Characteristic of Great Teachers & Learners

HOW TO BE A GREAT TEACHER:

Great teachers have this scientific, yet artistic ability to make all material and information relevant to students.  Great history teachers scientifically know that students are more likely to remember information when it is built onto or related to something they already know.  So he or she may artistically paint a mental picture of Boston Celtic Kevin Garnet participating in the Boston Tea Party.  In the same way, Great English teachers use the poetry of the Black Eyed Peas to get students interested before introducing them to Shakespeare. The examples are endless.

HOW TO BE A GREAT LEARNER:

Unfortunately, not everyone is a great teacher and even great teachers have their off days.  Not to mention it would be foolish to think that any teacher, preacher, or leader can make everything relevant to every single person, every time.   Therefore it is your responsibility to take the information and relate it to yourself.  This should be easy since you know you better than anyone!

Great learners make new information relevant on their own.  A great learner will take any new information and figure out how it applies to them or at least how they can remember it if necessary.  A parent that is a great learner can take a business model and apply it to his/her life and use it to improve their family model.  A salesman that is a great learner can take a sermon about being fishers of men and apply it to his/her business and improve sales.  Any person that is a great learner can take nearly anything and find a way to learn something from it.

Lucky for everyone, this is not a gift that you either have or don't have.  It is a skill that can be learned with a little extra effort on your part. The key is having this attitude of "what can I learn from this and how can I apply it to my life" while you're listening or reading.

Let's start now.  What did you learn from this post? How can you apply it to your life?