Take 30 seconds. Think back through your education. I bet you already have a favorite teacher in mind. Sure, the title of this piece probably pushed you there, so I’m not as magically manipulative as I want to claim to be. Even so, you have a teacher in mind that you loved. I can assure you that your favorite teacher has all of these ten qualities about them.

I’m a new teacher, and I think about how I can be the best teacher I can be every second of the day. I practically eat, sleep, and breathe education. Enough about me, let’s get back to the people of honor: teachers.

Here are 10 qualitites that great teachers have.

1. Funny

In no particular order, this is first. Your favorite teacher doesn’t have to make you laugh out loud in a class period—although it helps. A funny teacher can simply mean making you smile. Whether they do that with jokes, ridiculous puns, juggling, dancing, exaggerating, sarcasm, or simply just caring. Happiness is memorable.

2. Caring

You may have been in a class of 33 other students, but you still felt like an individual. This teacher not only asked how you are, but asked and wanted to hear the answer. This teacher did their best to try to support you—academically and personally. To me, this is the cornerstone of great teaching. If you don’t show students you care, they are not going to care. And we all so desperately need the future to be made up of people who aren’t afraid to care.

3. Passionate

Teachers should wake up every morning happy. Sometimes, that’s hard—when the sun isn’t up yet, it’s Monday, you know you forgot to get coffee started, you’re out of gas and don’t have enough money to buy gas because your credit card limit is getting closer and closer, your lesson plans aren’t ready, and you just want five minutes of rest. The great teachers still get excited about work; they don’t show you that their Monday morning has been terrible. They don’t show you because they love and are passionate about their lifestyle: teaching students how to be excellent people through their favorite subject.

4. Intelligent

This one’s obvious, yet unspoken. How are you going to learn from someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about? Teachers are some of the smartest people I have ever met. That should be recognized. And, when you think of your favorite teacher, you know that they taught you something. Otherwise, they wouldn’t stand up well to the name of teacher.

5. Thoughtful

Your favorite teacher was thoughtful in the way that they taught and interacted with you and everyone else around you. They didn’t just print off a worksheet of grammar issues or math problems and expected you do it. They visibly took their time to make everything work for you and for the other students. Even more personally, maybe this first teacher gave you a gift you remember—and still have. Maybe this teacher wrote you a note one day with something so ridiculously simple in retrospect that it means the world to you to this day. Maybe this teacher ignited something new in you because of the way they taught it. Great teachers think non-stop about their students. Your favorite teacher made that evident to you.

6. Willing

Willing to wake up every morning to do everything it takes to create real, functioning, intelligent, passionate, caring, thoughtful humans-in-progress.

7. “The Moment”

When I think of my favorite teacher, there is one moment during my Sophomore year in high school that stands out to my mind as the moment I realized she was my favorite teacher. She walked over to my desk; everyone else was working in groups while I was working alone. I had been absent for a while, kind of sporadically. Everything was totally fine in my life, but she came over and asked me if everything was okay. I had her the year before and she noticed a difference in me—and, frankly, my attendance—and took the time to come up and ask me that simple question: “Is everything okay?”

8. Challenging

Your favorite teacher made you work. So many of my own favorite teachers were teachers of classes in which I struggled the most. Your favorite teacher made you believe it was worth it to challenge yourself. For him or her, you wanted to be challenged and you accepted it. That’s why this one is important. Whether academically or personally, your favorite teacher challenged you, and you wanted to succeed for them.

9. Memorable

You obviously have to remember your favorite teacher. This one goes without saying. If a teacher isn’t memorable to you—for any of the above reasons—they won’t be your favorite. Because, weirdly enough, if they aren’t memorable to you, years and years will pass and you just won’t remember them. Each teacher isn’t memorable to every student. That’s the reality. But at least one teacher is memorable to everyone.

10. _____________________

Fill in the blank. This isn’t because I couldn’t think of ten nor is it because I'm too lazy; it’s not an excuse. It’s for you to fill out your own quality. You have a teacher in mind, and you need to fill out this last spot on the list. There is not one magic formula for good teachers. There are millions of good teachers for a million different reasons—and because of a million different qualities. This last one is for you to decide.

Also, here’s a last-minute call-to-action. Tell this teacher thank you.