What makes a teacher successful and who should be the judge of that success and why?

What I feel makes a teacher successful is the amount of growth that students experience from interacting with that particular teacher. This growth may not be immediately apparent. It may not even be apparent for several years after the student-teacher relationship ends. Some teachers may plant seeds of knowledge in a student's mind, and those seeds might take some time to germinate.

Successful teachers teach not only their own subject matter, but also how their subject matter relates to other subjects and life in general. The most successful teachers look at the big picture and set their focus on their students and their students' needs rather than the core subject matter.

I think that students and teachers are the best candidates to accurately judge a teacher's level of success. Judgment cannot, however, be determined by only one party. For example, a teacher may assume that a student has learned something proficiently when the student has in fact been faking his way through the entire lesson, not understanding a single thing. If we were to just take the teacher's judgment of success in this case, we would be utterly misled. If we took only the student's evaluation of success, we could also be misinformed. Like I said earlier, some lessons that teachers present may not immediately register with a given student. If a student doesn't understand a lesson right away, she might say that the teacher is performing poorly. A few hours, weeks, months, etc. later, we may find out that the student had an epiphany and now understands the lesson. Thus, I believe it is essential to utilize both teacher and student input to determine the success of a teacher.

Higher Standards for Teachers

Why does society hold teachers to higher standards of moral and ethical behavior?

I understand why teachers are held to higher standards in our society, but why can't the "teacher standard" be the same standard that everyone in our society aims to meet?  Teachers obviously need to act morally and ethically because they come into contact with young impressionable minds all day, every day.  The impact that a teacher's ill behavior can have on his students is tremendous, but isn't it the same for any adult who behaves immorally or unethically in the presence of a child?

Students spend a great amount of time in the school system, and they learn much more than the core curriculum.  School is where students learn to interact with each other and become a productive and intelligent member of society.  No mother wants her child to go to school day after day and be influenced by a teacher with less than exceptional moral fiber.  Parents should be especially concerned because their children spend as much time learning from their teachers as they do from their own parents.

Teachers need to be guardians and protectors of morality so that tomorrow's leaders don't lose sight of the aspects in life that matter the most.