Teachers are most often evaluated and prepared in measurable and quantifiable skills despite the fact that teachers' dispositions are a vital component of effective teaching. Rick Wormeli's article in the ASCD lists 7 habits of highly affective teachers. Note the emphasis on affective teachers and not effective teachers. Wormeli makes the case that positive affects in a teacher are important for any classroom to be emotionally healthy. In his article he lists 8 habits (adding one bonus habit to his list of seven):

Find joy in others' success

Cultivate perspective and reframe

Ditch the easy caricature

Explore the ethics of teaching

Embrace humility

Value intellect

Maintain passion and playfulness

Self-renew

Emotionally Healthy Kids, October 2015, 73 (2), pp. 10-15

The full article can be found at the link below:

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct15/vol73/num02/The-Seven-Habits-of-Highly-Affective-Teachers.aspx

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/12/how-your-early-childhood-shapes-your-brain/?FB=1

Here is a site which has developed a Rubric that helps teachers determine which books are culturally relevant for their classrooms:

http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/choosing-childrens-books-cultural-relevance-rubric

Engaging and interacting with people who are different from us actually makes us better people if we embrace differences and learn from them about diverse world views and perspectives. Here is an article from Scientific American that explains this:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-diversity-makes-us-smarter/

Recently, a video of a first grade Math teacher in a NYC charter school went viral because of the way the teacher responded to a student's work. I was invited by the NY Times as one of eight scholars in the field of early education and child development to comment on the appropriateness of the teacher's response. Read more at the following link:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/13/nyregion/experts-on-success-academy-teacher-video.html