Teacher Discussion Forums

Who (or what, or where/when) has been the biggest influence on your teaching?

Where to start? The students, colleagues, bosses (the ones I respected)... Teacher training courses would rank pretty low down if they weren't what got me teaching in the first place.

I'd have to say my students. I never had any intention of teaching. I took linguistics in school because it was fun, but I never thought I'd apply it to anything beyond learning languages myself. After we moved to Hong Kong, I got recruited, then discovered that I really enjoy helping students. The dawning light of understanding in someone's eyes is reward enough to keep me going for a long time.