The 7 Traits of Talented Teachers details essential characteristics of great classroom teachers. Many of the characteristics, or traits, have been "passed down" from earlier educators to those who serve our classrooms today. Qualities such as effective relationship-building, attention to student culture and biography, and the generation of fervor for education, constitute but a few of the traits that talented teachers possess. Through the author's personal reflection of her own educator-ancestors, she enlightens readers with the idealistic look of the talented teacher and encourages educational practitioners to become a part of this elite group for the sake of youth. Through the metaphor of genetics, The 7 Traits highlights the notion of today's teachers inheriting the professional DNA of the educators that came before them and, subsequently, of exhibiting the characteristics of their pedagogical gifts and talents with their own students. This work illuminates an inheritance from a lineage of educators whose purpose to provide above-average educational experiences for their students shaped the next generation of professionals, some of whom followed their lead and became talented teachers.