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abruptly ended on a disastrous day as a substitute teacher. That particular morning, I scanned the lesson plans the teacher left for me and thought, "Piece of cake. I know this..." rather than my normal routine for this class, which was to do their assignment to refresh my memory in chemistry.

It turned out that I didn't really remember much about how to balance chemical equations except that I'd once possessed that skill.

I tried to demonstrate it on the board. A couple of the brighter students had figured it out from the book and they nooded and smiled in embarrassment for me.

I tried, and failed, a second time....and a third.

By the time I'd gone through this embarrassing charade, even the bright ones who nodded at first didn't understand it. "Great," I thought, "I'm the Anti-Teacher-spreading confusion wherever I go..."

There were catcalls and all sorts of, "Wow. You're dumb..." type things. I wanted to cry.

Instead, I laughed, commented how it had been over 20 years since my last chemistry class. I apologized for both confusing them and wasting their time. I took a deep breath and said, "Well, we're equals here. So, I have to learn it right along with you...turn to page 567. Let's see if we can do this..."

I'm really dorky when I learn new skills or ideas. It's exciting and it shows. By the end of class, we were laughing together, and all but two students could balance the equations like old pros.

One of the students who'd laughed about how "dumb the sub" was, walked up and said, "You know, I'm sorry I made fun of you. You're actually a better teacher than Ms.D. We never have fun like that....bye Ms B. See you next time."

Between all my mentors, the good and the bad, and my own strengths and weaknesses I finally found what I needed to know. I had the two traits that connected all of the good teachers to eachother and that the others lacked: Enthusiasm and Desire. Everything else is just cake.

Learn more about this author, Maria Bray.
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