How do ineffective teachers and effective teachers react when their students do poorly on an assessment? Is there a difference? If so, why?
Why do successful teachers insist on focusing on their own behavior rather than the behavior of others?
Throughout these two chapters, the book stresses the belief that teachers should take responsibility for what happens within their classrooms. It suggests that if we all look in the mirror each time we ask, "Who is the variable?", we will have taken great strides toward school improvement. Take a few moments to write about your thoughts on this concept.
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When students perform poorly an effective teacher self-reflects and asks what he/she could have done differently. They desire to do better and realize that their own behavior is the one thing that can be controlled. Great Teachers are always looking for ways to improve. They accept responsibility and strive to be better.
ReplyDeleteAn effective teachers takes the full blame and reacts in a way that will help the students. He/she wants the students to do better at "all costs"
ReplyDeleteAn ineffective teacher puts the blame on the students,parents, surrounding or anything other than themself.
Teachers should take responsibility for what happens within their classrooms for they are the constant variable. Students, their attitudes and academic performance is dependent upon their interaction and relationship with the teacher. When one of my students is not grasping a concept I fall back on re-examining, researching, regrouping, re-inventing and re-doing the lesson. Failure is never an option for me or my students.
ReplyDeleteThe main focus when failure occurs in a classroom or in anything is that you should focus of "self." Not only in teaching, but any profession the one variable that you can control is yourself. To be a great, sucessful teacher one has to focus on yourself and do lots of self-reflecting and not worry what Mary down the hall is doing or how it has been done for the past 15 years.
ReplyDeleteSo true Beth! I am the variable in my classroom, not the teacher down the hall. No one is perfect, but we can set high expectations for ourselves. We can look at what works and what doesn't work and ask ourselves if there is anything we could do differently. Be flexible! Be positive! My focus should be to improve my own performance and my attitude.
ReplyDeleteThe main focus is taking responsibility for your actions at all times! When a student does poorly in my classroom, I have to self-reflect and find out why! Failure is not an option snd it's my responsibility to help EVERY child succeed no matter what obstacle comes in the way. Students need to see a teacher making effort to meet every individual need so it becomes an importance to the child.
ReplyDeleteIt gets too difficult to meet your classroom needs when you worry about the teacher down the hall. You fail you and your students! Keep a positive attitude and do whatever it takes to help your students succeed!! RESIST THE USUAL!! :)
Candi, Sister Maddie would give you a huge thumbs up! RESIST THE USUAL!!
ReplyDeleteI knew you would like that....but so true Leigh! It's too easy to be the ineffective teacher and do what everyone else does but much harder to be the effective one. Let's face it... it's much more rewarding to be effective!!! :)
ReplyDeleteWow! I am loving these powerful professional discussions. It is giving me goosbumps. Leigh, I love the RESIST THE USUAL!
ReplyDeleteThat would be me Monroe!! HA! Leigh and I had to live by that....:)
ReplyDeleteI got this from the Teaching Challenging Students conference...
ReplyDelete"I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, a child humanized or de-humanized."
---Hiam Ginot
It takes a big person to admit you don't have all the answers to help every student. But that's the way we learn and grow. We don't have time to put blame on everything or to be defensive when it comes to helping these children be successful. We have to admit we need to look deeper, do it and put together a plan of action and then follow it.
ReplyDeleteAdmitting you do not have all the answers is easy...trying to figure out the "new" answer is the difficult part. Sometimes we put so much pressure on ourselves that we cannot look outside ourselves. (Atleast that is how I feel.) I set high expectations for myself and then let myself down. No one else even knows that it has happened.
ReplyDeleteSo many things in this life that we can't control--the one thing that I can is the way I respond to situations and the way I respond to the times when I need to rethink and try something different. It is easy to blame others--not easy to take it yourself.
ReplyDelete