Becoming the Best Teacher in the World: Tips

(The short version)

The First Days of School

-Harry and Rosemary Wong

3 Characteristics of an Effective Teacher:

1. Positive Expectations

2. Classroom Management

3. Mastery Teaching

You are the only person on the face of the earth who can use your abilities. It is an awesome responsibility.

Good habits are easy to develop. Bad habits are difficult to break.

Successful people MAKE themselves do the things that unsuccessful people will not do.

Intersperse questions throughout all class activities.

It is the teacher who makes the difference in a classroom.

There is but one correlation with success, and that is ATTITUDE.

Success involves converting people to your way of feeling. Give your students more than they expect, and you will get back more than you ever expected.

Each child is living the only life he has- the only one he will ever have. The lease we can do is not diminish it.

The two worst things a parent can give a young person are money and wheels. The two most important things a parent can give a child are roots and wings.

Celebrate the First Day of School.

You do not get a second chance at a first impression.

The key is looking professional, not just looking good. Your dress and your behavior are what young people will take to be appropriate.

Every time you act, you validate who you are.

Dress for:

1. Respect

2. Credibility

3. Acceptance

4. Authority

Don't dress where you are; dress where you want to be.

One inviting act can make a positive difference even if everything else is disinviting.

Opportunities are everywhere, but little happens until invitations are sent, received, and acted on.

5 Significant Concepts

1. Name

2. Please

3. Thank you

4. Smile

5. Love

Add please and thank you to papers.

Well-Managed Classroom

1. Student Involvement

2. Students know what is expected

3. No wasted time, confusion, or disruption

4. Work-oriented but relaxed environment

Always be prepared and ready to go.

Seating Arrangement:

All chairs face forward.

Keep traffic areas clear.

Test equipment before using it.

Coatrack!

Rotate materials on shelves.

Don't place loose materials near door.

Don't place teacher's desk near door.

Place desk where you can easily reach students.

Teacher Prep:

Letter of Materials Needed

Seating Chart

Have basic materials on hand.

Find and organize containers.

Keep valuables in safe location.

Have emergency materials.

Whether you like it or not, people will talk about you.

Send a letter home to parents:

1. Expectations

2. Important Dates

3. School Supplies

Send a letter to students:

1. Welcome

2. Bio

3. Contact Info

4. School Supplies

5. Expectations

Post on Classroom Door:

1. My name

2. Room #

3. Period

4. Subject

5. Welcome

Stand up when you address the class.

Don't speak loudly, use tone.

Use nonverbal language.

Don't let misbehavior go unchallenged.

IMPORTANT First Words: Name and Expectations

"You will..."

Have a spot ready with schedule, rules, procedures, calendar, and welcome.

Post assignment before students walk in.

Assign seating before they sit down.

Post assignments daily and consistently.

YOU start the class, not the bell.

Do not take roll at the beginning of class. Start class with an assignment, then take roll quickly and quietly.

If you do not have a plan, you're planning to fail.

Discipline Plan:

1. Expected Behaviors

2. Consequences

3. Rewards

The function of a rule is to prevent or encourage behavior by clearly stating student expectations.

No more than five specific rules.

Rules gives students a sense of security.

Post your consequences.

Effective teachers manage with procedures.

Teaching Procedures:

1. Explain

2. Rehearse

3. Reinforce

Give praise for specific deeds. Students want to be noticed.

Every time you speak while the class is working, you interrupt the class.

Students risk failure because of the lack of STRUCTURE.

What Americans have become is not less intelligent, but less interested in being educated.

Students must work to learn.

Academic Learning Time:

1. Did the students learn what you wanted them to?

2. Can you show that they learned it?

The person who does the work is the ONLY one who learns.

The only limitations are those you place on yourselves and those you allow other people to place on you.

Effective teachers:

1. Must have an undying believe that every student can and has the ability to learn.

2. Must persevere.

Creating an Effective Assignment

1. Think what you want students to accomplish

2. Write each step as a single sentence

3. Write in simple language.

4. Duplicate the list and give to students.

Procedures tell what to do.

Assignments tell what to accomplish.

An effective assignment must HAVE STRUCTURE and BE PRECISE.

Objectives assign and assess and should be written as a single sentence.

Give study guidelines at the beginning of a unit.

Align homework problems to specific objectives.

The purpose of a test is to assess a  student's performance against learning criteria.

Students need to know four things:

1. What they are to learn

2. How they are to learn it

3. How they are to demonstrate what they've learned

4. How the quality of their learning will be evaluated

The basis of every test is the objectives from each assignment.

You are teaching for accomplishment, and you want everyone to succeed.

A test tells you if the student needs corrective help. If you do not correct and remediate, learning gets worse as the year progresses.

The summative test should be the same as the formative, but the questions are asked in a different way.

Cooperative learning is not so much learning to cooperate as it is cooperating to learn.

Effective grouping is dependent on the class climate and the explanation.

Cooperative learning is not something that will happen overnight.

The number of people in a group must equal the number of jobs in the group.

The support group will get a group grade and that grade will be each individual's grade.

Learning is an individual activity but not a solitary one.

The two major concerns of a leader are enhancement and cooperation.

You can't make someone else's choices. You shouldn't let someone else make yours.

Power is not force but rather the ability to do things.

Do not allow people who cannot control their own lives to control your life.

Professionals share.

Rewards go to those who take risks.

Only a person who risks is free.

With desire and commitment the leader builds a fire inside that causes others to glow brightly.

Nothing improves a child's hearing more than praise.