What differentiates a good teacher from a great teacher? “A teacher must above all enjoy working with children. No matter how good your teaching, there is always room for improvement” (Killen, 2009.p.100). In this essay I hope to show some of the key qualities that I consider essential to becoming an effective early childhood teacher. These key aspects are communication, building lasting relationships, engaging students effectively in the learning process, and encouraging and appreciating diversity in the classroom. After spending some time reading about effective teaching, I discovered that one of the key aspects that seemed to come up the most was communication. I believe that as a teacher you will need to possess a range of communication, interpersonal and group skills. Communication is not just about being able to speak with your students, but also writing, reading, listening with your eyes and ears, as well as body language. (Ornstein, Lasley, 2004) For effective communication, a teacher must interact and communicate respect, there must always be respect for students, parents, colleagues and their network of educational professionals. I believe that listening deeply and recognizing student contributions will encourage respect from students, a good example of this can be seen in the (Online Course: Becoming a Teacher, 2005). The teacher's name is Anne Christodulou and communication with her students is continuous, respectful, shows a caring attitude and provides a model of high ethical standards. Coulson (as cited in Killen, 2009) describes: “Effective communicators are teachers who will build good relationships with students, explain clearly, make expectations explicit, and engage students. » I am... middle of paper...... little dark ore instruction book, 1997) Einstein, A. Famous Quotes and Quotations. Retrieved from www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins122147.htm Killen, R. (2009). Effective teaching strategies. (5th ed.)China: C&C Offset Printing Co Ltd. Lang, H., Evans, D. (2006). Models, strategies and methods for effective teaching. United States, Pearson Education Inc. Online course: becoming a teacher, (2005) Course video files, ECU, Lesson Lab. (Part 2, Christodulou, A.)Ornstein, AC and Lasley, TJ (2004).Strategies for effective teaching. (4th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.Papatheodorou.T. and Moyles.J.(2009). Learning together from early childhood. Exploring relational pedagogy. New York: Routledge Robbins. A. (2009) Personal power of associations. [Audio podcast] excerpt from