reach them. They never bother to tell us.

So, what is the value of striving for excellence and being a winner?

鈥淚f you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception; it is a prevailing attitude,鈥� said General Colin Powell.

This is what it means to be a winning teacher. It鈥檚 not that we achieve excellence every day. It鈥檚 not that coaches win every game. But it鈥檚 a prevailing attitude that striving for excellence is essential.

When we excite students, when we challenge students, and when we never give up on students, that鈥檚 when we become winning teachers.

Riddle: Why do good teachers always wear sunglasses to school? Answer: Because they believe that all of their students are bright. This attitude must prevail to have all our students achieve.

I want to thank Luekens for putting up the dropout prevention hotline posters.

John R. Eggers of Bemidji is a former university professor and area principal. He also is a writer and public speaker.