The Best Teacher I Know and What Makes Her Great

Tuesday, October 07, 2014

Ben Jatos, GoLocalPDX MINDSETTER™

Photo Credit: iStock

In my 20 years of teaching I have worked with literally hundreds of teachers and I can truthfully say that most of them have been dedicated professionals who worked hard.

I have worked with nationally certified teachers and teachers who have earned their doctorate. I have worked with teachers who were fresh out of college and didn’t even know how to take attendance, yet grew into excellent educators.

There have also been some who have mercifully left the profession because it wasn’t a good fit.

All in all, my experiences with fellow teachers have run the gamut, but one figure stands out as The Best Teacher I Know. Her name is Bethany Rivard, and here’s why she’s good at her job.

As an English teacher, she does something amazing in her classes pretty much every day and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little jealous. What makes her such a powerful teacher? I believe that there are three main reasons for her excellence.

1. Her commitment to her students and their education. For example, last year she had a class of 23 senior students (she had advised them throughout their high school careers) that she arranged to receive early acceptance into Washington State University. Yes… all 23 from a school approaching 80 percent poverty.

2. Her ability to connect with students and put them at ease. Her classroom is both the busiest and safest place in the whole school.

3. Her patience with everything that can get in the way of successfully teaching students.

Mrs. Rivard, also known as Momma Rivard, will take students each September and when June rolls around, every student in her class is a much better writer, reader, and thinker.

Master of the process

In today’s eduworld, there’s an idea that “If the standards are set high enough, kids will meet them.” That rhetoric is false, as it usually is about education.

Most good teachers know it’s more about the process.

Mrs. Rivard is a master of the process of moving a student from Point A to Point B or C or to whatever point they wind up at. She does it because she is a gifted educator and knows how to inspire students by somehow making them want to be better than they are and better than they even think they can be.

Her students regularly produce amazing writing. The literature discussions her students have in her class are legendary and generally a week doesn’t go by without another teacher observing her, either from our school, another school, or another district. She creates a safe place where every student is valued and every opinion has merit as long as it can be justified and supported.

Beyond academics

But beyond academics, Bethany serves as “School Mom” for dozens and dozens of students. We teach at a high school where 80 percent of the students are on free or reduced lunch and many of those kids need a little more attention than they get on a daily basis. They need a little more food as well.

Bethany takes care of her students. She is always willing to listen to them and either stand up for her kids or give them enough confidence to stand up for themselves. She does so many things to help our students, and yet recognition seems to elude her. Maybe that’s the point.

Teaching kids is difficult and when outside factors influence what happens in schools, it gets even more difficult. Those factors could be hunger, gangs, education reformers, or politics as usual, but Bethany understands that where the magic happens is in the dynamic between teacher and student.

All of the outside factors don’t seem to exist for kids when they enter her classroom. It’s safe. It’s like a home base for so many of our students.

To watch her teach is like watching a master conductor in front of a symphony, calling for more from some, encouraging others, and helping each musician/student find their voice. And having a student find his or her true, authentic voice is what she does best.

Bethany Rivard is a teaching wizard. She inspires students to be better people and learners each class period. And students aren’t the only ones who learn from her. She inspires her fellow teachers too, her colleagues at school who learn from her daily how to be better at their jobs.

Ben Jatos is in his 21st year of teaching secondary English. His opinions are his own and in no way represent the views of his school district. He is passionate about his family, the Portland Trail Blazers, the writing of Raymond Carver, and educating young people. For more of his opinions and reviews of literature for the classroom, check out his blog at www.benjatos.com

Banner Photo Credit: iStock