Teacher Appreciation Week arrives each May with good intentions, and the appreciation is genuine. However, we sometimes choose words that don’t capture the essence of what impactful teachers do for children. In appreciation, we call teachers dedicated, influential, transformative. They are certainly all of those things. What we talk about less is the deliberate craft and underlying attributes that make a great teacher great. Shaping lives and demonstrating empathy and concern can have a powerful, life-affirming effect on young people. I was moved recently by the memoir of John King, former secretary of education and current chancellor of the State University of New York, titled “Teacher By Teacher: The People Who Change Our Lives.” It is a powerful tribute to the teachers who, as he writes, saved his life as he lived through family tragedy, and helped to steer him on a path of academic success and commitment to service to the educational community.…