How teachers act can make or break how a student learns. According to LD Online teachers have a lifelong impact on students whether good or bad. 

“I like a teacher who is really engaged and clearly shows an interest in what they’re teaching,” sophomore Stella Read said. 

Students say that teachers being engaged and interested helps students be more engaged and interested in what they are learning.

“It makes people more willing to actually do something in class and get results for themselves,” freshman Chase Thomas said. 

Students also express that more than how they teach matters, they like teachers who are interested in them and are nice people. 

“[German teacher Eva Seymour] could help you with your problems, if you needed to you could talk to her, and she’s very open and welcoming as a person,” Thomas said. 

According to Edutopia, traits like empathy, kindness, and an interest in the lives and interests of their students are important for teachers to have. Teachers even have impacts on students’ lives in other ways than just academic skills, they can have an impact on students’ self esteem according to LD Online. 

“The worst trait a teacher can have is being rude to students,” senior Rowan Murphy said. “It makes them unpleasant to be around, especially in class.”

Oftentimes teachers give up on students too quickly just because they aren’t learning on the same schedule as everyone else or as quickly as the school system says they should, according to Edutopia. 

“If a teacher is patient and when they ask you questions they don’t rush for you to answer so that you can think about it,” junior Coco Owsley said. 

For Owsley, the worst thing a teacher can do is go too fast and rush notes. Doing that can make the class more complicated but if a teacher is patient and kind it can make students trust them more. 

“How teachers act is going to be how their students act a good portion of the time,” Thomas said.

The environment of a teacher’s classroom matters to many students as well. What other students are in the class and even the lighting can matter to kids. 

“If it’s a bunch of rowdy students that are talking all the time I think it would be hard to learn, but if it’s a good environment with students that I like being around and that are friendly to each other I think that can really affect my learning,” Murphy said.

With schedule planning for the 2023-2024 currently in progress students are taking into consideration not only the subject, but also the quality of the teacher.