What makes a great teacher?

This is such a small but loaded question in my opinion. When I think of great teachers I can think of many different teachers throughout my life. They were all different and taught different grades and subjects. So what made each one of them genuinely amazing? Well, Mrs. Palmer was my teaching teacher. As funny as that sounds she was my teacher that I had all four years of high school that taught me how to be a teacher. She was goofy but stern at the same time. She made sure everyone kept their life together and did their work on time. Yet that was probably the silliest and goofy class I had. Coach Johnson was a teacher but he was mainly my coach. That doesn’t mean he didn’t teach me though. He taught me that it’s okay to get mad and that I should make it constructive, not destructive. Mrs. Rebecca was my 3rd-grade teacher and she helped me with my TAX test. I had awful test anxiety and she helped me through it. She even goes to a separate person to take a test with me in a room alone to calm me. I passed it with flying colors and she was so proud of me! Professor Borge was my math professor for 3 semesters at WCJC. She helped me get through math during my first semesters at college and through the pandemic. She was so kind and understanding. I promised to always help break the silence in a class by either answering her question (whether I knew it or not) or asking a question. There have been many many more to add to this list but what is the common thing that makes them great? I think it is the amount of care that they give each and every student that comes into their classrooms. It is easy to just go through the motions but hard to actually care! They care for students no matter their race, gender, ethnicity, culture, or even by how much money is in their left pocket. So in my humble opinion what makes teachers great is their hearts. Without a heart, there is no passion so future educators and people reading keep your heart on your sleeve. It helps show others that you care!