What is Teaching and Learning? (WW #1)

Our topic this week focuses on effective teaching. We are challenged with the question: what makes an effective teacher? As we are preparing for our student teaching internships next spring I believe this is a vital question to consider. Our goal should be to be effective in our teaching in order to increase student success.

We were provided with numerous readings that allow us to dig deeper into answering this question of becoming an effective teacher. In an article titled "Enhancing Student Learning Through Teacher Behaviors" the top five characteristics that provide greater opportunity to influence student achievement were identified. The top five were: clarity, variability, enthusiasm, task-oriented and/or businesslike behaviors, and student opportunity to learn criterion material. I couldn't help but to chuckle a bit after reading this because our class came up with a similar list prior to reading this. It seemed hard for us to narrow all the characteristics of an effective teacher into only five terms; however, many of these concepts we discussed also aligned with the article. The article identified these five behaviors based on research, whereas we identified our five characteristics based on experience. I think this proves that we have seen this played out in classrooms and we are confident that obtaining these characteristics will help us achieve success.

Once we have identified these key characteristics, I feel the next step is exploring how we can develop these areas in ourselves. Nobody is born a perfect teacher. It takes practice and it takes many trips, falls, and accidents to give us the courage to get back on our feet and press on. I liked that in class Dr. Foster said it takes sevens years (correct me if I'm wrong) to master a skill. This might be teaching or perhaps just a teaching technique. Either way as new teachers I think we must keep in mind that we are going to fall sometimes but we must remember that it's those tough experiences that are going to make us stronger and better in the end.        

For me this topic and these readings are motivating. I realize that I am a young bug coming into the field with a fresh perspective. Because of this I can develop a firm foundation of positive beliefs about education and my responsibility as a teacher. To me it's encouraging to know that I can impact the lives of my students, but in order to achieve this goal I might need to first evaluate myself. This means looking at my strengths and my weaknesses. My goal this semester is recognizing those weaknesses and developing the needed skills to improve those areas. Oh, and don't forget about the strengths because they are just as important. I hope to use my strengths as encouragement to myself and others. Another challenge for myself: how can I also encourage others by recognizing their strengths? I think it's important that we also uplift others this semester by recognizing the good in each of our peers!