TEACHER THE CREATOR!!!

Successful Educators Teaching Strategies

 What makes a successful teacher? If you were to ask any observer you may hear things like, the teacher kept the students engaged via unique teaching strategies, and the classroom basically ran by itself. But, if you were to ask a student, you’d probably hear a different response along the lines of “they make learning fun” or “they never give up on me.”

To be honest, there are countless teaching strategies you can use to achieve success in the classroom, but no matter the teaching style, the most effective teachers have one thing in common—they know how to reach their students in a long-lasting, positive manner.

Great is the transition that classroom teachers experience moving into the academy as teacher educators, considering the change in professional identity and the subsequent alignment of situational and substantial selves.he academic role is complex and the road from classroom teacher to teacher educator can be described as rocky but Splendid

One of the ultimate goals of teaching is to help students become independent learners. Learners who are knowledgeable about a variety of strategies for learning and who are aware of how and when to use those strategies are on their way to becoming successful learners on their own. Some children are strategic learners by nature; others can become strategic with a few hints and prompts. However, many students need adaptive instruction and additional support to make the strategies part of their ongoing learning repertoire..

Here are the divine qualities that contribute to a successful and happy teaching career:

1. Successful teachers hold high expectations of their students.

The most effective teachers expect their students to succeed, they believe in them, and motivate them to keep trying until they reach their goal. As a result, they set the bar high and create an environment where students can push themselves beyond their comfort zone to reach their goals, but also have a safety net to catch them if they fail.

2. Successful teachers have a sense of humor.

If you ask a student who their favorite teacher is, they are more than likely to tell you about the teacher that makes them laugh. They aren’t afraid to be silly and can laugh at their own mistakes. Humor helps create that lasting impression.

3. Successful teachers are knowledgeable in their field.

The best teachers are masters in their subject area. They know their craft and never stop learning. They are curious, confident, and do not need a textbook to teach their students. They stay abreast of their subject and transfer their love of knowledge to their students.

4. Successful teachers use teaching strategies that cause them to think outside of the box.

Productive teachers think creatively and try and make classroom experiences exciting for students. They identify ways to leap outside of the educational norms and create experiences that are unexpected, unique, and ultimately more memorable.

5. Successful teachers take risks.

A popular saying is, “If there is no risk, there is no reward.” Successful teachers know that risk-taking is a part of being successful. Children learn by observing, and when they see you try new things (and watch how you handle success and failure) they too will know how to handle similar situations.

6. Successful teachers are consistent.

Successful teachers are consistent in ALL that they do. Do what you say you’re going to do and stick with it. This applies to enforcing class rules, a consistent grading system, and the expectations for all your students. Do not play favorites or make special exceptions.

7. Successful teachers communicate with parents and students.

Effective teachers know that communication is the key to student success. They create an open path of communication between parents and students, and recognize that a united front between both groups lowers the chance that children will get left behind.

8. Successful teachers are up-to-date with the latest in technology.

Great teachers take the time to explore new tools and stay up-to-date with latest technology. They are not afraid of what technology holds for education in the future, and are willing to learn and incorporate the new trends into their classroom. 

9. Successful teachers make learning fun.

This goes hand in hand with having a sense of humor, but making learning fun doesn’t mean you have to put on a comedy show. Find ways to mix up your lesson plans based upon your students’ interests. When they see you putting in effort to get to know them and mold your teachings around their lives, the more successful you will become.

10. Successful teachers can empathize with students.

The best teachers are patient with students, and understand when they are under stress or have problems with material. They do whatever is necessary to get their students back on track, and are able to recognize that everybody has bad days.

If you’re looking to take the next step in your teaching career, you can learn a lot from what successful teachers do differently. Although it can be quite intimidating to think of all of the things we must do in order to reach our students, it is possible to master these skills one day at a time.

Do your students care more about their grades than the learning those grades are supposed to represent? 

Are the grades given in your building an accurate representation of what students know?

Are grades in your building a better indicator of student COMPLIANCE than they are of student PERFORMANCE?

Strategies for Direct Instruction

• Specify clear lesson objectives
• Teach directly to those objectives
• Make learning as concrete and meaningful as possible
• Provide relevant guided practice
• Provide independent practice
• Provide transfer practice activities

Strategies for Students with Disabilities *

• Sequence – Break down the task, step by step prompts.
• Drill-repetition and practice-review – Daily testing of skills, repeated practice, daily feedback.
• Segment – Break down targeted skill into smaller units and then synthesize the parts into a whole.
• Direct question and response – Teacher asks process-related questions and/or content-related questions.
• Control the difficulty or processing demands of a task – Task is sequenced from easy to difficult and only necessary hints or probes are provided.
• Technology – Use a computer, structured text, flow charts to facilitate presentation, emphasis is on pictorial representations.
• Group Instruction – Instruction occurs in a small group, students and/or teacher interact with the group.
• Supplement teacher and peer involvement – Use homework, parents, or others to assist in instruction.
• Strategy clues – Reminders to use strategies or multi-steps, the teacher verbalizes problem solving or procedures to solve, instruction uses think-aloud models.

Collaborative Strategic Reading

Most elementary-and middle-school reading curricula mention strategies for reading expository (informational) text. Frequently, however, students are not provided with enough supervised practice to make the strategies part of their ongoing repertoire of reading and study practices. Simply being aware of a strategy is not enough – particularly for students with reading and learning disabilities. What they need is systematic and intensive practice in applying strategies to content-area text with support from both teachers and peers.

What is the adaptation?

Collaborative strategic reading (CSR) combines both reading comprehension strategy instruction to provide students with systematic ways to read and learn from text and collaborative learning to provide students with the support they need from peers. CSR is most appropriate for students in grades three and higher. Some third-grade teachers have reported that they first introduce CSR in small groups apart of a teacher-led center activity and later work toward cooperative learning groups. In addition, teachers in lower grades have introduced the language of CSR in whole-class reading activities.

The CSR routine actually includes four strategies that many elementary-school teachers already incorporate in their reading curriculum:

• Preview (generate prior knowledge and prediction about the topic)
• “Click and clunk” (clarify difficult vocabulary)
• Get the gist (determine the main idea of units of text)
• Wrap up (summarize the key ideas of the assigned passage and predict questions that might be on a test)

Each strategy is introduced one at a time to the whole class through teacher and student modeling. Students then implement the strategies in their cooperative learning groups.

The cooperative learning groups consist of four or five students. Each student is assigned a role to keep for several weeks. Roles can include leader (who guides fellow students through the strategies), clunk expert (who leads discussion about how to “fix up clunks,” or end confusion about difficult vocabulary), time keeper, recorder, and encourager. The cooperative learning groups ensure that all students have an opportunity to participate and be truly active learners.

During CSR sessions the teacher's role is to introduce the topic (including particularly difficult technical vocabulary students are likely to encounter), facilitate and monitor cooperative learning among small groups, and summarize key points at the end of the lesson.

Teachers frequently balance CSR sessions with other content-area learning activities such as projects, experiments, and other hands-on activities. For instance, CSR sessions may be held for one hour, twice a week, with other activities and tests being scheduled on remaining days.

Students with learning disabilities may have difficulty with basic counting and computational skills in mathematics. Students with and without disabilities also have difficulties in solving math word problems. Indeed, math word problems are the Achilles' heel of many students. The fact is that word problems are designed to show real-world applications of mathematics. Their primary purpose is to make mathematics genuinely come alive.

Solving word problems is a complex cognitive task. Think about what is going on:

• Reading and mathematics are merged.
• Words are sometimes used instead of numbers (e.g., dozen).
• The necessary mathematics operation is not explicitly called for.
• Multiple operations are sometimes necessary.

On top of that, assuming that the correct operations are selected, careful calculation is needed to derive the correct answer. No wonder word problems are overwhelming for elementary students! The complexity of solving word problems necessitates strategic thinking. The difficulty is that many students with disabilities lack systematic strategies for tackling word problems.

What is the adaptation?

A Strategy for Math Problem Solving (Student handout), helps students tackle word problems systematically and consistently. The strategy consists of eight steps that can help students become actively engaged in problem-solving. The steps are as follows:

1. Start by reading the entire problem aloud or silently. Do not start solving the problem until you understand generally what problem is being posed.
2. Identify and highlight or circle all numbers ? including hidden numbers (i.e., numbers written as words). If you can't write in your textbook, write all numbers on a piece of scratch paper.
3. Read the problem again. This time, try to draw a picture of the problem.
4. Read the problem once again. This time, think: What is the problem asking for? What should my final answer be? What form should my final answer take?
5. Inquire ? ask yourself: What operation do I need to use to find the answer (add, subtract, multiply, or divide)?
6. Guess, to estimate what the answer should be. Should I end up with a larger number or a smaller number?
7. Ham it up! Act out the problem if necessary. Try to make it real. Use manipulative if necessary.
8. Take a pencil and calculate the answer. Double check your answer to make sure it makes sense

 Pedagogical approach

Teachers who adhere to learner-centered classrooms are influenced strongly by constructivism. Constructivism holds that prior knowledge forms the foundation by which new learning occurs (Piaget and Inhelder, 1969). Because people and their experiences are different, they arrive at school with varying levels of proficiency. A student is challenged according to his or her individual zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1986). The difference between a student's actual developmental level and his or her potential is the zone of proximal development (ZPD). Good instruction matches each child's ZPD.

Teachers who adhere to curriculum-centered classrooms are influenced greatly by the standards-based movement. All students are taught the same body of knowledge. Regardless of variations in developmental levels, all children are exposed to the same content in the same time period. The objective is to ensure that there will be no academic gaps in what is taught.

Learner-centered classrooms

Learner-centered classrooms focus primarily on individual students' learning. The teacher's role is to facilitate growth by utilizing the interests and unique needs of students as a guide for meaningful instruction. Student-centered classrooms are by no means characterized by a free-for-all.

These classrooms are goal-based. Students' learning is judged by whether they achieve predetermined, developmentally-oriented objectives. In essence, everyone can earn an A by mastering the material. Because people learn best when they hear, see, and manipulate variables, the method by which learning occurs is oftentimes experiential.

Curriculum-centered classrooms

Curriculum-centered classrooms focus essentially on teaching the curriculum. The teacher determines what ought to be taught, when, how, and in what time frame. The curriculum that must be covered throughout the year takes precedence. These classes often require strict discipline because children's interests are considered only after content requirements are established.

• In this framework students are compared with one another. Student success is judged in comparison with how well others do. A fixed standard of achievement is not necessarily in place. In these classrooms grades resemble the familiar bell curve.

The difference between learner-centered and curriculum-centered classrooms is philosophical. Philosophy drives behavior, so when it comes to your teaching style, it is important to have a deep understanding of your own belief system. Your view of learning, students' roles, and teachers' roles determine the method by which you teach. pedagogical continuum considerations are:

• The types of activities you create
• The layout of your classroom
• The way students learn with you
• How you prepare for class
• How to make the most of your style

How do you prepare?

The way in which teachers spend their time in and out of class can reveal much about their teaching philosophies. A learner-centered teacher makes time to collaborate with others and problem solve as challenges evolve. This teacher spends his or her day researching new ideas and learning key concepts that students must acquire to gain competence. Evaluation is ongoing and done mostly in the context of students' learning.

A curriculum-centered teacher works mostly by himself or herself when he or she is teaching or developing lessons. When teachers do collaborate in team meetings, all involved agree to teach the same lessons. These assignments usually result in a lot of correcting at the end of the day.

How to work within the current system

If you are basically a curriculum-centered teacher, the system is already set up for you – no worries! If you are essentially a learner-centered teacher, you need to enlist support for your teaching style. Effective ways of gaining credibility include the following:

• Initiate collaboration with other educational professionals.
• Locate and share research that documents successful learner-centered classrooms
• Invite fellow teachers to attend conferences and workshops geared toward learner-centered topics.
• Ask colleagues to discuss your philosophy of education (and theirs) so that you both may gain a clearer understanding of your principles. At that point, it becomes important to do what you say you do and make no excuses. Some people talk about running a child-centered classroom but actually have not broken from the model they were exposed to as students.
• Finally, it is imperative to gain the respect of your students' parents at Back-to-School night, Open House, conferences, and through regular newsletters.

Do your Best and prove to be the Best Teacher...your .Reflections can be posted as comments.