Passion

Passion is vital to being successful in any field, but in teaching it is especially important.  Passion can make or break a subject for a student.  I know that personally, I have had experiences on both ends of this spectrum.

In middle school, I hated choir.  I loved to sing, but I couldn't stand being in choir.  I would constantly watch the clock and I never seemed to be able to stand straight.  My body seemed to naturally align itself in a cool, slouchy pose.  I hated choir so much that, in eighth grade, I almost quit it.  Then, for some unexplainable reason, when I registered for my high school classes, I chose to take choir instead of band.  I really don't know why.  I loved band and couldn't stand choir.  None of my friends were joining choir.  I just took it.  It ended up being a life-changing decision.  My high school choir teacher was amazing.  She absolutely loved what she did.  She told us once that even on her worst days--when the kids were snotty, the tenors were sharp, or we were running out of time before Solo & Ensemble--she would, on a scale of one to ten, give her job an eleven.  She made me realize that choir is amazing, and because of her, I am a music education major.  Her passion rubbed off on me and almost everyone else who took choir.

On the other end of the spectrum was my experience with English.  I love English.  I've always been a bookworm, and when I was five years old, I taught myself how to type with my dad's Mid-State (Tech College) typing program and began to write reports on things because I was disappointed in the lack of homework given in kindergarten.  Needless to say, I was excited to come to high school and start taking harder English classes where the teachers would be excited about my love for literature rather than discourage me (like my sixth-grade teacher did when I started reading Jane Eyre) or think I was weird and a little nerdy (like some kids in my grade).  However, I ran into the same thing all over again.  One of my teachers picked on me for reading "difficult" books and suggested that I read the Twilight series.  Need I say more? 

While my bad English experiences didn't make me love reading and writing any less, it did prevent me from loving a class which I should have loved.  In my eyes, someone who is passionate about literature should encourage others to read, or at least be excited when they do.  And they should not encourage people to read Twilight.

Just Give it to Me Straight...

I am actually really excited to talk about authenticity in the teaching profession, because I think it is one of those subjects where most teachers tend to go to one of two extremes.  Either they put a wall up in front of students and think of themselves as purely a lecturer, or they (like one of my high school history teachers) talk about their marriage problems and their depression medications.  Apparently, teachers have a hard time finding a happy medium when it comes to being authentic.
I think the key here is to be real with reasonable limits.  You want to be yourself in front of your students because in my experience, students respect teachers more when they feel like they know them.  Kids can smell a faker a mile away.  They know when a teacher is being overly cheerful or when they don't laugh at something funny in class to maintain their "disciplinarian" status.  People tend to dislike people who aren't themselves, and less respect means less learning.
So how can we set limits?  When do we make the transition from being an authentic person who students like to telling our students about how Walgreens messed up the dosage on our depression meds?  Mainly, I think it's just common sense.  If you have problems, don't hide them, but don't talk about them incessantly either.  If the topic comes up somehow, maybe it would be a good thing to talk about what the experience is teaching you.  After all, students don't only learn math and music from teachers; they learn about being good people, as well.  Maybe you could help your students learn to find the positive side of bad situations. 
There are other tricky situations, such as telling students your political views.  I think it's important to be diplomatic.  Don't only tell students your side.  Show them the pros and cons of both sides, allow them to choose, and then tell them your own opinion if they want to know.  That way, your point of view isn't the first one they hear.

Compassion

My high school choir teacher is one of the only teachers who stands out in my mind as being great at her job.  She is hard-working, talented, down to earth, and compassionate.  I think that her compassion towards her students was felt by everyone who took her classes.  Her job title should have been "Choir Teacher/Guidance Counselor" for all the kids she helped.  Students came and talked to her about everything--friend problems, abusive parents, addictions, and even little things like tough homework.  She was always there, willing to listen and give advice when necessary. 
I think that compassion is incredibly important when you are a teacher.  Students should feel like they can talk to you.  I think that creating that bond can help teachers better understand their students as people as opposed to mere sponges, ready to absorb facts and equations.  By being compassionate, teachers can really help their students.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I think that respect is extremely important in the classroom.  I'm sure Aretha Franklin would agree.  And this respect isn't a one-way deal--teachers need to respect their students as much as students need to respect their teachers.  This mutual respect creates a better learning environment for everyone.  I know that I have had personal experiences with teachers who I didn't respect.  My AP Lit and Comp teacher in high school (we'll call her Trixie) was a horrible teacher.  She gave us word finds constantly.  (As a side note, I would like to say that I hate the use of word finds in the classroom.  They are simply a waste of time with no educational value whatsoever.  Okay. Rant over.)  Trixie also had "Media Exams" on Fridays.  This fancy-sounding term basically meant that we would watch a movie and write ten sentences about it using some of our vocab words from the week.  And they weren't even educational movies.  They were things like Finding Nemo and He's Just Not That Into You.  And as far as the vocab sentences go, some kids wouldn't even use the vocab in a sentence.  They would just write sentences about Nemo or Jennifer Anniston.  I was disgusted by Trixie's teaching methods.  I mean, she was butchering one of my favorite subjects.  Not cool.  As a result, I put forth only the small amount of effort required to get an "A".  Clearly, respect is important in classrooms if even I, the girl whose only non-"A" grade was a "B+" (in eighth grade gym, of all classes) didn't care enough to try. 

I guess the real question here is "How do teachers establish respect?".  This is obviously kind of a tough question to answer, since many teachers (at least in my town) are about as respected as Richard Simmons.  (No offense to anyone who doesn't make fun of him.)  I think the key here is common sense.  In order to gain a student's respect, a teacher should be a fair and decent person who sincerely wants to know and understand each student.  The teacher should also be knowledgable in their particular subject area and should believe that every student can do great things.  While I realize that these ideas would not work for every student, I know that I would respect a teacher who possessed these qualities, and I think many other students would feel the same.