I saw this question on Quora recently and then most-upvoted response was curious to me, so I thought I’d offer my .02 as a teacher who sometimes struggled with this in practice.
And while I’m not sure it’d be widely useful for TeachThought readers and doesn’t really fit in with our typical content that focuses on critical thinking and innovation in education, I decided to share it here as well for any teachers who’ve been on either side of this scenario.
Question: What do other teachers think of the ‘cool teacher’ in school?
It depends on the nature of the ‘cool.’ It also depends on the school culture and the relationships the ‘cool’ teacher has built not only with students but other teachers and administrators. Content areas and grade levels would probably be factors as well–a ‘cool’ 2nd-grade teacher versus a high school drama teacher, for example. But broadly speaking,