Teaching Community

To illustrate the difference between product-oriented and process-oriented evaluation, let’s first go to an example outside of education. The Philadelphia 76ers, a professional basketball team,...

Stuffing five days of school into four days would be miserable and counterproductive for both teachers and students. Imagine having the last class of the day--whatever time it started, it would be...

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...

I must say that there is no one best teaching method because all of our students do not learn the same way. Yes, we have students that learn best through manipulatives, some through traditional...

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...

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...

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...

You can be plenty efficient without being at all effetive. Efficient teachers run smooth classrooms without wasted time. They finish all their lessons, and return graded work in a timely manner....

Learning objectives are no different than goals, because they serve four main purposes: to describe the purpose of an activity (or intervention) to establish the desired result to identify the...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

I teach at a hybrid school: independent study Monday, Wednesday, Thursday; classroom activity Tuesday, Friday. It is a nice compromise between private and home education. My own children, however,...

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'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...

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...

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...

For younger children, for example music beginners in grade two, the best tool for learning the beat or pulse is the student's own body. Rhythm must be kept distinguished from beat (and taught after...

In my teaching career, I have almost always worked with the more difficult students. I had decided to be a teacher because I felt that I could reach any kind of student, and I wanted to give back...

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,...

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...

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...

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....

I completely agree with the statement. The way the American system of education is headed is a way of not only curbing individual talents, but downright denying the talents to ever have a chance of...

"Education" is a more general term for the process of learning than is "schooling." The latter usually refers to the formal process of one's attendance at an academic institution, at (in the U.S.)...

I think teachers should definitely be involved in curriculum evaluation. Administrators should also be involved, because they have to oversee implementation and need to understand the process. To...

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...

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...

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...

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...

One simple method of informal assessment which I often used when teaching difficult material was to put a question and answer about the material on the board and then ask the students if they...

In Washington State we call this an Endorseable Minor. As long as you have 25 credits in a particular field, you can become certified to teach it. This will make you a bit more marketable in a...

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...

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"...

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...

Personally, I am very wary of using Facebook for educational purposes because the nature of Facebook is that everything is linked. It is too easy to get from one page to another. Although the...

Both norm-referenced testing and criterion-referenced testing seek to assess students; however, they differ in what they are measuring. Norm-referenced testing seeks to rank students based on test...

Backwards planning is a critical strategy in lesson planning design. Before you outline the procedures of your lesson, determine what skill or concept you want your students to master during your...

Using testing works for me only when you consider the 'value added' aspects: where a student starts from, targeted teaching to improve from this point then final testsing to assess the progress....

The first thing I thought of was that the TA needs to communicate well with the teacher or professor. There needs to be trust and autonomy both ways. A good TA understands the professor's...

One pro to such a test for teachers would be to ensure that teachers do indeed have knowledge of what they are teaching. It also ensures that teachers aren't forgetting the things they learned in...