Fall semester of my sophomore year, a group of six honors students and Professor Milne conducted research as a group in an attempt to answer the question of what qualities make a good teacher. We interviewed parents, teachers, and administrators in order to ask them a series of questions to get their perspective. Our data was collected from elementary schools and high schools in Midlothian, Virginia; Goochland, Virginia; Glen Allen, Virginia; Northern Virginia; Prince Edward, Virginia; and Henrico, Virginia. After conducting these interviews, we transcribed them and then as a group coded the material to find key ideas that connect them. From our data, we compiled a list of key qualities that relate to successful educators along with examples from the interviews that are detailed in this paper.

The enhancement of this class was not bad. Every two weeks we would meet with Professor Milne to discuss our progress. We also met before class at 7:30/8 am because everyone had such busy schedules it was just the easiest. It was a little annoying to have to get up so early because most of the time our meetings were on Mondays so I was exhausted beginning the week. As a group of six of us, we would also meet sometimes throughout the week to put our ideas and progress together. At times it did feel like I was taking a whole extra class plus the classwork for just Sociology of Education itself. The hardest part of the entire project for me personally was finding people to interview and then having to code and transcribe the interviews. It just took a ton of time on top of my other courses and their course work. I liked the way that Professor Milne set up the enhancement for us and getting closer with my peers in honors with me. Overall, I did enjoy this enhancement and sociology of education with Professor Milne.