Reading Reflection/Weekly Readings #1

Effective Teaching: Notes for the Beginning Teacher Written By M. Vaughn & S. Parsons

This sections of reading has the theme of recognizing excellence in teaching. Excellence can be measured or justified in a few different ways.  In business people measure excellence through profit made at the end of the day or a quarter.  Farmers can measure excellence as how many bushels per acre they can make at a maximum yield.  Excellence in education can not be measured as easily.  Part of this in my opinion is that everyone can have a different form and level of excellence.  Someones excellence may not be another persons same amount of excellence. Just take a moment and think about what makes an excellent teacher, many similar things may come up in our heads.  Dr. Vaughn decided to do research and as a variety of people what they believe excellence in teaching is.

Excellent teacher have objectives, teach those objectives and then measure the student performance. Here are some of the following viewpoints of what excellent teaching may be. From a state supervisor visiting a program to measure excellence, they would like to see lots of neat and tidy physical appearance. They would like to see a clean and well painted facility, with little dust and clutter and a well arranged trophy case.  The trophy case shows off some of the important aspects of the program from what the students learned and how it can be applicable to real life.  Other important aspects include an attractive bulletin to show off important and upcoming events as well as agricultural publications of local research or what things are happening and coming up in the newspaper.  More things that a state supervisor would look for includes testing materials, SAE projects and experiences and to make sure that the agricultural educator is present in all inservice days and meetings.

From the supervisor looking more to what the classroom can physically offer, a graduate students has some different viewpoints.  A grad student measures excellent teaching by taking note if the teacher visits other programs and holds discussions with other teachers.  Not only does this build relationships with other programs, but it can open the doors for students to meet other students and professionals in the business. This also allows for professional ideas to be shared with one another.  Another imperative characteristic that agricultural instructors should have is to be knowledgeable in their field.   When teachers know what they are doing, they can incorporated standards and have their students study, apply the application and then have a reflection on what they learned.

Interviews and questions were asked to an undergrad student on what their viewpoints on excellent teaching were. This student made the point that the students the teachers have are blank slates, unwritten books who still have time to write out their story, and part of their story is how the teacher can make an impact in their life.  To have the instructor make an impact, teachers should create enthuasiam and motivation within a classroom.  This energy can then be used to then go through content of a subject and create a meaningful classroom and atmosphere.  Other things that an undergrad student looks for in excellent teaching would we the skills of the instructor, the knowledge, humor and how much interest he or she puts into the students.

A teacher educator can bring a lot of information to the table of what excellence in teaching is.  Some things that this person said was how the teachers behavior towards their class is.  Is it positive, negative? How would that make your students feel?  Other things that make an excellent teacher are his or her teaching skills and methods, having great lesson plans and really gearing the lessons to the needs of the students and community.  It is also important that the instructor teaches things or assigns things that they have done themselves.  Actions speak a lot louder than words in the world, and especially in the classroom.

From all of the interviews that I have read, I have learned a lot about what makes an excellent educator.  From keeping a room clean, to great lesson plans and a positive attitude to even professional relationships, I know excellence can be achievable in many ways.  After reading this, I know the current class of AEE 412 will prepare us to be excellent educators in our own way.

The First Days of School: How to be an effective teacher, written by Harry K Wong explains to us in a very basic and easy to understand piece of how to sincerely be an effective teacher. It begins with a basic question of why we must be successful on the first days. The key idea that Wong adds is “Your success during the school year will be determined by what you do on the first days.”  He puts it into simple words that the first few days will make or break you as a teacher.  Either we will have an effective classroom or we will not.  This would be our first pass or fail test. 

Douglas Brooks then discovered two things.  Very few teachers will get any direction on what to complete for the first few days and almost no student teachers will have any experience on those first days of school.  I completely agree with this.  He is right where we have little to no experience on the first few days, but this is an example of learning by doing.  You can only learn how to complete this is you are present and have a job where you can complete a first day of school. Douglas then completed research where he found that ineffective teachers started their school year off with a fun activity.  Those students then behaved poorly throughout the rest of the school year.  It is extremely important to have a safe, clean and consistent environment for students to be able to learn. 

“Effective teachers have control, plans, efficient and effective learning.” Says Wong through his article. Effective teachers have four stages of teaching.  Those four stages of teaching include fantasy, survival, mastery and impact.  Most teachers will always start at fantasy, where they only run their classroom on fun activities and they fail to look at standards, accountability and how their students perform.  Most teachers make it to survival and stay there.  Survival is where they realize teaching is a job and career where they then continue to complain about work and make excuses.  These educators will find busy work for their students to complete and have them watch videos. Mastery is the next step where educators can achieve student success by simply having effective practice in manageable classrooms.  This also includes having high expectations of all students and making sure everyone is responsible for all of their own work and self.  Lastly we have impact.  Impact is where your classroom can reach its full potential and the educator can make a positive difference in the lives of the students.

Being an efficient and effective instructor can positively affect more students than being the opposite. Another way to be efficient and effective is to have a great behavior and attitude.  Your attitude can change the students’ attitudes so they become more successful in your class and throughout their day.  Three goals to be effective is to have positive expectations, become an excellent classroom manager and know how do design well-constructed lesson plans. Always keep a positive attitude towards students, but don’t be fake.  Students of all human can tell when you fake something poorly. To be a successful classroom manager, you must have respect which doesn’t always mean having strict discipline in the class.  When designing lesson plans, have them focus on student learning.  It is natural for humans to want to learn, so help students in the right direction by creating lessons around their interests.  

For most of these things to occur properly and be used in the classroom, you must go through your first year of teaching.  The first year of teaching is your most crucial where you can learn the most through successes and failures.

To recap what Wong’s article was about, I have narrowed it down to his bullet points.

“Effective Teachers…

·       Work cooperatively and learn from their colleagues.

·       Seek out mentors who can serve as a role model.

·       Attend professional meetings to learn.

·       Have a continuous goal of striving excellence."

On a side note, I would like to remind you that these four bullet points that Wong gives us are not just for teachers.  These can build effective students, effective workers, effective sports players or effective bosses.  These four bullet points can be molded into a positive future for any reader.

**Note:  This week we are required to write 3 reflections to 3 readings.  I have not received my textbook, Methods of Teaching Agriculture, but I plan to have it by this Tuesday, 8/30.  So please come back to read my third and final reflection of this week!  Thanks for attending this week's reflections!  Feel free to comment below!