What makes an effective teacher affect lives?

As my senior year opens wide up, a weekly assignment of mine will be to do weekly readings.  After reading the prepared material I have to construct a blog post of what I found most fascinating about the articles.  As well, looking into the future and how I will incorporate such thoughts or ideas to fully get the most out of my student teaching experience.  Today’s readings I greatly enjoyed reading through and jotting down facts and proven theories to be an effective agricultural educator.  The relevance of the material in these articles is powerful for someone new starting out in the profession.

1.      There must be order and structure in an effective classroom.

A clear message that was continually brought up in each article was that of order and structure.  The entirety of this does not consist of an intimidation factor and that there is this feeling of fear when students enter your classroom.  Actually, it has little if anything to do with that.  Having a structured classroom and students knowing the process of which events will occur in your classroom creates an effective learning environment. 

Looking into the future towards my student teaching experience one way I think I will have to set order is by the way I dress.  I’m really not that much older than some of the students I will be teaching.  My daily attire will have to consist of pants, a button up, and tie.  Setting a professional precedence making sure my students understand I am here to increase their skill set than be their friend.   

2.      Variability increases the effectiveness of learning.

Now I know I just said that order and structure are key components of an effective classroom and that students like a routine and rhythm to the work they are doing, but I’m talking about variability by the way you as an educator present the material to your students.  If they aren’t understanding what you are teaching them find a different mode of teaching! 

Through my experiences as a student PowerPoint has been excessively used.  Don’t get me wrong it is a good tool, but can be abused.  I also can remember teachers I had that I knew exactly how their class was going to go.  Those classes and teachers were super boring!  Looking ahead towards my student teaching experience I am working on my creative juices and thinking about what will make a good lesson great!

3.      The effective teacher affects lives!

Wow! Those five words really hit the nail right on top of the head.  But really isn’t that the truth?  Looking back on my academic career so far, teachers who were effective in their teaching did affect my life along with many others.  This spans across all spectrums of the teaching field.  I struggled with math in high school, but I had both effective teachers and ones that weren’t.  I remember the ones who were.

Keeping this statement in mind going forth into my teaching career I think it is one to just reflect on and go back to when maybe you don’t think what you are doing is that important.

4.      Instructional clarity is vital for student success.

No matter what the material it is that you are teaching keep it clear and concise.  Never assume that your students already know something.  And hey even if they do I bet they’ll learn something new they didn’t already.  I’m learning that.  No one knows it all.  Let alone should anyone ever. 

Going forth thinking about creating lesson plans for my students I will always have to keep in mind if what I’m trying to convey to them is clear and understandable.  I think if anything you can never be too detailed.  Then if you have to scale it back you can.

These are just a few of the many important concepts I grasped from my reading today that I felt were extremely important.  Over the summer I was a part of a virtual book club with other agriculture educators all across the nation.  Many concepts spoken about in the book were brought up in the articles I also read today.  Here check out Teach Like A Pirate the book I read this summer.