8 Characteristics Of A Great Teacher | TeachThought 8 Characteristics Of A Great Teacher by Ian Lancaster What makes a teacher strong? What differentiates the best from the rest? 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. Having some life experience outside the classroom and outside the realm of education is invaluable for putting learning into context and keeping school activities in perspective. 3. Just as each student has a different set of interests, every student will have a correspondingly different set of motivators. These students run the risk of disengaging altogether. 4. Yes, all teachers are heroes. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Hattie's Index Of Teaching & Learning Strategies: 39 Effect Sizes In Ascending Order An Index Of Teaching & Learning Strategies: 39 Effect Sizes In Ascending Order by Dana Schon, sai-iowa.org Effect Size Defined Statistically speaking, the strength of the relationship between two variables. John Hattie, Professor of Education and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia, says ‘effect sizes’ are the best way of answering the question ‘what has the greatest influence on student learning?’ Effect Size Applied Reverse effects are self-explanatory, and below 0.0Developmental effects are 0.0 to 0.15, and the improvement a child may be expected to show in a year simply through growing up, without any schooling. Effect Size CAUTION Reduce temptation to oversimplify. Editor’s Note Data is only as useful as its application. The most helpful part of this chart–and the reason we asked Dana to share her work here–was the column on the right where she adds a short statement or tidbit that helped contextualize the data point.
10 Reasons Every Teacher Needs A Professional Learning Network - 10 Reasons Every Teacher Needs A Professional Learning Network by TeachThought Staff What’s a professional learning network? According to Marc-André Lalande, “a Personal Learning Network is a way of describing the group of people that you connect with to learn their ideas, their questions, their reflections, and their references. Your PLN is not limited to online interactions, but it is that online, global interactive part that really makes it special. As for this graphic? Let us know in the comments if you have other suggestions! 1. Consider: OER Commons Resources 2. Consider: 23 Ways To Use The iPad In PBL 3. Consider: 52 Education Blogs You Should Follow 4. Consider: An example like clarifying the difference between ‘doing projects’ and PBL 5. Consider: Project-Based Learning in your classroom 6. Consider: Why Learning Through Social Networks Is The Future 7. Consider: 50 Ideas For Using Skype In The Classroom 8. 9. Consider: The most popular twitter hashtags in education 10.
Literacy Educators: Let's Get Serious about Noncognitive Skills - Dave Stuart Jr. The Common Core does a pretty good job of laying out some key cognitive skills students need to have to be ready for the literacy demands of a career or college. Granted, we need to reduce the standards into a simpler, more power-packed set of focused literacy priorities (the non-freaked out approach being one possible example) if we’re going to truly see literacy instruction expand in breadth and depth across a student’s school day. But with that being said, I give my props to the standards for being the best list to date of what it means to be proficiently literate upon graduation from high school. However, here’s the claim I’ll spend this post supporting (I’ve pawed around in the dark at it elsewhere, but that was quite a few months ago, and I’ve done more thinking in the interim): if you aim at the Common Core’s goals (which are cognitive) and nothing else, you and/or a large amount of your students will begin to hate you and/or their life. So why do we lack these lists?
30 Habits Of Highly Effective Teachers Editor’s Note: We often look at the qualities and characteristics of good teaching and learning, including the recent following pieces: How A Good Teacher Becomes Great What You Owe Your Students Ten Secrets To Surviving As A Teacher The Characteristics Of A Highly Effective Learning Environment How To Be A Mediocre Teacher 25 Things Successful Teachers Do Differently by Julie DuNeen, Sketch Note Via Janet Hamilton If you ask a student what makes him or her successful in school, you probably won’t hear about some fantastic new book or video lecture series. What students take away from a successful education usually centers on a personal connection with a teacher who instilled passion and inspiration for their subject. Are teachers reaching their students? 1. How do you know if you are driving the right way when you are traveling somewhere new? 2. We can’t all be blessed with “epic” workdays all the time. 3. 4. 5. 6. This concept is similar for parents as well. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
7 Reasons Why Differentiated Instruction Works Differentiated instruction (DI) begins with an accurate understanding of what DI is—and is not. You may be surprised how easy it is to incorporate into your classrooms. 1. Differentiated instruction IS proactive. In a differentiated classroom, the teacher assumes that different learners have differing needs and proactively plans lessons that provide a variety of ways to “get at” and express learning. Effective differentiation is typically designed to be robust enough to engage and challenge the full range of learners in the classroom. 2. Many teachers incorrectly assume that differentiating instruction means giving some students more work to do, and others less. Although such approaches to differentiation may seem reasonable, they are typically ineffective. 3. Teachers who understand that teaching and learning approaches must be a good match for students look for every opportunity to know their students better. 4. 5. 6. 7. In a differentiated classroom, teaching is evolutionary.
The 10 Skills Modern Teachers Must Have There’s been a lot of talk recently about what it means to be a learner in the 21st Century. Earlier this year, we put together a guide with skills important for students today. So, why not a list for educators, too? The list goes beyond technology and social media. Check out what skill we think makes a modern teacher, and let us know your thoughts on the matter in the comments below. Image via flickr and Chicago 2016 Engage in Professional Communities: Teachers can sometimes lead a very solitary existence at school—spending all of their time tutoring before and after school and scarfing down lunch in front of the copier or spending their free period, if they’re lucky enough to have one, at their desks while grading papers. However the Essential skills for today’s teachers go far beyond “knowing how to use an iPad” and into the realm of connectedness. Editor’s note: This is a revised version of an article written by Jeff Dunn that originally appeared on March 12th, 2013.
Limiting “Teacher Talk,” Increasing Student Work! – Achieve the Core Aligned Materials “Wah waah wah waah wah wah…” We all know the famous muted trumpet of adults in Charlie Brown’s world, especially their teacher, Miss Othmar. After five years teaching elementary school, I’m confident that I’m not boring my kids to sleep but I do wonder if I strike the right balance between “teacher talk” and student work. Research has long supported the idea that students benefit from “doing.” Regular practice with reading and re-reading increases comprehension and fluency (National Reading Panel, 2000), as well as builds vocabulary and knowledge (Cunning & Stanovich, 1998). As we all do our best to help students meet the high bars we set in our literacy classrooms, could it be that we’re missing out on opportunities for kids to do the very work that will help get them there? What if we did less and let students do more? Enter the “Who’s Doing the Work?” Our hope was that by increasing opportunities to engage deeply with literacy, we could create richer opportunities for all students.