Best Practices

I just wanted to share some of the best practices that my group has come up with after intently observing REAL TEACHERS in action for two weeks.

Governance:
Several of our group members noted that teachers would implement active exercises to try and bring down the level of energy in a classroom and establish a focused work environment. One teacher turned on music and had the class dance and "groove" for a little while, while another did a class Tai Chi exercises. Both practices seemed to work well.

Another theme that was spotted in well governed classes was a well established set of expectations for the students. This sometimes was seen in the form of a well defined routine that students were aware of, and which focused their attention and energy on tasks that were effective for learning. Other times it was as simple as knowing how an assignment would be graded, or that students were expected to have read a certain piece of text so that it could be discussed. By clearly outlining expectations that the students felt were reasonable, teachers were able to get their students working with them to learn effectively.

A third theme that was really evident in well governed classes was the establishment of a personal and reciprocal relationship between students and teachers. Some examples were seen in classes where the teacher interacted with students outside of the class (at sports events for example), or in classes where the teacher knew more about the students than just their names.


Resource Materials:
Our group was lucky enough to see some really great resource materials being used. High tech gadgets such as "tablets" and "smart boards" allowed teachers to demonstrate editing techniques, make changes to computer generated material and were generally really conducive to attentive learning on the part of the students. However some low tech ideas, such as the use of local pond water for science experiments or a suitcase full of books and props as a teaching tool for a lesson on the Holocaust were just as effective at getting and keeping the students' attention. One of the teachers I had the pleasure to watch used maps extremely well, drawing his students' attention to them again and again, connecting stories about Vikings to places and ideas they were already familiar with in a way that was visual and concrete.

Teaching Strategies and Activities:

While several of us had seen some novel and interesting activities carried out by teachers during our observation period (from class Jeopardy as a study tool, to debates on complex ethical issues) one student teacher had the opportunity to watch an extremely effective teaching strategy in action. The teacher in this English class told a story, and when he was finished he asked his students to write down what the story was about in a few words. From there he asked them to identify the main characters, the various elements of plot, any literary devices they had noticed, and before the students knew it, they had the outline of an essay complete! By breaking down the larger topic (ESSAY WRITING) into small, manageable and guided steps, the students were able to achieve a very high level of success. This scaffolded learning technique was extremely effective.

Problems:
Our group noticed a lot of areas that caused us some concern, so without trying to dwell on them too much, I will highlight a few of the major ones. One of them was a lack of teachers challenging their students. Too often it seemed that teachers were giving up on their students, and simply accepting that getting them into the class was good enough. Our group also saw several instances where students with IEP's or different learning needs were not getting the help they needed, because of class size, number of students in a class with disabilities or special needs, or extreme variety of learning needs within a classroom.

In all our group has some really interesting observations to share. Hopefully you can find something in this summary that is useful to you, and either adopt it, or adapt it to make it work for you!
Paul