Notes from the inspiring book by Harry Wong and Rosemary Wong.
The successful teacher must know and practice the three characteristics of an effective teacher.
The three characteristics of an effective teacher
An effective teacher…
- Has positive expectations for student success.
- Is an extremely good classroom management.
- Knows how to design lessons for student mastery.
These apply to all teachers. Note that none of the characteristics have anything to do with grade level or subject taught.
The first day of school can make or break you. Student achievement at the end of the year is directly related to the degree to which the teacher establishes good control of the classroom procedures in the very first week of the school year.
Control does not involve threats or intimidation. Control means that you know (1) what you are doing, (2) your classroom procedures, and (3) your professional responsibilities. It is urgent also that your students know that you know what you are doing.
You must have everything ready and under control when school begins.
Efficient: Doing things right
Effective: Doing the right thing
The effective teacher affects lives.
The Effective Teacher
Establish good control the first week of school
Does things right, consistently
Affects and touches lives.
Be friendly, caring, loving, and sensitive, but do not be their friend. They have enough on their hands with their own friends. The students of today need you to be an adult role model that they can look to with admiration and pride.
It is better to be a paragon than a pal.
Education is not teaching people what they do not know. Education is teaching people to behave as they are not already behaving.
Effective teachers affect lives.
For instance, what is the difference between a student who is tardy and a student who is not tardy? Between one who turns in the homework and one who does not? Between one who studies for the test and one who does not?
It is not height, age, sex, race, religious affiliation, or socioeconomic background.
It is behavior or attitude. You change or affect the attitude of a student, and you suddenly have a student who is not tardy, participates in class, does the homework, and studies for the test.
You were hired to affect lives. You were hired not so much to teach third grade, history, or physical education as to influence lives. Touch the life of a student, and you will have a student who will learn history, physical education, even science and math to please you.
The beginning of school is the most critical time of the school year. What you do in the first days of school to affect the lives of your students will determine your success during the rest of the year.
Positive expectations - high expectations, should not be confused with high standards. Having positive expectations simply means that the teacher believes in the learner and that the learner can learn.
The belief in positive expectations is based on the research that whatever the teacher expects from the learner is what the learner will produce. If you believe that a student is a low-level, below-average, slow learner, the student will perform as such because these are the beliefs you transmit to the student. If you believe that a student is a high-ability, above-average, capable learner, the student will perform as such because these are the expectations you transmit to the student.
It is essential that the teacher exhibit positive expectations towards all students. It can only benefit both the teacher and the student, as well as the total classroom environment.
Classroom management
Well-ordered environment + Positive academic expectations = Effective classrooom
The teacher must establish a productive and cooperative working environment.
Lesson Mastery
To teach for mastery, an effective teacher must do 2 things:
Know how to design lessons in which a student will learn a concept or a skill.
Know how to evaluate the learning to determine if the students has mastered the concept or the skill.
Student success in the subject matter of the class will be the result of how well the teacher designs lessons and checks for mastery.
Teaching is a craft. It is a service profession.
Improving Student Achievement
Cooperative learning: students in small, self-instructing groups can support and increase one another’s learning.
Extensive reading of material of many kinds, both in school and outside, results in substantial growth in the vocabulary, comprehension abilities and information base of students.
Wait time: pausing after asking a question in the classroom results in an increase in achievement.
POSITIVE EXPECTATIONS
Humans have a success instinct.
There is absolutely no research correlation between success and family background, race, national origin, financial status, or even educational accomplishments. There is but one correlation with success, and that is ATTITUDE.
An expectation is what you believe will or will not happen.
All Children Can Learn!
Teachers who set and communicate high expectations to all their students obtain greater academic performance from these students than do teachers who set low expectations.
“Children are like wet cement. Whatever falls on them makes an impression.” ~ Haim Ginott
What parents and teachers convey to young people in their formative years as expectations will influence young people to achieve accordingly.
Who you are and what you do and say will greatly influence the young people who will be the productive citizens of tomorrow’s world. Your expectations of your students will greatly influence their achievement in your class and ultimately their lives.
The effective teacher
- Has a statement of positive expectations ready for the first day of school.
- Creates a classroom climate that communicates positive expectations.
- Goes to professional meetings to learn.
- Has a personal goal of high expectation.
You do not get a second chance at a first impression. You are treated as you are dressed. It may not be fair. It may not be right. But people tend to treat other people as they are dressed.
In an ideal world, viewed through rose-colored glasses, it would be wonderful to be accepted for ourselves alone, not for our appearance. In the real world, however, our all-too-visible selves are under constant scrutiny.
We are walking, talking advertisement for who we are.
We are walking, talking advertisement for who we believe we are as professional educators.
Every time you act, you validate who you are.
When you allow teasing in class, you are making a statement. When you refuse tolerate teasing in class, you are making a statement.
When you walk into class early, the room and materials are ready, there is a positive classroom climate, you are standing at the door with a smile and an extended hand of welcome, and the assignments are on the chalkboard, you are making a statement.
The statement that you make influences how the students will behave and achieve in class. And how students behave and achieve in class will determine your success as a teacher.
Dress for Respect
Clothing may not make a person, but it can be a contributing factor in unmaking a person.
Preparing Students for the World.
The Effective Teacher
- Come to work appropriately dressed.
- Is a role model for students
- Thinks and behaves globally
All of us need to convey to our students and our colleagues every day that “you are important to me as a person.”
Inviting verbal comments
How can i help you?
Tell me about it?
I appreciate your help.
Congratulations.
Inviting personal behaviors
Smiling, listening, holding a door, thumbs up or high five, waiting your turn.
Inviting thoughts
Making mistakes is all right.
I could learn to do that.
The effective teacher
- Has an inviting personality
- Creates an inviting classroom environment.
- Work at being intentionally inviting.
- Maintains an inviting stance.
The Five Significant concepts that enhance positive expectations:
Name
Please
Thank you
Smile
Love
When you look at the truly effective teachers, you will also find caring, warm, lovable people.
High expectations have nothing to do with getting A’s in class, finishing college, making a lot of money, or having a great marriage. High expectations have to do with attitude or behavior, and it is this behavior that gets us the A’s in class, helps us finish college, or gets whatever else we want in life.
“Life is not a destination.
Life is a journey.
As long as you continue the journey, you will always be a success.”
~ Albert Camus
How a person behaves in the journey of life is directly related to what a person expects to happen in life. There are five significant concepts that will help you achieve whatever it is you want in life. They are addressing a person by name, saying “please” and “thank you”, smiling and showing care and warmth.
Repetition is the key
For a child to learn something new, you need to repeat it on the average 8 times.
For a child to unlearn an old behavior and replace it with a new behavior, you need to repeat the new behavior on the average 28 times.
~ After Madeline Hunter
I really appreciate what you did. Thank you.
A smile is the most effective way to create a positive climate, to disarm an angry person, and to convey the message “Do not be afraid of me; I am here to help you.”
As you smile and speak, use momentary pauses. This is called timing. Every performer knows that the key to delivering a speech, telling a joke, or giving a performance is timing. This is the pregnant pause before speaking an important or emotional line.
Love what you teach, and love whom you teach.
Only two things are necessary for a happy and successful life: being lovable and being capable.
The sincerest form of service comes from listening, caring and loving.
There will never be a shortage of love
“Love is the reason for teaching.
It costs nothing, yet is the most precious thing one can possess.
The more we give, the more it is returned.
It heals and protects, soothes and strengthens.
Love has other names such as
Forgiveness…
Tolerance…
Mercy…
Encouragement…
Aid…
Sympathy…
Affection…
Friendliness…
And cheer.
Love is, really, “the gift that keeps on giving.”
Give love in abundance - everyday.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
Dear students
I believe in you.
I trust in you.
I know you can handle life’s situations.
You are listened to.
You are cared for.
You are very important to me.
Sincerely,
A well-managed classroom is a task-oriented and predictable environment.
The effective teacher
- Works on having a well-managed classroom.
- Train students to know what they are to do.
- Has students working on tasks.
- Has a classroom with little confusion or wasted time.
Readiness is the primary determinant of teacher effectiveness.
The effective teacher
- Prepares, prepares, prepares
- Prepares the classroom for effective work.
- Maximizes proximity to the students
- Maximizes proximity to materials
Right or wrong, accurate or not, your reputation will precede you. Protect your reputation and create a positive image. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
The Effective Teacher
- Cultivates a positive reputation
- Communicates with parents and students before the school starts.
- Greets the students with positive expectations.
- Has the seating assignment and first assignment ready.
The ineffective teacher begins the first day of school attempting to teach a subject and spends the rest of the year running after the students.
The effective teacher spends most of the first week teaching the students how to follow classroom procedures.
Students risk failure because of the lack of structure.
Procedures and routines create structure.
The only way to have responsible students is to have procedures and routines for which the students can feel responsible.
The effective teacher
Have well-thought-out and structured procedures for every activity.
Teaches the procedures for each activity early in the year.
Rehearse the class so that procedures become class routines.
LESSON MASTERY
Teach your children the value of hard work in school.
Let your children know that their success and satisfaction in any field or endeavor is achieved only by diligence and hard work.
The Effective Teacher
- Teaches students, not a subject or a grade level
- Maximizes academic learning time
- Keeps students actively engaged in learning.
Stop asking: “What am I going to cover tomorrow?”
Start asking: “What are my students to learn, achieve, and accomplish tomorrow?”
“Education is not a process of putting the learner under control, but putting the student in control of his or her learning.
The greater the structure of a lesson and the more precise the directions on what is to be accomplished, the higher the achievement.
The ineffective teacher covers chapters, find busy work for the students.
The effective teacher has students learn toward the criteria, teaches to the criteria.
The teacher who constantly learns and grows become a professional educator.
How to achieve happiness and success as a teacher
How a person chooses to behave will greatly determine the quality of that person’s life.
Leaders choose.
Life comes from within me.
I will generate my own happiness.
Life is better when I share or serve others.
What a person choose to do will greatly determine the quality of that person’s life.
The effective teacher chooses rather than decides
