Teaching is never about the teacher. It is all about the students who, once inspired by an experienced teacher, are determined to trek into unknown knowledge terrories. The ultimate test of teaching effectiveness is the recount of all the "Eureka" moments or the "Matrix" realization at the end of a class. In other words, effective teaching should be measured by how many the unskilled or even the non-believers of a subject domain are finding intense excitement by learning to inflex his unexploited learning muscles for the first time. If the students walk away with a brainful memorized knowledge of a new study topic, the task of teaching is satisfactory but incomplete. Complete teaching is accomplished when the student leaps forward to the Next Big Thing, perhaps long after the class is over and the detailed skills has been forgotten. The joy of teaching, therefore, is not about being immediately recognized as a popular lecturer by the teaching institution. It is about a casual Sunday afternoon phone call that a teacher receives from a B student, who thanks the teacher for a small comment that changed his/her life. -Jake Chen(2005)
