Teaching Community

My evaluation is highly invested in the Common Core State Standards, so my professional growth has been around coming to grips with what those standards are about and how to infuse those in my...

A teacher can only teach what he or she knows. Some teachers are afraid of being asked questions they can't answer. They try to defend themselves by making a effort to be "well informed" about...

The question, Does it affect the relationship between "syllabus and materials" The quality of education in your school? contains some ambiguity. Is the pronoun it meant to mean "The quality of...

Absolutely! These characteristics must be in place before anything else occurs. These are basic to establishing a good rapport with students and an atmosphere in which students feel comfortable...

I would add that if you intend to do this project again, ask THIS YEAR's students what would have helped them with this assignment. What could YOU have done differently? What would THEY have done...

Teachers develop a philosophy whether they know it or not. I think it's helpful to identify your philosophy so that you can evaluate your decision making and how your philosophy actually affects...

My ideal school is one where all of the teachers like being there, and enjoy working with kids and teaching in general. The administrators are supportive and caring. They back you up, but also...

An advantage of a skills-based syllabus is that it can make test writing (and administration) a uniform and streamlined process. Like others have said, however, the assessment may or may not an...

Students who have earned an "A" in a course have already proved they mastered a subject. I would like to see an exit paper or project for students who have mastered a subject instead of an exam. If...

When evaluating a syllabus, one must insure that it defines the different aspects of the works to be studied. A proper syllabus should include the following. Name of Instructor--including ways to...

Reading this question as a teacher, I am guessing that your professor actually wants to hear your thoughts on these three types of curriculum. Part of growth and development as a teacher is coming...

Teachers need to use a combination of in-class work and homework. You are never going to get everything done in class. But you should not let students do everything at home, because you can't...

Cheating becomes more prevalent and easier to do every year. With numerous sites online where one can purchase an "original" paper, the temptation for students is greater than ever to not do their...

Examinations are popular with the politicians who are responsible for funding education because exam results are easily measurable. It is easy for a legislator or other person to see numbers and...

I've always allowed food and drink in my high school classes. They cannot eat when I am presenting instruction but can have food when I'm taking attendance or they are working independently. It...

Not to be selfish about this whole idea, but the workload issue must be addressed. I find that I'm a less effective teacher under this system of retakes, because I am grading twice as many papers,...

The physical environment of the classroom is talking about the way a classroom is set up. Some of the key elements are accessibility, visibility, and distractability. The materials in the room...

I believe that exams are necessary to assess student learning within a class. What I am opposed to is the current emphasis on tests above all else and using this data as a rating system. The...

I think parents are also different. More parents tend to hover over their children and refuse to admit that their child may have done something wrong or that their child may not be the smartest...

In my own classroom, computers sometimes become an oppurtunity for the students to do some teaching of their own... as half of the time I can't figure out how to use them as well as they can; they...

I think the best one out there is the official ETS one. Since they put it out, they cannot misdirect you or give you wrong information. If they do, they would incriminate themselves and make their...

I think this question highlights how different materials can be truly helpful in learning. I believe that texts are necessary for the complex information sometimes needed while film can create a...

There have always been schools. In the beginning, they were less formal. Young children worked alongside same gender parents. Little girls learned from mothers, and little boys learned from...

A modern problem for science teachers, as with all teachers, is the proliferation of electronic devices in the classroom. Students have grown up with smart phones in their hands, and "Google.com"...

It all depends on your subject and students really. I teach low-level high school English and only utilize bits and pieces of it. They are handy when you want the students to do homework or review,...

Learning about the language invovles the history of that language, the etymology of words in the target language as well as the formation of words over time and the changes in the language. For...

Yes, a person can be both an analytical and global thinker. The analytical thinker is able to break down a situation into parts and understand the nature of the problem. Then, they are able to...

Okay, a couple of things here. One the student never said he was going to a summer church camp, he simply said summer camp. The money ended up going to his church, but he never said his summer camp...

The story has some challenging language, but the content is very intriguing and that adds to its accessibility. Begin by frontloading the content, explaining vocabulary and the basic plot. Then...

I think to make high schools more effective: 1) the goals need to be much more clear. Are we presenting a set of core knowledge deemed important? Are we preparing students for college? Are we...

It's also known as jigsaw, althogh that is slightly different. Basically, you assign topics to groups of students or one topic to each student. The students learn about and research those topics....

As someone who does teach in his hometown school, I can say that there are some positives and negatives. As a kid, I figured out that I wanted to stay around my hometown and that I wanted to teach...

I try to keep my classroom both businesslike and friendly. From the very beginning, I establish that we will do a lot of work and there is no wasted time, but we will also laugh and I will tell...

Process and product-oriented approaches respond to two different types of assessments that take place within a course. An assessment is defined as a "measure of worth". The information acquired...

An effective reader is a reader that wants to read. It is important to give our students the tools for reading—phonics instruction, context clues, reading comprehension and so on. Yet it is just...

This is a bit on the intriguing side. On one hand, I have to question what would be considered a “bad” lesson plan. I mean, I have seen lessons plans that were deemed as excellent, but were...

Most students will probably agree that the primary goal of college is to pursue a course of study that will ultimately lead to earning a college degree. Some courses of study are intended to expand...

As the school year starts, this is a really interesting question. I think that you will find many different reads as to what is the relationship between teacher and learner. The most foundational...

My school has no lesson plan requirements. This is not because administration does not care what goes on in classrooms, but rather because teachers are trusted as professionals. We do develop a...

I believe that the first answer to your question covers almost everything you want to know. However, you don't say when you lost it, if it was on the computer and you could somehow not recover it,...

I absolutely agree that for this to happen, teachers must be a guide or reference, taking a back seat for themselves. Kagan activities are really useful for non-traditional methods, getting...

The communication process, as described by many mass communication theorists, consists of a sender, a message, a recipient, and background noise or interference. These models originated in the days...

The number one rule I have learned during a 33 plus-year career is being consistent. Make the students aware of your expectations and follow through with class procedures in a predictable manner....

Students learn languages best by using them. If you have students constantly practicing their language skills by talking to each other, they will gain confidence and learn more quickly. The key is...

Teachers in my experience have had one of two issues: classroom management, and administrative management. Having a struggling student is troubling, and when that student sees the only positive...

For middle school students, they must be engaged and not allowed to tune out. For the teacher, that means that any lecture must be very short, use technology or at least use color-coded notes, and...