What defines a great teacher? A great teacher makes class interesting, motivates the students to study, challenges the students to think and learn, as well as keeps the students involved in the class. Even if the students, at the time they are being taught, do not realize the teacher is great because the teacher is too strict or too monotone or gives too much homework, they will know it at the end of the year when they realize just how much they really learned. The most important quality of a great teacher is that he cares about the students.

One of our teachers, Mark Dailey, will be leaving at the end of the semester. A family sickness has changed the course of his life events. He will be moving away from the Prince George area with his wife to take care of his mother in law. Daily qualifies as a “great” teacher. A teacher that sophomores wish they could have had and a teacher juniors and seniors wish was not leaving.

Dailey’s Psychology classes were always interesting and fun because he kept his students involved, he kept his students entertained, and he always challenged them. He treated his students with respect and made them feel like adults and that their opinions mattered. He was someone who was there for his students if they needed someone to talk to. He did not just teach his students about school, but also about life.

A great teacher is valued by the students and the administration. A great teacher is hard to find and cannot be replaced easily. We should not take the “great” teachers for granted because once they are gone, the love for their subject dies a little and the care they had for the students will be forever missed.