Please consider the following–a few things I know about being a teacher:

1. Punctuality matters. After the first fifteen minutes of class, the class is usually at a moment of “critical understanding.” It’s that point in the lesson where if a student walks in late and sits down, he/she will have missed something and may be kind-of lost. Not entirely. Just enough to be a bit confused because of context. I give it the moniker “critical understanding” because (1) late students have missed enough of class to not understand, or mis-understand what’s going on with the lesson unless they get the “critical” stuff, and (2) it sounds very academic, and man, I. Am. Ac. A. Dem. Ic.

2. People are Good. Students are nicer than they appear. Pack-Mentality rules high school kids, and for some reason, students can just smell when a teacher is timid or underprepared or feigning greatness, etc. By the way, that’s a compliment to students. They ain’t dumb. But for some reason, the combination of that 17 yr. old boy who kissed his mommy goodbye in the morning who is sitting next to that girl who’s dad just bought her tickets to Disney on Ice, who sits next to that kid with a 4.0 in seminary who is seated beside that shy band kid . . . is all just an inevitable conglomerate time bomb. They seem to unite their efforts to act horribly. Individually, they’re sunbeams. In a classroom: hyenas. They bond toward a concerted destructive end: destroy the teacher. Well, I must say . . . this scenario that portrays them as rotten? It just isn’t true. I’ve learned to love them each. I can genuinely say I had to mature into this paradigm. Loving people isn’t hard. Loving packs of kids is. But it’s possible. I just had to think of them as individuals . . . sitting near each other.

3. Who I am very much determines the success of a class. I learned this from a great book: The Courage to Teach by Parker Palmer. He said all teachers ask, “What am I going to teach?” and “How am I going to teach it?” He goes on to say that great teachers daily ask, “Why am I teaching it?” and he concludes with a powerful question that only AMAZING teachers ask: “Who am I to teach it?” Palmer believed, as do I (fiercely), that the moral character of the teacher is paramount to the success of any class. Because the teacher is the medium through which the curriculum flows, she’d better be a teacher who has it together–aligned morally. Even spiritually. Students get nuance. They get it if the teacher is in a bad mood. It takes all of, oh, 10 seconds. If teachers are to see real progress, growth, and success with their students, they must themselves be good people.

4. Smile. Can’t really fake this. Forced smiles aren’t real smiles. At first you may have to pretend to smile at that kid who acts like a porcupine/skunk. Eventually, the smiling is easier, and yes, genuine. The other day on television I heard the best way to smile for a picture is to look at the camera and pretend you are seeing a good friend. That’s good practice for students, too.

5. Please say “Please” and “Thank You.” Even when you’re collecting homework or quizzes or tests or money as bribes (kidding . . . ?) always say “Please” and/or “Thank you.” Pleases beget pleases. Thank yous breed thank yous. Even a very nervous first-time teacher can get away with a lot if he/she thanks people. Class members are very forgiving of teachers who genuinely thank students for their efforts.

All teachers have tricks–techniques to help others learn, but these five seem to work for me because they each have a level of authenticity–they are virtues I’ve admired in those great teachers I’ve had: Gideon Burton. Buddy Richards. Dan Peterson. Sherm Robinson. My wife Sarah. My parents. I think you’ll agree: teaching is work, and its success is largely determined by the marital bond amongst all good things: Time. Place. Teacher. Content. Student.

Sam Beeson is an English teacher at American Fork High School and a published author. His latest book, The Unvalentine, is available on Amazon.