Thinking about Teaching

I'm going to guess that every single one of us has at some point or another thought about our own teaching and whether or not we are being "good teachers" TODAY. I find myself evaluating my teaching every day, if not every hour. (Especially when I'm in the school talking to students, teachers, administrators, and watching and observing things that are occurring around me.) But I think that what Ben stated in his blog is something to honestly consider about teaching. If our students are learning the course material and are able to perform the tasks that we are asking them to do, does that mean that we are in turn good teachers? Even though the students know and understand the information and can use it in their lives, if they are not enjoying the time that they spend in my classroom, am I really an effective teacher?
To me, I would say that this week's questions stems onward from last weeks discussion. We have already stated that we have this "schooled-up" imagination and idea of what education is and how it should happen. But is education really just about the learning and understanding of the course material presented in the curriculum? I think that teachers who become so focused on getting the material learned and moving along with the curriculum forget to address a major part of education that is never/rarely mentioned in the curriculum. We are teaching students and using the information and material from our class subject to shape and develop better human beings. We are there to teach them music, yes, but we are also there to give them insight and guidance for life, and we're doing that through music.
Something that I have found myself focusing on a lot these past few weeks is the material. I come home every night and I study the music and I review the text book because I want to be sure that I am presenting the correct information. While that is extremely necessary, at the same time, I have realized that I have been forgetting to also enjoy my time with the students and to go beyond the material and help shape them as people too.
In some of the conversations that I have been having with a few of my students this past week, when I ask them who their favorite teachers are, its not the teachers who know their content material the best. It's the teachers who make the learning fun and meaningful and enjoy spending time with the students and getting to know them for who they are and want to help shape who they are to become. This is something that is so easy to forget about when planning and deciding where we want our lessons to go. But we have to remember to enjoy what were doing, even if it's not perfect and to know that as long as we are learning with and from our students, then we're doing our job.