How to be an Effective Teacher The First Days of School By

How to be an Effective
Teacher
The First Days of School
By
Dr. Harry K. Wong and Rosemary Wong
Four Stages of Teaching
• Fantasy – teacher does fun activities; tries to
relate and be friends with students
• Survival – teacher spends time complaining
about his/her job; finds busywork for students to
do
• Mastery – teacher knows how to manage the
classroom, teach for mastery, and has high
expectations
• Impact – makes a difference in the lives of their
students
What is an Effective Teacher?
• Efficient- Doing things right
• Effective – Doing the right thing
• The effective teacher
AFFECTS lives.
Characteristics of an Effective
Teacher
• Is a good classroom manager
• Designs lessons to reach mastery
• Has positive expectations that students
will be successful
“Each student comes to school with an unlit
candle with the expectation for you to light
it.”
Ineffective Teacher
• The ineffective teacher is simply not doing what
the effective teacher is doing.
• The ineffective teacher resists resources
available to them, relies on busywork as an
excuse for learning.
• The ineffective teacher will whine that nothing
applies to them, fully expecting others to tell
them what to do.
• -www.teachers.net/gazette/NOV01/wong.html
Effective Teacher
• Understands how research is done
• Uses proven research based practices
– Research shows to achieve higher level
comprehension that you should intersperse
questions throughout text
– Understands that these practices are used by
thousands of other teachers and are tried and
true methods that work
Beliefs of an Effective Teacher
• It is the teacher who makes the difference in the
classroom.
• The most important factor in school learning is
the ability of the teacher.
• There is an extensive body of knowledge about
teaching that must be known by the teacher.
• The teacher must be a decision maker able to
translate the body of knowledge about teaching
into increased student learning.
– Madeline Hunter
Discipline and Procedures
How to Manage Your Classroom
-Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong
Parts of a Discipline Plan
•
•
•
•
Rules – what the expected behaviors are.
There should be only 3-5 rules.
(Examples of effective and ineffective rules)
Consequences – what the students chooses to accept if
a rule is broken. Can be negative or positive.
• Rewards-what the student receives for appropriate
behavior. www.education-world/1_curr/curr301.shtml
• If you don’t have a plan, then you’re planning to fail.
– Harry K. Wong
Activate Your Discipline Plan
• 1. Post your rules.
• 2. Post your consequences and rewards.
• 3. Immediately enact the consequence
when a rule is broken.
• 4. Give positive feedback to individuals as
well as to the class.
• 5. Make your behavior predictable and
consistent.
Discipline and Procedures
• Effective teachers have a plan. The number one
problem in the classroom is not discipline; it is
the lack of procedures and routines.
• Discipline: concerns how students behave
– Has penalties and rewards
– Discipline plan example
• Procedures: concerns how things are done
– Has no penalties and rewards
Procedures and Routines
• Procedures - what you
want the student to do
• Effective teachers
manage with procedures.
• Procedures help students
work with less confusion.
Question: How would
procedures and routines
benefit special needs
students?
• Examples:
– How to enter the classroom
– What to do when they enter
a classroom
– What to do when they are
finished
– How to get the teacher’s
attention
– What to do if a pencil
breaks
• Routines – what the
students do automatically
CLASSROOM
PROCEDURES
Mr. Cicek’s Classroom
Dove Science Academy - Tulsa, OK
WHY DO WE HAVE
PROCEDURES?


A procedure is the way that we do things.
To do things right, we have to follow some
simple procedures, for example:




To open your locker, you have to select your
combination as directed by the lock
manufacturer.
To cook a delicious meal, you need to follow the
steps in the recipe.
To place a call on your phone, you need to dial
the number in the right order.
So, to be successful in learning, you need
to follow some simple procedures.
Other Power Point Procedure
Presentations
• http://teachers.net/wong/NOV04/
• http://teachers.net/wong/FEB05/
• http://teachers.net/wong/OCT05/
Three Steps to Teaching
Procedures
• Explain – State, explain, model, and
demonstrate the procedure
• Rehearse – Rehearse and practice the
procedure under teacher supervision until
it becomes a routine.
• Reinforce- Reteach, rehearse, practice,
and reinforce the classroom procedure
until it becomes a student habit or routine.
Reasons Why Students Don’t
Follow Procedures
• Teacher has not thought out what happens in
the classroom.
• Students have not been trained to follow the
procedures.
• Teacher spends no time managing the
classroom.
• When a student does not perform a procedure
correctly, there is no punishment. The student
simply is taken back through the three step
teaching process.
Characteristics of a Well-Managed
Classroom
• Students are deeply involved in their work
• Students know what is expected of them
and are generally successful
• There is relatively little wasted time,
confusion, or disruption
• The climate of the classroom is workoriented but relaxed and pleasant
Half of Your Effectiveness is Determined
Before You Leave Home
• Prepare yourself, both academically and
attitudinally, before you leave home and as
you travel to school.
• You increase the chance of student
success and decrease the chance of
student disruptions if the materials,
classroom climate, and teacher are ready
before the students arrive.
Memorable Quote
• “Perhaps the most valuable result of all
education is the ability to make yourself do
the thing you have to do, when it ought to
be done, whether you like it or not.”
-Thomas Huxley