A local teacher was a guest speaker in our class today, and she had some great, thought provoking ideas to reflect upon as a teacher. She has been a teacher for 22 years, and after only talking for 5 minutes that she is a perceptive, innovative educator who knows how to integrate instruction with application.
She only allows herself to repeat one book every year, and completely strips and sets her room up from scratch every school year. Nothing like keeping the classroom fresh, and making sure that you never get stuck in a rut! And what a way to make sure that lessons and the entire classroom is for the unique students that enter your classroom each year! I'm not sure I could strip everything at the end of every year, but this is a good idea to keep in mind; sometimes we just have to strip everything away and start over again.
One of her first points was that every teacher must learn what type of teacher they are.
Am I process-based?
Am I inquiry-based?
Am I more inclined to guided instruction?
Am I direct instruction-based?
Am I discover-based?
As a teacher you must know your style, but your style is ever developing and evolving. For the first few years you try a lot of different styles that you pull from your Mary Poppins' bag of tricks. Over time, you will decide what you like and what becomes most helpful for the students in your classroom, but the best teachers are the teachers that utilize all techniques that help your learners.
She gave us three tips for our future classrooms:
1. Create a healthy, safe place for students to learn where making mistakes is a normal growing process.
"Always have more questions than answers."
2. Vary the way you expect responses to literature. Only expect them to come ready to engage in a book chat.
3. Never assign anything that you don't respond to with a few detailed sentences, and expect that some students will write back as well.
Give students choice because this will intrinsically motivate the students to learn.
Know your kids; know when to push and when not to push. Education is about relationship, it's about knowing people, about bringing out their best, and how to take them from where they are to where they can be.
Learn how to answer a students question with a question. This generates deeper thought and discussion with the students. Good thing I already do that!
She only allows herself to repeat one book every year, and completely strips and sets her room up from scratch every school year. Nothing like keeping the classroom fresh, and making sure that you never get stuck in a rut! And what a way to make sure that lessons and the entire classroom is for the unique students that enter your classroom each year! I'm not sure I could strip everything at the end of every year, but this is a good idea to keep in mind; sometimes we just have to strip everything away and start over again.
One of her first points was that every teacher must learn what type of teacher they are.
Am I process-based?
Am I inquiry-based?
Am I more inclined to guided instruction?
Am I direct instruction-based?
Am I discover-based?
As a teacher you must know your style, but your style is ever developing and evolving. For the first few years you try a lot of different styles that you pull from your Mary Poppins' bag of tricks. Over time, you will decide what you like and what becomes most helpful for the students in your classroom, but the best teachers are the teachers that utilize all techniques that help your learners.
She gave us three tips for our future classrooms:
1. Create a healthy, safe place for students to learn where making mistakes is a normal growing process.
"Always have more questions than answers."
2. Vary the way you expect responses to literature. Only expect them to come ready to engage in a book chat.
3. Never assign anything that you don't respond to with a few detailed sentences, and expect that some students will write back as well.
Give students choice because this will intrinsically motivate the students to learn.
Know your kids; know when to push and when not to push. Education is about relationship, it's about knowing people, about bringing out their best, and how to take them from where they are to where they can be.
Learn how to answer a students question with a question. This generates deeper thought and discussion with the students. Good thing I already do that!
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