What Does Effective Teaching Look Like?

Teaching is more than sharing information from one person to another because if it was that simple then everyone would be a teacher. Teaching is about sharing that information in a way that is effective and connective to your students. After looking at the tip of the ice berg on effective teaching and how we decide what and how to teach I have thought of questions for the following people.

1. For my future students:

What motivated you to take my class and what will keep you motivated throughout the year? (i.e clear expectations, content, hands on activities)

2. For y cooperating teacher: 

What are some ways to get to know your students starting on that first day of school?

3. For my mentor team or cohort: 

What do you believe is the most important part of organizing subject matter? (i.e "The Why", clarity, sequencing or structure) 

Looking at effective teaching from several points of view helps create that need to keep learning how to be purposeful in what i am teaching and how I am teaching the content. This will be a concept that I look at over the next few weeks before I enter a classroom as well as the next few years as I start my career.  

Plan The Ride;Ride The Plan: Reflecting on Central American Mottos Lesson

“Good Morning class, today we are going to learn about Central American countries and their mottos” is what ever class loves to hear at 8 am on a Wednesday. We started the lesson with a bell work to think about what countries were in Central America before getting up and finding the counties written on note cards around the room. We ended the lesson with creating passports of the counties and their mottos.

This engagement activity would have been a great activity to do if, I slowed down and made sure I had everything I needed before the lesson. For example, I only placed 6 of the 7 note cards around the room and completely lost Honduras. I also kept misplacing my answer key to the passport. Keeping this a tad bit more organized would have saved me so much trouble.

I also learned why a good lesson plan is important. I didn’t put any content in my lesson plan just the activities. If the countries and their mottos were in my lesson plan I could have had everything in one place instead of on 3 different pages. Having a weak lesson plan is like showing up to the horse show and knowing the jumping course but, my horse is at home. I know what I’m doing and how to do it but, I can’t do it. 

I am excited to continue to grow this semester in order to be the best educator that I can be. Reflecting back on each lesson will be a good way to track progress, grow and learn the art of teaching.