How can you say that you're an effective teacher?

LOL I absolutely hate teaching! I was in the profession for six years before I gathered the guts to chuck it. I was clinging on to it for the salary. Of course, I did not join it just for the sake of salary. I started loathing it halfway through. Reasons? 1. There were more than 90 students in a single class 2. All the students were not of the same level. The dumb ones sat in front and took down notes, while the smart ones sat at the back and acted smart. The result of this was that I could not give justice to both the categories and also the large number of in-betweens. 3. The syllabus was set by a person who had never stepped into the classroom in his/her life. 4. The text books had no standards. For example, an undergraduate compulsory English text book would have been perfect for fourth standard kids, but for undergraduates it was too simple. It led them to think that the teacher was a clown and the class room a circus. Setting the syllabus was not in the control of the teacher. 5. There were no common discplinary measures. As far as I understood it, in order to be an effective teacher, I had to: 1. Make the classes interesting, plan these interesting classes according to the dullest and dumbest English text book I had ever seen 2. I should not fire the 'smart ones' who made life miserable for everyone. I could not cut their attendance or tell them to leave the class or anything like that. I had to manipulate things in such a way that they stayed 'interested' even if they were quite determined not to be interested. Not to say that teaching did not have its joys. The kids were darlings out of the class, when they approached me as individuals for help. I guided projects on a one-to-one basis and I found that more rewarding that the chaotic classroom sessions. I did not mean this to be such a long post. I guess I got carried away. I enjoy freelance writing more than I ever enjoyed life as a teacher.

When you take time to plan your lesson, when you gather enough educational materials, when you choose the most involving teaching methodology, when after you are done with lesson and the period is over, and onother teacher is waiting to take over from you, your students seem to want you to stay on- that to me is the measure of effectiveness as a teacher.