8 Characteristics Of A Great Teacher. 8 Characteristics Of A Great Teacher by Ian Lancaster What makes a teacher strong? What differentiates the best from the rest? There’s no shortage of bodies (some dramatically misguided) attempting to solve this riddle. The answers are nebulous at best. Below is a list of traits, some of which may be familiar but many of which will never show up on any sort of performance review. Check them out and see what you think. 1. Confidence while teaching can mean any number of things, it can range from having confidence in your knowledge of the material being learned to having confidence that your teaching acumen is second to none. It’s the confidence that you know you’re in the right spot doing what you want to be doing and that no matter what transpires, having that time to spend with those young learners is going to be beneficial both for them and for yourself. 2. 3. Just as each student has a different set of interests, every student will have a correspondingly different set of motivators. 4.
21st Century Learning. The Touch-Screen Generation - Hanna Rosin. On a chilly day last spring, a few dozen developers of children’s apps for phones and tablets gathered at an old beach resort in Monterey, California, to show off their games. One developer, a self-described “visionary for puzzles” who looked like a skateboarder-recently-turned-dad, displayed a jacked-up, interactive game called Puzzingo, intended for toddlers and inspired by his own son’s desire to build and smash. Two 30‑something women were eagerly seeking feedback for an app called Knock Knock Family, aimed at 1-to-4-year-olds. “We want to make sure it’s easy enough for babies to understand,” one explained.
The gathering was organized by Warren Buckleitner, a longtime reviewer of interactive children’s media who likes to bring together developers, researchers, and interest groups—and often plenty of kids, some still in diapers. What, really, would Maria Montessori have made of this scene? She was a former Montessori teacher and a mother of four. “They don’t play all that much.”
Effectively Maximizing Teacher Leaders at the Elementary Level. (Artwork by Leslie Carroll) “No one person can do it alone…” This statement is especially accurate in a school. Donna Johnson, assistant principal, and I recognized this truth prior to beginning our tenure as Memorial School’s administrative team five years ago. The formulation of a dedicated group of teacher leaders set a tone and expectation for collaboration heading into our first year, and I firmly believe that this group, as a whole, has been the instrumental driving force for change within our school. During the summer of 2008, I reached out to various members on each grade level team to see who would be interested in fulfilling the responsibilities of “team leader.”
Each team had always had certain individuals who took the unofficial role as “leader” within their team, but we wanted to formalize the process a bit. At the time, I wasn’t even quite sure of everything that this position would entail. That has helped me to make more informed decisions on a number of occasions. 25 Ways Google Can Help You Become A Better Teacher. While Apple products (*cough* iPad *cough*) are known for their integration in classrooms, Google’s offerings give up little here.
In fact, the sheer diversity of Google products might make them a more natural fit in the classroom in lieu of the iPad’s gravity. Below we’ve listed 25 ways teachers can get started using Google in the classroom. Let us know on our Google+ page if we’ve missed anything. Google In The Classroom: 25 Ways Google Can Help You Become A Better Teacher 1. Identify YouTube channels to provide daily writing prompts, activity modeling, and out-of-the-box content area expertise that students find interesting. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.
UPDATE: Google+ user (and sometimes TeachThought contributor) Kellie Ady offered 5 more, shown below. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. UPDATE: TeachThought Reader Nicole Naditz just sent us 5 more. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36.