One way of becoming a truly great teacher is to change the way you see yourself. If you see yourself as a teacher, the focus of your energies tends to be on content that you need to teach. It is all about you and the content.
If you see yourself as an instructional designer, the emphasis shifts. It is more about the learning, and how it is created, motivated and managed. Understanding the students and their diverse needs is an important part of the design, and that leads to creatively trying to find the best way to create a relevant, meaningful learning experience.
According to Richard Culatta:
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If you take a moment to think about it, most teaching is very inefficient and/or not much fun. In contrast, truly engaging learning has a way of promoting further learning, of bringing joy to the student.
Culatta, R. Instructional Design. Retrieved from http://www.instructionaldesign.org/