K. Janae's High Five

Throughout the semester I'll be asked to review a set of readings and then "show what I know." I'm reading some great articles and learning some really interesting things. I'd love to share all the goodness with you but and as much as I would love to have you spend your whole day reading about the teac{herr} way, let's keep this one short and sweet. I'll be leaving you with a "high five," you know like the top five coolest things I read today. So...

High Five: What is Teaching & Learning?

1. The first day of school is extremely pivotal and plays a very important role in setting the scene for the rest of the year.

• Actually, scratch that. The first minutes of the first day of school are the most pivotal in influencing both mine and my students expectations for the rest of the year. I'm excited to test out some ideas for my "first day" in my next lab. Stay tuned to hear how it goes!

2. Teacher behavior and methods directly influence student achievement.

• You can find lists of characteristics of a high-quality teachers all over the internet. (Like this one!) The article I read today suggests that these 10 characteristics of a teacher, if present, positively influence student achievement: Clarity, Variability  Enthusiasm, Task Oriented/Business Like Behavior, Positive Reinforcement, Student Opportunity to Learn, Avoided Criticism (in reverse), Structuring Comments, Effective Questing, Humor. Looking forward, I am hoping to improve in the areas of structuring comments and effective questioning.

3. I need to strive to be an efficiently, effective teacher.

• The efficient teacher does things right. The effective teacher does the right thing. I want to do things right, give them my all and take pride in my work. But even more than that, I want to be a teacher and an individual of integrity and in that, being a role model for my students. "The effective teacher affects lives." 

4. There is actually one, definitive secret to achieving success as a teacher. 

• Beg, Borrow, Steal. So with that being said, I am now currently accepting donations to my "teacher box!" I am so very thankful to be a part of a field that generously shares resources and encourages new teachers. Consider this fair warning, all of you current teacher friends! I'm coming to beg, borrow and steal!

5. "Students must be motivated to learn. Learning activities should be provided that reflect the wants, needs, interests, and aspirations of students." 

• Here's something you should know about me, I'm a Pinterest junky and 100% not ashamed of it! I'm a big fan of collecting classroom ideas and lesson materials there (you can follow my #agedu board, on the right hand side of my blog.) and here's an infographic I found that gives some great ideas to get students motivated and increase classroom participation.

Simply put, I've definitely learned a lot more about teaching and learning from this reading assignment and you'll surely hear more about my efforts to become the most effective teacher I can be throughout the rest of this year. 

Here's a High Five to you from me, K. Janae