UNIVERSITY OF CALOOCAN CITY

CAMARIN ANNEX

Tulip St. Area C Camarin Caloocan City

Bachelor in Elementary Education

Narrative

Report

OFF-CAMPUS EXPERIENCES

Escuela de Sophia of Caloocan, Incorporated

Submitted by:

Torres, Arlyn D.

Submitted to:

Ofelia F. Dizon, Ed. D.

BEED Department Head

S.Y. 2011-2012

Preface

This narrative report is a product of the intern’s off-campus experiences and practice teaching under the course Bachelor in Elementary Education specialization in Early Childhood Education for the School year 2011-2012 at Escuela de Sophia of Caloocan, Inc.

This report was written to serve as a guide for soon to be teachers.

God bless Teachers !

Acknowledgement

The intern wish to express her whole-hearted gratitude and sincere appreciation to the following who in one way or another untiringly contributed in making this narrative report possible.

To Ofelia E.Dizon, Ed. D.

BEED Department Head

for her guidance and providing opportunities and encouragement to the intern

To the teachers and school administrators of Escuela de Sophia of Caloocan Inc. for their kindness and warm accommodation to give the intern the opportunity to have practice teaching at their respective school.

Ma. Louren C. Canlas

Cooperating Principal

Evelyn Bernales

Coordinator-Elementary

Joedy Jane Atanacio Critic Teacher

To the intern’s beloved family for the emotional and financial assistance and for the guidance that lead her to the right path of life.

Above all, To God almighty who showered spiritual blessings and guidance towards the completion of this narrative report.

Thank you very much!

Dedication

The ntern would like to dedicate this and for most to God, for his presence and guidance.

The nternalso wants to share her outmost effort upon doing this work to our supportive, loving and caring family especially to her parents for inspiring, understanding and helping her emotionally and financially as well.

This is also dedicated to the following:

Dr. Ofelia F. Dizon, BEED Department Head

The researcher’s cooperating teacher

To the pupils, friends and classmates, for sharing and giving a whole-hearted encouragement. And lastly, to our dear Alma Mater, University of Caloocan City.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE

- Preface

- Acknowledgement

- Dedication

- Table of Contents

I.UNIVERSITY OF CALOOCAN CITY

- History

- Mission, Vision, Philosophy, Goals

- Intern’s Creed

- Teachers Creed

- Magna Carta for Teachers

II. Off-Campus Experience

(Escuela de Sophia of Caloocan, Inc.)

- History

- Vision, Mission, Goals

- Philosophy

- Intern’s Profile

- Narrative Experiences

Meeting the School Personnel

Working with Cooperating Teacher

Working with Students

A. 10 Professional Reading Materials

B. Appendices

- Endorsement

- Class Schedule

- Demo Evaluation

- Lesson Plan

- Pictures

- DTR (time record)

- Curriculum Vitae

History of University of Caloocan City

On July 1, 1971, the Secretary of Education, authorized the first-year operation of the proposed Caloocan City Community College. For this, Municipal Ordinance No. 1495 appropriated the amount of P23, 400.00. Its purpose was to implement the national development goal of which assures the maximum participation of all people in the attainment and enjoyment of the benefits of growth and provide quality educational opportunities to its indigent but deserving constituents.

On June 22, 1972, the College was authorized to open the second year of the general education course and the one-year secretarial on a P35,100 city budget.

On June 7, 1973, the Secretary of Education approved the third year operation of the College with BS Industrial Education and the BS Business Technology appropriating therefore P36, 760 (Mun. Ord. Nos. 2020 and 2140).

On March 25, 1975 Ordinance No. 2295 provided for the renamed Caloocan City Polytechnic College defining its purpose as follows:

a. “To develop the Filipino intellect and explore its manpower potentials;

b. To help promote a continuing welfare as well as improving the standard of living of the people of Caloocan City, providing them with meaningful education that is geared towards the demands of emerging industrial society, and

c. To help enhance the prestige of the unprivileged providing them with low tuition fee education, the fundamental instrument toward the improvement of their economic status.”

A fire that gutted the High School PTA Building in 1984 forced the College to move to the nearby elementary school before transferring to the Sangandaan site. In June 1996, Buena Park and Camarin Annexes became operationl, while Tandang Sora Annex at 7^th avenue started classes in November, 2002.

From an enrollment of 42 in 1971, the College had 3600 in 2000. In June 1996, it offered two (2) masteral courses in public administration and in education. To make the college more responsive to the needs of the City’s constituents, government employees with 60 undergraduate units were enrolled as third year students in the special Bachelor in Public Administration in 1997.

In the first LET in August 1996, a BEED graduate placed 4^th in the national ranking in 1998 a 24-unit student place 10^th. From then on, the yearly passing percentage of the UCC examinees has always been above the national mean.

On February 9, 2004, after 33 long years, Municipal Ordinance No. 0379 converted the Caloocan City Polytechnic College into the full-fledged University of Caloocan City.

PHILOSOPHY

Education is an essential factor to one’s personal advancement and an integral tool to national development.

VISION

A high quality of learning that will ring forth a high quality of life, moer particularly in Caloocan City.

MISSION

To maintain and support an adequate system of tertiary education that will help promote the economic growth of the country, strengthen the character and well-being of its graduates as productive members of the community.

GOALS

a. To be a dynamic institution of learning that will provide quality and relevant education in Caloocan City;

b. To produce qualified and efficient professionals who will effectively response to the changing tide in a globalized society.

c. To maintain a pool of qualified and competent educators worthy of respect and high esteem of their students.

UCC INTERN’S CREED

We believe in the mobility and dignity of

teaching professions and we feel it an honor and

priviledges to be considered a future member

We believe as a future member it is our duty to

prepare ourselves for worthy membership morally,

spiritually, intellectually, socially and emotionally.

We believe that the teacher we hope to become well-

dependent upon the person that we are and therefore

we must strive each and every way to improve as a person.

We believe that as a teacher, our influence upon

other will be great therefore we must continue

our values and rake care that we do what is right

for and by society which we served.

We believe that teaching is done largely by example.

We must endeavor at all time to develop right

habit thinking, speaking and doing.

We believe that whatever we desire to do

and we become with earnest and honest

effort, we can do and we can become.

THE TEACHERS CREED

I am a teacher

I accept the challenge to be

sagacious and tenacious in teaching

every student because

I believe that every child can learn

I accept the responsibility

to create a learning environment conducive

to optimum achievement

academically, socially and emotionally

I actively pursue excellence

for myself and for my students

I provide a model of decorum and respect

that guides my students as well as honors them

I affirm superlative expectations

for my students and myself

I cherish every child

I am a teacher

I change the world

one student at a time

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 4670 June 18, 1966

THE MAGNA CARTA FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS

I. DECLARATION OF POLICY COVERAGE

Sec. 1. Declaration of Policy. It is hereby declared to be the policy of this Act to promote and improve the social and economic status of public school teachers, their living and working conditions, their terms of employment and career prospects in order that they may compare favorably with existing opportunities in other walks of life, attract and retain in the teaching profession more people with the proper qualifications, it being recognized that advance in education depends on the qualifications and ability of the teaching staff and that education is an essential factor in the economic growth of the nation as a productive investment of vital importance.

Sec. 2. Title Definition. This Act shall be known as the "Magna Carta for Public School Teachers" and shall apply to all public school teachers except those in the professorial staff of state colleges and universities.

As used in this Act, the term "teacher" shall mean all persons engaged in classroom teaching, in any level of instruction, on full-time basis, including guidance counselors, school librarians, industrial arts or vocational instructors, and all other persons performing supervisory and/or administrative functions in all schools, colleges and universities operated by the Government or its political subdivisions; but shall not include school nurses, school physicians, school dentists, and other school employees.

II. RECRUITMENT AND CAREER

Sec. 3. Recruitment and Qualification. Recruitment policy with respect to the selection and appointment of teachers shall be clearly defined by the Department of Education: Provided, however, That effective upon the approval of this Act, the following shall constitute the minimum educational qualifications for teacher-applicants:

(a) For teachers in the kindergarten and elementary grades, Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education (B.S.E.ED.);

(b) For teachers of the secondary schools, Bachelor's degree in Education or its equivalent with a major and a minor; or a Bachelor's degree in Arts or Science with at least eighteen professional units in Education.

(c) For teachers of secondary vocational and two years technical courses, Bachelor's degree in the field of specialization with at least eighteen professional units in education;

(d) For teachers of courses on the collegiate level, other than vocational, master's degree with a specific area of specialization;

Provided, further, That in the absence of applicants who possess the minimum educational qualifications as hereinabove provided, the school superintendent may appoint, under a temporary status, applicants who do not meet the minimum qualifications: Provided, further, That should teacher-applicants, whether they possess the minimum educational qualifications or not, be required to take competitive examinations, preference in making appointments shall be in the order of their respective ranks in said competitive examinations: And provided, finally, That the results of the examinations shall be made public and every applicant shall be furnished with his score and rank in said examinations.

Sec. 4. Probationary Period. When recruitment takes place after adequate training and professional preparation in any school recognized by the Government, no probationary period preceding regular appointment shall be imposed if the teacher possesses the appropriate civil service eligibility: Provided, however, That where, due to the exigencies of the service, it is necessary to employ as teacher a person who possesses the minimum educational qualifications herein above set forth but lacks the appropriate civil service eligibility, such person shall be appointed on a provisional status and shall undergo a period of probation for not less than one year from and after the date of his provisional appointment.

Sec. 5. Tenure of Office. Stability on employment and security of tenure shall be assured the teachers as provided under existing laws.

Subject to the provisions of Section three hereof, teachers appointed on a provisional status for lack of necessary civil service eligibility shall be extended permanent appointment for the position he is holding after having rendered at least ten years of continuous, efficient and faithful service in such position.

Sec. 6. Consent for Transfer Transportation Expenses. Except for cause and as herein otherwise provided, no teacher shall be transferred without his consent from one station to another.

Where the exigencies of the service require the transfer of a teacher from one station to another, such transfer may be effected by the school superintendent who shall previously notify the teacher concerned of the transfer and the reason or reasons therefor. If the teacher believes there is no justification for the transfer, he may appeal his case to the Director of Public Schools or the Director of Vocational Education, as the case may be. Pending his appeal and the decision thereon, his transfer shall be held in abeyance: Provided, however, That no transfers whatever shall be made three months before any local or national election.

Necessary transfer expenses of the teacher and his family shall be paid for by the Government if his transfer is finally approved.

Sec. 7. Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers. Within six months from the approval of this Act, the Secretary of Education shall formulate and prepare a Code of Professional Conduct for Public School Teachers. A copy of the Code shall be furnished each teacher: Provided, however, That where this is not possible by reason of inadequate fiscal resources of the Department of Education, at least three copies of the same Code shall be deposited with the office of the school principal or head teacher where they may be accessible for use by the teachers.

Sec. 8. Safeguards in Disciplinary Procedure. Every teacher shall enjoy equitable safeguards at each stage of any disciplinary procedure and shall have:

a. the right to be informed, in writing, of the charges;

b. the right to full access to the evidence in the case;

c. the right to defend himself and to be defended by a representative of his choice and/or by his organization, adequate time being given to the teacher for the preparation of his defense; and

d. the right to appeal to clearly designated authorities.

No publicity shall be given to any disciplinary action being taken against a teacher during the pendency of his case.

Sec. 9. Administrative Charges. Administrative charges against a teacher shall be heard initially by a committee composed of the corresponding School Superintendent of the Division or a duly authorized representative who should at least have the rank of a division supervisor, where the teacher belongs, as chairman, a representative of the local or, in its absence, any existing provincial or national teacher's organization and a supervisor of the Division, the last two to be designated by the Director of Public Schools. The committee shall submit its findings and recommendations to the Director of Public Schools within thirty days from the termination of the hearings:Provided, however, That where the school superintendent is the complainant or an interested party, all the members of the committee shall be appointed by the Secretary of Education.

Sec. 10. No Discrimination. There shall be no discrimination whatsoever in entrance to the teaching profession, or during its exercise, or in the termination of services, based on other than professional consideration.

Sec. 11. Married Teachers. Whenever possible, the proper authorities shall take all steps to enable married couples, both of whom are public school teachers, to be employed in the same locality.

Sec. 12. Academic Freedom. Teachers shall enjoy academic freedom in the discharge of their professional duties, particularly with regard to teaching and classroom methods.

III. HOURS OF WORK AND REMUNERATION

Sec. 13. Teaching Hours. Any teacher engaged in actual classroom instruction shall not be required to render more than six hours of actual classroom teaching a day, which shall be so scheduled as to give him time for the preparation and correction of exercises and other work incidental to his normal teaching duties: Provided,however, That where the exigencies of the service so require, any teacher may be required to render more than six hours but not exceeding eight hours of actual classroom teaching a day upon payment of additional compensation at the same rate as his regular remuneration plus at least twenty-five per cent of his basic pay.

Sec. 14. Additional Compensation. Notwithstanding any provision of existing law to the contrary, co-curricula and out of school activities and any other activities outside of what is defined as normal duties of any teacher shall be paid an additional compensation of at least twenty-five per cent of his regular remuneration after the teacher has completed at least six hours of actual classroom teaching a day.

In the case of other teachers or school officials not engaged in actual classroom instruction, any work performed in excess of eight hours a day shall be paid an additional compensation of at least twenty-five per cent of their regular remuneration.

The agencies utilizing the services of teachers shall pay the additional compensation required under this section. Education authorities shall refuse to allow the rendition of services of teachers for other government agencies without the assurance that the teachers shall be paid the remuneration provided for under this section.

Sec. 15. Criteria for Salaries. Teacher's salaries shall correspond to the following criteria:

(a) they shall compare favorably with those paid in other occupations requiring equivalent or similar qualifications, training and abilities;

(b) they shall be such as to insure teachers a reasonable standard of life for themselves and their families; and

(c) they shall be properly graded so as to recognize the fact that certain positions require higher qualifications and greater responsibility than others: Provided, however, That the general salary scale shall be such that the relation between the lowest and highest salaries paid in the profession will be of reasonable order. Narrowing of the salary scale shall be achieved by raising the lower end of the salary scales relative to the upper end.

Sec. 16. Salary Scale. Salary scales of teachers shall provide for a gradual progression from a minimum to a maximum salary by means of regular increments, granted automatically after three years: Provided, That the efficiency rating of the teacher concerned is at least satisfactory. The progression from the minimum to the maximum of the salary scale shall not extend over a period of ten years.

Sec. 17. Equality in Salary Scales. The salary scales of teachers whose salaries are appropriated by a city, municipal, municipal district, or provincial government, shall not be less than those provided for teachers of the National Government.

Sec. 18. Cost of Living Allowance. Teacher's salaries shall, at the very least, keep pace with the rise in the cost of living by the payment of a cost-of-living allowance which shall automatically follow changes in a cost-of-living index. The Secretary of Education shall, in consultation with the proper government entities, recommend to Congress, at least annually, the appropriation of the necessary funds for the cost-of-living allowances of teachers employed by the National Government. The determination of the cost-of-living allowances by the Secretary of Education shall, upon approval of the President of the Philippines, be binding on the city, municipal or provincial government, for the purposes of calculating the cost-of-living allowances of teachers under its employ.

Sec. 19. Special Hardship Allowances. In areas in which teachers are exposed to hardship such as difficulty in commuting to the place of work or other hazards peculiar to the place of employment, as determined by the Secretary of Education, they shall be compensated special hardship allowances equivalent to at least twenty-five per cent of their monthly salary.

Sec. 20. Salaries to be Paid in Legal Tender. Salaries of teachers shall be paid in legal tender of the Philippines or its equivalent in checks or treasury warrants. Provided, however, That such checks or treasury warrants shall be cashable in any national, provincial, city or municipal treasurer's office or any banking institutions operating under the laws of the Republic of the Philippines.

Sec. 21. Deductions Prohibited. No person shall make any deduction whatsoever from the salaries of teachers except under specific authority of law authorizing such deductions: Provided, however, That upon written authority executed by the teacher concerned, (1) lawful dues and fees owing to the Philippine Public School Teachers Association, and (2) premiums properly due on insurance policies, shall be considered deductible.

IV. HEALTH MEASURES AND INJURY BENEFITS

Sec. 22. Medical Examination and Treatment. Compulsory medical examination shall be provided free of charge for all teachers before they take up teaching, and shall be repeated not less than once a year during the teacher's professional life. Where medical examination show that medical treatment and/or hospitalization is necessary, same shall be provided free by the government entity paying the salary of the teachers.

In regions where there is scarcity of medical facilities, teachers may obtain elsewhere the necessary medical care with the right to be reimbursed for their traveling expenses by the government entity concerned in the first paragraph of this Section.

Sec. 23. Compensation For Injuries. Teachers shall be protected against the consequences of employment injuries in accordance with existing laws. The effects of the physical and nervous strain on the teacher's health shall be recognized as a compensable occupational disease in accordance with existing laws.

V. LEAVE AND RETIREMENT BENEFITS

Sec. 24. Study Leave. In addition to the leave privileges now enjoyed by teachers in the public schools, they shall be entitled to study leave not exceeding one school year after seven years of service. Such leave shall be granted in accordance with a schedule set by the Department of Education. During the period of such leave, the teachers shall be entitled to at least sixty per cent of their monthly salary: Provided, however, That no teacher shall be allowed to accumulate more than one year study leave, unless he needs an additional semester to finish his thesis for a graduate study in education or allied courses: Provided, further, That no compensation shall be due the teacher after the first year of such leave. In all cases, the study leave period shall be counted for seniority and pension purposes.

The compensation allowed for one year study leave as herein provided shall be subject to the condition that the teacher takes the regular study load and passes at least seventy-five per cent of his courses. Study leave of more than one year may be permitted by the Secretary of Education but without compensation.

Sec. 25. Indefinite Leave. An indefinite sick leave of absence shall be granted to teachers when the nature of the illness demands a long treatment that will exceed one year at the least.

Sec. 26. Salary Increase upon Retirement. Public school teachers having fulfilled the age and service requirements of the applicable retirement laws shall be given one range salary raise upon retirement, which shall be the basis of the computation of the lump sum of the retirement pay and the monthly benefits thereafter.

VI. TEACHER'S ORGANIZATION

Sec. 27. Freedom to Organize. Public school teachers shall have the right to freely and without previous authorization both to establish and to join organizations of their choosing, whether local or national to further and defend their interests.

Sec. 28. Discrimination Against Teachers Prohibited. The rights established in the immediately preceding Section shall be exercised without any interference or coercion. It shall be unlawful for any person to commit any acts of discrimination against teachers which are calculated to (a) make the employment of a teacher subject to the condition that he shall not join an organization, or shall relinquish membership in an organization,

(b) to cause the dismissal of or otherwise prejudice a teacher by reason of his membership in an organization or because of participation in organization activities outside school hours, or with the consent of the proper school authorities, within school hours, and (c) to prevent him from carrying out the duties laid upon him by his position in the organization, or to penalize him for an action undertaken in that capacity.

Sec. 29. National Teacher's Organizations. National teachers' organizations shall be consulted in the formulation of national educational policies and professional standards, and in the formulation of national policies governing the social security of the teachers.

VII. ADMINISTRATION AND ENFORCEMENT

Sec. 30. Rules and Regulations. The Secretary of Education shall formulate and prepare the necessary rules and regulations to implement the provisions of this Act. Rules and regulations issued pursuant to this Section shall take effect thirty days after publication in a newspaper of general circulation and by such other means as the Secretary of Education deems reasonably sufficient to give interested parties general notice of such issuance.

Sec. 31. Budgetary Estimates. The Secretary of Education shall submit to Congress annually the necessary budgetary estimates to implement the provisions of the Act concerning the benefits herein granted to public school teachers under the employ of the National Government.

Sec. 32. Penal Provision. A person who shall willfully interfere with, restrain or coerce any teacher in the exercise of his rights guaranteed by this Act or who shall in any other manner commit any act to defeat any of the provisions of this Act shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred pesos nor more than one thousand pesos, or by imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.

If the offender is a public official, the court shall order his dismissal from the Government service.

Sec. 33. Repealing Clause. All Acts or parts of Acts, executive orders and their implementing rules inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed, amended or modified accordingly.

Sec. 34. Separability Clause. If any provision of this Act is declared invalid, the remainder of this Act or any provisions not affected thereby shall remain in force and in effect.

Sec. 35. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: June 18, 1966

Professional

Reading Materials

Reading: The Key to the Past, Present and Future

                                                By Heather Skipworth Craven

            When I look back upon my different classes of students over the years, I vividly recall something that has continually amazed and fascinated me. The last eight years of my teaching experience were spent in classrooms with students who had severe behavior/emotional disorders. Needless to say, these children didn't respond to traditional teaching methods. Some days a tenuous hold on control was all we could manage to produce. But even on the most difficult of days, my students would submit to and embrace listening to the reading of a story. It seemed no matter how severe a child's issues were, he or she would manage to become enraptured in the pages of our most recent book. And so often a child deep in the throes of a behavioral crisis would be able to escape and calm himself inside a story. It has been all too heart wrenching to work with students whose disorders made learning to read an enormous obstacle. I have watched many a 2nd or 3rd grade child struggle to read through a primer book independently for the first time. The looks of pride and supreme accomplishment on their faces over shadowed our days of anger and frustration.

            I've always been intrigued by the ongoing debate about the best method of teaching reading. Be it phonics, whole language, language experience, the proverbial list goes on. I've learned through trial, error, and my own student's frustration that there is no catch all, "one size fits all" method of teaching reading. It is a matter of getting to know your students' unique learning styles and perception of language. That task can be at the very least a juggling act not only for our students who struggle, but also for those students who have seemingly been avid readers since birth and present the need to be consistently challenged.

There are many ways a teacher can structure her classroom reading environment to meet the needs of her student's different learning styles. The following are suggestions to creating that type of environment:

Make your classroom a "print rich" environment. Offer a wide variety of books, magazines, and posters; create word walls, and word and story games.
Offer manipulatives for younger children such as letter blocks, puzzles, and magnet boards.
Create a story center with recorded books, and provide opportunities for students to record and listen to their own reading.
Use a bulletin board to feature "books of the month", student stories and illustrations, or simple reading activities.
Establish a daily "DEAR" (drop everything and read) time for silent or buddy reading.
Develop a classroom book file. Have students offer input about their favorite kinds of books in an interest inventory, and then gather books on different subjects, such as animals, humor, fairy tales, virtues such as honesty, trust, etc.
Start out a new month by having kids observe the new colors and decorations in the room and brainstorm holiday, weather and seasonal words associated with the new month. Begin each month by making a seasonal word list from the kid's observations. The list can be used as a basis for choosing books, writing, spelling, etc.
Preserve your students' writing by giving them the opportunity to write, edit and publish their own books. Spotlight students' books by having an "author's chair" which gives them an opportunity to read and share their books with others.
For students in grades K-1, read short passages aloud, invite authors to visit, and use reading volunteers. Global students often lose interest quickly when taught solely through analytic approaches, such as phonics. Provide many hands-on games for skills practice, some whole-class and small-group time with the teacher, some choice of reading materials, and lots of movement. Centers are ideal, and so are informal areas (couches, pillows, soft light, rugs).
For students in grades 3-4, teach reading using strategies similar to those for grades K-1, with the addition of more visual techniques (boardwork, filmstrips, posters), greater choice of reading materials to increase motivation, and more choice regarding partners.
For students in grades 4-6, teach reading using strategies similar to those for grades 2-3, with the addition of more auditory techniques (interviews, reporting, discussions), more analytic material (nonfiction, newspapers, magazines), greater choice of reading materials to increase motivation, more choices of how to work and with whom, more interaction with peers, and somewhat less movement.

I believe that before one can implement any method of teaching reading, a key component is to develop what I consider an innate fascination with language and the printed word that is within most children. In this millennial age of high technology and computerized learning tools, there is still no substitute for the printed page. Reading is the key our children need to unlock their history, present and future.

Top 6 Keys to Being a Successful Teacher

By Melissa Kelly, About.com Guide

The most successful teachers share some common characteristics. Here are the top six keys to being a successful teacher. Every teacher can benefit from focusing on these important qualities. Success in teaching, as in most areas of life, depends almost entirely on your attitude and your approach.

1. Sense of Humor

A sense of humor can help you become a successful teacher. Your sense of humor can relieve tense classroom situations before they become disruptions. A sense of humor will also make class more enjoyable for your students and possibly make students look forward to attending and paying attention. Most importantly, a sense of humor will allow you to see the joy in life and make you a happier person as you progress through this sometimes stressful career.

2. A Positive Attitutude

A positive attitude is a great asset in life. You will be thrown many curve balls in life and especially in the teaching profession. A positive attitude will help you cope with these in the best way. For example, you may find out the first day of school that you are teaching Algebra 2 instead of Algebra 1. This would not be an ideal situation, but a teacher with the right attitude would try to focus on getting through the first day without negatively impacting the students.

3. High Expectations

An effective teacher must have high expectations. You should strive to raise the bar for your students. If you expect less effort you will receive less effort. You should work on an attitude that says that you know students can achieve to your level of expectations, thereby giving them a sense of confidence too. This is not to say that you should create unrealistic expectations. However, your expectations will be one of the key factors in helping students learn and achieve.

4. Consistency

In order to create a positive learning environment your students should know what to expect from you each day. You need to be consistent. This will create a safe learning environment for the students and they will be more likely to succeed. It is amazing that students can adapt to teachers throughout the day that range from strict to easy. However, they will dislike an environment in which the rules are constantly changing.

5. Fairness

Many people confuse fairness and consistency. A consistent teacher is the same person from day to day. A fair teacher treats students equally in the same situation. For example, students complain of unfairness when teachers treat one gender or group of students differently. It would be terribly unfair to go easier on the football players in a class than on the cheerleaders. Students pick up on this so quickly, so be careful of being labelled unfair.

6. Flexibility

One of the tenets of teaching should be that everything is in a constant state of change. Interruptions and disruptions are the norm and very few days are 'typical'. Therefore, a flexible attitude is important not only for your stress level but also for your students who expect you to be in charge and take control of any situation.

Top 10 Worst Things a Teacher Can Do

By Melissa Kelly, About.com Guide

Here is a list of items that you should avoid as a new or veteran teacher. I have only included serious items in my list and have left off such obvious offenses as having affairs with students. However, any of these can create problems for you as a teacher and if you combine two or more than just expect to really have a hard time gaining student respect and finding your profession enjoyable.

1. Avoid smiling and being friendly with your students.

While you should start each year with a tough stance and the idea that it is easier to let up than to get harder, this does not mean that you shouldn’t have students believe that you aren’t happy to be there.

2. Becoming friends with students while they are in class.

You should be friendly but not become friends. Friendship implies give and take. This can put you in a tough situation with all the students in the class. Teaching is not a popularity contest and you are not just one of the guys or girls. Always remember that.

3. Stop your lessons and confront students for minor infractions in class

When you confront students over minor infractions in class, there is no possible way to create a win-win situation. The offending student will have no way out and this can lead to even greater problems. It is much better to pull them aside and talk to them one-on-one.

4. Humiliate students to try and get them to behave.

Humiliation is a terrible technique to use as a teacher. Students will either be so cowed that they will never feel confident in your classroom, so hurt that they will not trust you ever again, or so upset that they can turn to disruptive methods of retaliation.

5. Yell.

Once you've yelled you've lost the battle. This doesn't mean you won't have to raise your voice every once in awhile but teachers who yell all the time are often those with the worst classes.

6. Give your control over to the students.

Any decisions that are made in class should be made by you for good reasons. Just because students are trying to get out of a quiz or test does not mean that you should allow that to happen unless there is a good and viable reason. You can easily become a doormat if you give in to all demands.

7. Treat students differently based on personal likes and dislikes.

Face it. You are human and there will be kids you will like more than others. However, you must try your hardest never to let this show in class. Call on all students equally. Do not lessen punishments for students you really like.

8. Create rules that are essentially unfair.

Sometimes the rules themselves can put you in bad situations. For example, if a teacher has a rule that allows for no work to be turned in after the bell rings then this could set up a difficult situation. What if a student has a valid excuse? What makes a valid excuse? These are situations it would be best to just avoid.

9. Gossip and complain about other teachers.

There will be days when you hear things from students about other teachers that you just think are terrible. However, you should be noncommittal to the students and take your concerns to the teacher themselves or to administration. What you say to your students is not private and will be shared.

10. Be inconsistent with grading and/or accepting late work.

Make sure that you have consistent rules on this. Do not allow students to turn in late work for full points at any time because this takes away the incentive to turn in work on time. Further, use rubrics when you are grading assignments that require subjectivity. This helps protect you and explain the reason for the students' grades.

7 Tips on Handling Classroom Distractions

For the most part, students are hard-working, courteous and well-behaved in class. Right? Occasionally, you may find yourself faced with a student whose behavior threatens to sidetrack or disrupt the course. It may be behavior which is distracting, like doing something not class-related, or it may be behavior that it interruptive and intentionally disruptive. Either way, you need to maintain control in the classroom. Use these tips to stay on top of classroom distractions and disruptions:

1. Establish standards.

Prevention is better than cure. Establish certain standards at the beginning of the semester by defining expectations in the course syllabus and reviewing those expectations on the first day of class.

2. Make it clear that class disturbance of any kind is unacceptable.

Make it clear that class disturbance of any kind is unacceptable. This includes: coming in late, sleeping, reading newspapers, listening to music, text-messaging, talking, doing other homework, eating, etc. These activities disturb others and undermine the decorum of the classroom. Deal with these disruptions first through non-verbal cues, catching their eye, to let them know you recognize that they are not engaged in the class. If this doesn’t work, you may want to direct a question their way or speak to them after class. Do not ignore these students for to do so only encourages others to join in this kind of behavior.

3. Take action early on.

Take swift and firm action early on, before your authority is compromised. Being able to identify problems before they escalate will help you to maintain control of the class. The basic rule is not to embarrass the student in class. Embarrassment does little to help change a student’s behavior and may affect the other students as well. Speak to students individually after class and ask them to adjust their behavior.

4. Communicate that disturbance shows a disregard for classmates.

Communicate that disturbance shows a disregard for classmates. It is important for students to realize that they are disrespecting their peers, who may want to learn, when they cause classroom disruption. Stress the value of cooperation and consideration.

5. Recognize that one student dominating a discussion may be a distraction.

Recognize that one student dominating a discussion may be a distraction. Class discussion is a great engagement tool, but the other students will tune-out if they feel the discussion is just between you and one or two other students. The rest of the class will become disengaged. Speak to this student after class, explaining the value of involving the whole class.

6. Keep an eye on students who commonly side-track a discussion.

Keep an eye on students who commonly side-track a discussion, not really responding to the topic or question at hand, moving the class away from the intended content. This student may relate long personal stories which do not really have relevance to the topic at hand. These students can also disrupt a class. It is best to have carefully formed questions that require the answer to relate back directly to the readings or topic at hand. Learn to bring these students back on-topic so the rest of the class doesn’t tune-out.

7. Speak to students who make intentional offensive remarks immediately.

Students who make offensive remarks (racist, sexist, etc.), intending to offend, should be spoken to immediately. This behavior is unacceptable and if it repeats, should be dealt with through proper channels.

Effective Teaching

by Harry & Rosemary Wong

Special to the Gazette

May 1, 2009

Teachers Are the Greatest Assets

Improving Teacher Effectiveness

John Goodlad, while at UCLA, reported on 40 years of educational innovations. He did not find a single one that increased student achievement. What he did find:

The only factor that increased student achievement
was the effectiveness of a teacher.

For over 20 years, we have worked tirelessly to help educators become more effective teachers. We have steered clear of fads, buzzword initiatives, and trendy programs. We are laser-focused on teacher effectiveness and how to achieve it. Our book, The First Days of School—How to Be an Effective Teacher, has sold 3.5 million copies and is in the professional libraries of teachers worldwide. It is used in 102 foreign countries and in over 2,010 colleges. The key word in the title is “Effective,” and is the reason for its success.

Our DVD series, The Effective Teacher, was given the Telly Award as the best education video series of the past 25 years. Notice the word “Effective,” and yes, there’s a connection.

For ten years, we have been writing the “Effective Teaching” column for www.teachers.net. “Effective” is the operative word for the content of the column.

We publish an 8-page newspaper, Successful Teaching—For Those Who Want to Be EffectiveTeachers. It's free for the asking in any quantity at www.EffectiveTeaching.com. Just click the newspaper image on the homepage to order. Again, notice the word "Effective" in the newspaper's title.

We are able to help teachers become more effective because we understand the research and make it applicable to the classroom.

Foundations Tried to Help

In 1991, Ron Ferguson, director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University,reported, “A large scale study found that every additional dollar spent on raising teacher quality netted greater student achievement gains than did any other use of school resources.”

Two years later, to demonstrate how we ignored the research, philanthropist Walter Annenberg created the Annenberg Challenge—a $500 million, five-year reform effort and the largest single gift ever made to American public education. Cities were urged to use the money to improve student achievement:

Boston attempted whole-school change.
Chicago tried small learning communities.
Houston struggled with class size reduction.
Los Angeles tried improving literacy.
New York created small schools of choice.
Philadelphia had a crack at city-wide learning standards.

Sadly, but not surprisingly, five years later, the Annenberg Foundation reported that none of the programs improved student learning. Instead, what consistently delivered the best returnson student learning was money invested in giving teachers SUSTAINED opportunities to improve their classroom skills.

It's not programs, fads, or ideologies. It's the teacher!

The Bill and Melanie Gates Foundation invested $40 million toward supporting small schools nationwide. Unfortunately this did not result in improved student learning. Now, their focus is on charter schools and it’s predictable what the outcome will be—another failed attempt to improve teacher effectiveness.

It’s the teacher that has the greatest impact on student achievement, but the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested no money to directly and systematically improve the effectiveness of teachers.

The Annenberg and Gates foundations are not at fault. The great tragedy of money given to schools is that instead of heeding what research tells us, we choose to use the money to recycle the same old programs and ideologies that have failed time after time.

A School’s Greatest Asset

It was famed business guru Peter Drucker who coined the term “human capital” and considered people “assets.” Human capital refers to what people know and can do. Human capital is not measured by accumulated physical assets, but by knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The very notion of human capital replacing physical capital was so novel that it won a Nobel Prize in 1992 for its most ardent exponent—University of Chicago economist Gary Becker. Companies today depend on their people to create the next great idea. Human capital is the wealth and future of a company. People are its major assets—just as teachers are a school’s greatest asset.

Businesses spend $53 billion each year training their people—their assets—to make them worth more to a company. They know that the better their people—their assets—the more successful the company.

However, ask a school administrator or policymaker to name their greatest asset, and they will often tell you it is money or programs. It’s uncommon to hear anyone say their teachers are their most valuable assets. Yet the research says it over and over again—teacher instructional effectiveness is the most critical factor by which to improve student achievement and to close the achievement gap.

Make a Plan, Then Run with It

Instead of spending money haphazardly, we need to learn to ask, “What exactly do we wish to accomplish?

Richard Elmore, Harvard Professor of Educational Leadership, says, “To improve student learning, you do not change the structure (i.e. block scheduling, smaller class sizes, smaller school sizes, etc.). You change the instructional practices of the teachers. The schools that seem to do best are those that have a clear idea of what kind of instructional practice they wish to produce, and then design a structure to go with it.”

Even when the odds are seemingly stacked against a school, Theodore Hershberger at the University of Pennsylvania found that good instruction is 15 to 20 times more powerful than family background and income, race, gender, or any other explanatory variables.

“Qualified” Is Not the Same as “Effective”

A term that often comes up in legislative acts and education circles is “highly qualified teacher.” “Highly qualified” and “qualified” are redundant terms. They are similar to “pregnant” and “highly pregnant.” “Highly qualified” is a term that was coined by the No Child Left Behind Act, which mandated that a teacher: 1) must have a college degree, 2) have a teaching credential, and 3) be competent in the subject he or she is to teach. We agree. However, a highly qualified teacher may not be an effective teacher!

It is effective teachers that produce student learning and achievement,
not highly qualified teachers.

Therefore, you hire for qualifications, then train for effectiveness.

It’s the Teacher. It’s the Teacher

The research states over and over again, “It’s the teacher.”

Give a child four straight years with effective teachers, and you could close the achievement gap. (Eric Hanushek, Hoover Institution)

An average child in an ineffective school with an ineffective teacher could plummet to the 3rd percentile in academic performance in two years. In contrast, take the same student and put him or her in an ineffective school, but with an effective teacher, and in two years, the student could be at the 63rd percentile in academic performance. Keep the child with an effective teacher in the same school, and performance will increase by 12 points each year. (Robert Marzano, Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning)

Research says that a child will normally maturate by 6 percentiles every year. Given the scenario of a child being with an ineffective teacher, it may be better for this child to not even be in school, and to have been allowed to grow through normal maturation!

You Win with Teachers

Hall of Fame football coach Joe Gibbs says it short and sweet, “You win with people.”

Translated for schools, “You win with teachers.” The only factor that increases student achievement is the teacher.

Earlier in 2009, we were in a faraway, jungle area of Cambodia—five hours from the nearest airport where our The First Days of School Foundation has built a school for 300 students ( seewww.NewTeacher.com ). This is the very first school ever in this remote village. During our visit, we met the school committee ( a.k.a. school board ) and asked them what we could do to help improve the school.

They wanted to build a fence around the school. Why? To keep the cows and pigs off the school grounds!

They wanted continued support to improve their teachers. Here were five men whom, we dare say, may not even have had an elementary school education. Yet, they were wise enough to understand that the better the teachers, the better their children would learn.

They did not ask for smaller class sizes, block scheduling, a literacy program, whole child instruction, or any other initiative, program, or structural change. They somehow knew—like Peter Drucker, John Goodlad, Ron Ferguson, Richard Elmore, Theodore Hershberger, Robert Marzano, and Eric Hanushek, education researchers whose work are in this month’s column—that the greatest assets of their school are the teachers.

A Solid Investment

Successful schools wisely invest in their teachers and in the effectiveness of their teachers. They do not adopt programs in pursuit of a quick fix.

We know that good teaching matters for student achievement more than any other single education resource. We also know that the first group to benefit from an increase in teacher effectiveness are the lower-achieving students.

It’s not rocket science—the better the teacher teaches, the better the students learn.
There is no better way to spend stimulus funds or any funds
than to train and produce effective teachers.

The Price of Effectiveness

You, the teacher, are responsible for the learning that takes place in your classroom. It’s not the school environment, the principal, the textbooks, or the desks—it’s You!

What will you do to increase your effectiveness?

There are ten years worth of articles archived on www.teachers.net. Next month’s column will have the summary of each of those articles. Use your summer break to read, review, restructure, and revamp your classroom to maximize learning opportunities for your students. Price: $0.00

Read or reread The First Days of School and internalize the three characteristics of effective teachers. Price: $0.00 (Borrow the book from the library or a colleague.)

Be proactive. Develop a plan for your success and approach the administration for a slice of the stimulus funding pie. Encourage your colleagues to do likewise. Make it a school-wide effort. According to the Marzano chart, average children with an effective teacher in an effective school, can test out in the 96th percentile after only two years. Price: $0.00 (Ask. The money is in the Act and will be spent.)

The joy of seeing the light bulb of learning go on in the minds of children because of your effectiveness in the classroom—priceless!

Teachers are the greatest asset of a school and of humanity. You have an awesome responsibility. Use your summer to invest in yourself. Return to the classroom with the skills and determination needed to make each moment count for each child. Don’t waste their time in the classroom with you. You are their best hope for a brighter tomorrow.

“Well, Duh!” — Ten Obvious Truths That We Shouldn’t Be Ignoring

By Alfie Kohn

This essay appeared in the American School Board Journal, April 2011 and is an abridged version of the introduction to Feel-Bad Education…And Other Contrarian Essays on Children and Schooling (Beacon Press, 2011)

The field of education bubbles over with controversies. It’s not unusual for intelligent people of good will to disagree passionately about what should happen in schools. But there are certain precepts that aren’t debatable, that just about anyone would have to acknowledge are true.

While many such statements are banal, some are worth noticing because in our school practices and policies we tend to ignore the implications that follow from them. It’s both intellectually interesting and practically important to explore such contradictions: If we all agree that a given principle is true, then why in the world do our schools still function as if it weren’t?

Here are 10 examples.

1. Much of the material students are required to memorize is soon forgotten

The truth of this statement will be conceded (either willingly or reluctantly) by just about everyone who has spent time in school — in other words, all of us. A few months, or sometimes even just a few days, after having committed a list of facts, dates, or definitions to memory, we couldn’t recall most of them if our lives depended on it. Everyone knows this, yet a substantial part of schooling – particularly in the most traditional schools – continues to consist of stuffing facts into students’ short-term memories.

The more closely we inspect this model of teaching and testing, the more problematic it reveals itself to be. First, there’s the question of what students are made to learn, which often is more oriented to factual material than to a deep understanding of ideas. (See item 2, below.) Second, there’s the question of how students are taught, with a focus on passive absorption: listening to lectures, reading summaries in textbooks, and rehearsing material immediately before being required to cough it back up. Third, there’s the question of why a student has learned something: Knowledge is less likely to be retained if it has been acquired so that one will perform well on a test, as opposed to learning in the context of pursuing projects and solving problems that are personally meaningful.

Even without these layers of deficiencies with the status quo, and even if we grant that remembering some things can be useful, the fundamental question echoes like a shout down an endless school corridor: Why are kids still being forced to memorize so much stuff that we know they won’t remember?

Corollary 1A: Since this appears to be true for adults, too, why do most professional development events for teachers resemble the least impressive classrooms, with experts disgorging facts about how to educate?

2. Just knowing a lot of facts doesn’t mean you’re smart

Even students who do manage to remember some of the material they were taught are not necessarily able to make sense of those bits of knowledge, to understand connections among them, or to apply them in inventive and persuasive ways to real-life problems.

In fact, the cognitive scientist Lauren Resnick goes even further: It’s not just that knowing (or having been taught) facts doesn’t in itself make you smart. A mostly fact-oriented education may actually interfere with your becoming smart. “Thinking skills tend to be driven out of the curriculum by ever-growing demands for teaching larger and larger bodies of knowledge,” she writes. Yet schools continue to treat students as empty glasses into which information can be poured — and public officials continue to judge schools on the basis of how efficiently and determinedly they pour.

3. Students are more likely to learn what they find interesting

There’s no shortage of evidence for this claim if you really need it. One of many examples: A group of researchers found that children’s level of interest in a passage they were reading was 30 times more useful than its difficulty level for predicting how much of it they would later remember. But this should be obvious, if only because of what we know about ourselves. It’s the tasks that intrigue us, that tap our curiosity and connect to the things we care about, that we tend to keep doing — and get better at doing. So, too, for kids.

Conversely, students are less likely to benefit from doing what they hate. Psychology has come a long way from the days when theorists tried to reduce everything to simple stimulus-response pairings. We know now that people aren’t machines, such that an input (listening to a lecture, reading a textbook, filling out a worksheet) will reliably yield an output (learning). What matters is how people experience what they do, what meaning they ascribe to it, what their attitudes and goals are.

Thus, if students find an academic task stressful or boring, they’re far less likely to understand, or even remember, the content. And if they’re uninterested in a whole category of academic tasks — say, those they’re assigned to do when they get home after having just spent a whole day at school — then they aren’t likely to benefit much from doing them. No wonder research finds little, if any, advantage to assigning homework, particularly in elementary or middle school.

4. Students are less interested in whatever they’re forced to do and more enthusiastic when they have some say

Once again, studies confirm what we already know from experience. The nearly universal negative reaction to compulsion, like the positive response to choice, is a function of our psychological makeup.

Now combine this point with the preceding one: If choice is related to interest, and interest is related to achievement, then it’s not much of a stretch to suggest that the learning environments in which kids get to make decisions about what they’re doing are likely to be the most effective, all else being equal. Yet such learning environments continue to be vastly outnumbered by those where kids spend most of their time just following directions.

5. Just because doing x raises standardized test scores doesn’t mean x should be done

At the very least, we would need evidence that the test in question is a source of useful information about whether our teaching and learning goals are being met. Many educators have argued that the tests being used in our schools are unsatisfactory for several reasons.

First, there are numerous limitations with specific tests. Second, most tests share certain problematic features, such as being timed (which places more of a premium on speed than on thoughtfulness), norm-referenced (which means the tests are designed to tell us who’s beating whom, not how well students have learned or teachers have taught), and consisting largely of multiple-choice questions (which don’t permit students to generate or even explain their answers).

The third reason is the problems inherent to all tests that are standardized and created by people far away from the classroom — as opposed to assessing the actual learning taking place there on an on-going basis.

This is not the place to explain in detail why standardized tests measure what matters least. Here, I want only to make the simpler — and, once again, I think, indisputable — point that anyone who regards high or rising test scores as good news has an obligation to show that the tests themselves are good. If a test result can’t be convincingly shown to be both valid and meaningful, then whatever we did to achieve that result — say, a new curriculum or instructional strategy — may well have no merit whatsoever. It may even prove to be destructive when assessed by better criteria. Indeed, a school or district might be getting worse even as its test scores rise.

So how is it that articles in newspapers and education journals, as well as pronouncements by public officials and think tanks, seem to accept on faith that better scores on any test necessarily constitute good news, and that whatever produced those scores can be described as “effective”? Parents should be encouraged to ask, “How much time was sacrificed from real learning just so our kids could get better at taking the [name of test]?”

6. Students are more likely to succeed in a place where they feel known and cared about

I realize there are people whose impulse is to sneer when talk turns to how kids feel, and who dismiss as “soft” or “faddish” anything other than old-fashioned instruction of academic skills. But even these hard-liners, when pressed, are unable to deny the relationship between feeling and thinking, between a child’s comfort level and his or her capacity to learn.

Here, too, there are loads of supporting data. As one group of researchers put it, “In order to promote students’ academic performance in the classroom, educators should also promote their social and emotional adjustment.” And yet, broadly speaking, we don’t. Teachers and schools are evaluated almost exclusively on academic achievement measures (which, to make matters worse, mostly consist of standardized test scores).

If we took seriously the need for kids to feel known and cared about, our discussions about the distinguishing features of a “good school” would sound very different. Likewise, our view of discipline and classroom management would be turned inside-out, seeing as how the primary goals of most such strategies are obedience and order, often with the result that kids feel less cared about — or even bullied — by adults.

7. We want children to develop in many ways, not just academically

Even mainstream education groups have embraced the idea of teaching the “whole child.” It’s a safe position, really, because just about every parent or educator will tell you that we should be supporting children’s physical, emotional, social, moral, and artistic growth as well as their intellectual growth. Moreover, it’s obvious to most people that the schools can and should play a key role in promoting many different forms of development.

If we acknowledge that academics is just one facet of a good education, why do so few conversations about improving our schools deal with — and why are so few resources devoted to — non-academic issues? And why do we assign children still more academic tasks after the school day is over, even when those tasks cut into the time children have to pursue interests that will help them develop in other ways?

Corollary 7a: Students “learn best when they are happy,” as educator Nel Noddings reminded us, but that doesn’t mean they’re especially likely to be happy (or psychologically healthy) just because they’re academically successful. And millions aren’t. Imagine how high schools would have to be changed if we were to take this realization seriously.

8. Just because a lesson (or book, or class, or test) is harder doesn’t mean it’s better

First, if it’s pointless to give students things to do that are too easy, it’s also counterproductive to give them things that they experience as too hard. Second, and more important, this criterion overlooks a variety of considerations other than difficulty level by which educational quality might be evaluated.

We know this, yet we continue to worship at the altar of “rigor.” I’ve seen lessons that aren’t unduly challenging yet are deeply engaging and intellectually valuable. Conversely, I’ve seen courses — and whole schools — that are indisputably rigorous . . . and appallingly bad.

9. Kids aren’t just short adults

Over the past hundred years, developmental psychologists have labored to describe what makes children distinctive and what they can understand at certain ages. There are limits, after all, to what even a precocious younger child can grasp (e.g., the way metaphors function, the significance of making a promise) or do (e.g., keep still for an extended period).

Likewise, there are certain things children require for optimal development, including opportunities to play and explore, alone and with others. Research fills in — and keeps fine-tuning — the details, but the fundamental implication isn’t hard to grasp: How we educate kids should follow from what defines them as kids.

Somehow, though, developmentally inappropriate education has become the norm, as kindergarten (literally, the “children’s garden”) now tends to resemble a first- or second-grade classroom — in fact, a bad first- or second-grade classroom, where discovery, creativity, and social interaction are replaced by a repetitive regimen focused on narrowly defined academic skills.

More generally, premature exposure to sit-still-and-listen instruction, homework, grades, tests, and competition — practices that are clearly a bad match for younger children and of questionable value at any age — is rationalized by invoking a notion I’ve called BGUTI: Better Get Used To It. The logic here is that we have to prepare you for the bad things that are going to be done to you later . . . by doing them to you now. When articulated explicitly, that principle sounds exactly as ridiculous as it is. Nevertheless, it’s the engine that continues to drive an awful lot of nonsense.

The obvious premise that we should respect what makes children children can be amended to include a related principle that is less obvious to some people: Learning something earlier isn’t necessarily better. Deborah Meier, whose experience as a celebrated educator ranges from kindergarten to high school, put it bluntly: “The earlier [that schools try] to inculcate so-called ‘academic’ skills, the deeper the damage and the more permanent the ‘achievement’ gap.” That is exactly what a passel of ambitiousresearch projects has found: A traditional skills-based approach to teaching young children — particularly those from low-income families — not only offers no lasting benefits but appears to be harmful.

Corollary 9A: Kids aren’t just future adults. They are that, of course, but they aren’t only that, because children’s needs and perspectives are worth attending to in their own right. We violate this precept — and do a disservice to children — whenever we talk about schooling in economic terms, treating students mostly as future employees.

10. Substance matters more than labels

A skunk cabbage by any other name would smell just as putrid. But in education, as in other domains, we’re often seduced by appealing names when we should be demanding to know exactly what lies behind them. Most of us, for example, favor a sense of community, prefer that a job be done by professionals, and want to promote learning. So should we sign on to the work being done in the name of “Professional Learning Communities”? Not if it turns out that PLCs have less to do with helping children to think deeply about questions that matter than with boosting standardized test scores.

The same caution is appropriate when it comes to “Positive Behavior Support,” a jaunty moniker for a program of crude Skinnerian manipulation in which students are essentially bribed to do whatever they’re told. More broadly, even the label “school reform” doesn’t necessarily signify improvement; these days, it’s more likely to mean “something that skillful and caring teachers wouldn’t be inclined to do unless coerced,” as educational psychologist Bruce Marlowe put it.

In fact, the corporate-style version of “school reform” that’s uncritically endorsed these days by politicians, journalists, and billionaires consists of a series of debatable tactics — many of them amounting to bribes and threats to force educators to jack up test scores. Just as worrisome, though, is that these reformers often overlook, or simply violate, a number of propositions that aren’t debatable, including many of those listed here.

Another Look at What Young Children Should Be Learning

Author: Lilian G. Katz Date: June 1999

The question of what should be learned must be addressed by all teachers at every level. In terms of broad goals, most teachers and parents readily agree that children should learn whatever will ultimately enable them to become healthy, competent, productive, and contributing members of their communities. But when it comes to the specifics of what should be learned next month, next week, or on any particular day, agreement is not so easily achieved.

The answers will depend partly on the ages of the learners. In other words, the question of what should be learned to some extent depends upon when it is to be learned. Although the what question deals with the goals and objectives of education, the when question involves considerations of what we know about the nature of development and how it relates to learning.

What should be learned takes on new importance as states begin to establish standards for student performance, and as new concern is voiced about "social promotion." The interest in standards, competencies, and promotion policies is likely to have a renewed "push-down" effect on prekindergarten education. It is interesting to note that the recent legislation reappropriating funds for Head Start establishes performance standards and stipulates that all Head Start graduates must learn 10 letters of the alphabet (National Head Start Association, 1998, p. 5). What the letters are expected to mean to the children has not been addressed; these new requirements are apparently intended to address the issue of readiness for formal instruction in literacy and numeracy.

This Digest first defines the concept of development and then outlines some ways to approach both the "what" and "when" questions in terms of what we are learning from research about the effects of various curriculum approaches.

The Nature of Development

The concept of development includes two major dimensions: normative and dynamic. The normative dimension concerns the typical or normal capabilities as well as limitations of most children of a given age within a given cultural milieu. The dynamic dimension concerns the sequence and changes that occur in all aspects of the child's functioning with the passage of time and increasing experience, and how these changes interact dynamically (Saarni, Mumme, & Campos, 1998). Although the normative dimension indicates a probable range of what children typically can and cannot be expected to do and to learn at a given age, the dynamic dimension raises questions about what children should or should not do at a particular time in their development in light of possible long-term dynamic consequences of early experience. In many preschool programs and kindergartens, for example, young children are given instruction in phonics and are expected to complete worksheets and recite number facts in rote fashion. But just because young children can do those things, in a normative sense, is not sufficient justification for requiring them to do so. Most young children willingly do most things adults ask of them. But their willingness is not a reliable indicator of the value of an activity. The developmental question is not only, "What can children do?," rather it is also, "What should children do that best serves their development and learning in the long term?"

Four Categories of Learning Goals

The four categories of learning outlined below are relevant to all levels of education—especially to the education of young children:

Knowledge. In early childhood, knowledge consists of facts, concepts, ideas, vocabulary, stories, and many other aspects of children's culture. Children acquire such knowledge from someone's answers to their questions, explanations, descriptions, and accounts of events, as well as through active and constructive processes of making the best sense they can of their own direct observations.

Skills. Skills are small units of action that occur in a relatively short period of time and are easily observed or inferred. Physical, social, verbal, counting, and drawing skills are among a few of the almost endless number of skills learned in the early years. Skills can be learned from direct instruction or imitated based on observation, and they are improved with guidance, practice, repetition, drill, and actual application or use.

Dispositions. Dispositions can be thought of as habits of mind or tendencies to respond to certain situations in certain ways. Curiosity, friendliness or unfriendliness, bossiness, generosity, meanness, and creativity are examples of dispositions or sets of dispositions, rather than of skills or items of knowledge. Accordingly, it is useful to keep in mind the difference between having writing skills and having the disposition to be a writer, or having reading skills and having the disposition to be a reader (Katz, 1995).

Dispositions are not learned through formal instruction or exhortation. Many important dispositions, including the dispositions to learn and to make sense of experience, are in-born in all children—wherever they are born and are growing up. Many dispositions that most adults want children to acquire or to strengthen—for example, curiosity, creativity, cooperation, openness, friendliness—are learned primarily from being around people who exhibit them; they are strengthened by being used effectively and by being appreciated rather than rewarded (Kohn, 1993).

To acquire or strengthen a particular disposition, a child must have the opportunity to express the disposition in behavior. When manifestations of the dispositions occur, they can be strengthened as the child observes their effectiveness and the responses to them and experiences satisfaction from them. Teachers can strengthen certain dispositions by setting learning goals rather than performance goals. A teacher who says, "See how much you can find out about something," rather than, "I want to see how well you can do," encourages children to focus on what they are learning rather than on an external evaluation of their performance (Dweck, 1991).

Feelings. Feelings are subjective emotional states. Some feelings are innate (e.g., fear), while others are learned. Among feelings that are learned are those of competence, confidence, belonging, and security. Feelings about school, teachers, learning, and other children are also learned in the early years.

Learning through Interaction

Contemporary research confirms that young children learn most effectively when they are engaged in interaction rather than in merely receptive or passive activities (Bruner, 1999; Wood & Bennett, 1999). Young children therefore are most likely to be strengthening their natural dispositions to learn when they are interacting with adults, peers, materials, and their surroundings in ways that help them make better and deeper sense of their own experience and environment. They should be investigating and purposefully observing aspects of their environment worth learning about, and recording and representing their findings and observations through activities such as talk, paintings, drawings, construction, writing, and graphing. Interaction that arises in the course of such activities provides contexts for much social and cognitive learning.

Risks of Early Academic Instruction

Research on the long-term effects of various curriculum models suggests that the introduction of academic work into the early childhood curriculum yields fairly good results on standardized tests in the short term but may be counterproductive in the long term (Schweinhart & Weikart, 1997; Marcon, 1995). For example, the risk of early instruction in beginning reading skills is that the amount of drill and practice required for success at an early age seems to undermine children's disposition to be readers. It is clearly not useful for a child to learn skills if, in the process of acquiring them, the disposition to use them is lost. In the case of reading in particular, comprehension is most likely to be dependent on actual reading and not just on skill-based reading instruction (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). On the other hand, acquiring the disposition to be a reader without the requisite skills is also not desirable. Results from longitudinal studies suggest that curricula and teaching should be designed to optimize the simultaneous acquisition of knowledge, skills, desirable dispositions, and feelings (Marcon, 1995). Another risk of introducing young children to formal academic work prematurely is that those who cannot relate to the tasks required are likely to feel incompetent. Students who repeatedly experience difficulties leading to feelings of incompetence may come to consider themselves stupid and bring their behavior into line accordingly (Bandura et al., 1999).

Variety of Teaching Methods

Academically focused curricula for preschool, kindergarten, and primary programs typically adopt a single pedagogical method dominated by workbooks and drill and practice of discrete skills. It is reasonable to assume that when a single teaching method is used for a diverse group of children, many of these children are likely to fail. The younger the children are, the greater the variety of teaching methods there should be, because the younger the children, the less likely they are to have been socialized into a standard way of responding to their social environment.

In this way, it is more likely that children's readiness to learn school tasks is influenced by background experiences that are idiosyncratic and unique. For practical reasons, there are limits to how varied teaching methods can be. It should be noted, however, that while approaches dominated by workbooks often claim to individualize instruction, individualization rarely consists of more than the day on which a child completes a particular page or other routine task. As suggested by several follow-up studies, such programs may undermine children's in-born disposition to learn—or at least to learn what the schools want them to learn (Schweinhart & Weikart, 1997; Marcon, 1995).

The Learning Environment

As for the learning environment, the younger the children are, the more informal it should be. Informal learning environments encourage spontaneous play in which children engage in the available activities that interest them, such as a variety of types of play and construction. However, spontaneous play is not the only alternative to early academic instruction. The data on children's learning suggest that preschool and kindergarten experiences require an intellectually oriented approach in which children interact in small groups as they work together on projects that help them make increasing sense of their own experience. Thus, the curriculum should include group projects that are investigations of worthwhile topics. These projects should strengthen children's dispositions to observe, experiment, inquire, and examine more closely the worthwhile aspects of their environment. They usually include constructions and dramatic play as well as a variety of early literacy and numeracy activities that emerge from the work of the investigation and the tasks of summarizing findings and sharing the experiences of the work accomplished.

How Can We Teach Critical Thinking?

Author: Kathryn S. Carr

Date: 1990

The need to teach higher order thinking skills is not a recent one. Education pundits have called for renewed interest in problem solving for years. As far back as 1967, Raths, Jonas, Rothstein and Wassermann (1967) decried the lack of emphasis on thinking in the schools. They noted that "...memorization, drill, homework, the three Rs [and the] quiet classroom" were rewarded, while "...inquiry, reflection [and] the consideration of alternatives [were] frowned upon."

That students are lagging in problem-solving and thinking skills is apparent at all levels of education. However, critical thinking courses and texts, in particular, may result in fragmentation of thinking skills. Thinking cannot be divorced from content; in fact, thinking is a way of learning content (Raths and others, 1967). In every course, and especially in content subjects, students should be taught to think logically, analyze and compare, question and evaluate. Skills taught in isolation do little more than prepare students for tests of isolated skills (Spache and Spache, 1986). The same criticism may be made with regard to commercial thinking skills materials. However, when such materials are integrated with content, they may become effective tools for attacking real issues.

Implications for Teaching

At each educational level, thinking must be practiced in each content field. This means hard work for the teacher. It's much easier to teach students to memorize facts and then assess them with multiple-choice tests. In a course that emphasizes thinking, objectives must include application and analysis, divergent thinking, and opportunities to organize ideas and support value judgments. When more teachers recognize that the facts they teach today will be replaced by the discoveries of tomorrow, the content-versus-process controversy may be resolved (Gallagher, 1975). As McMillen (1986) noted, "It really boils down to whether teachers are creating an environment that stimulates critical inquiry."

The following is a review of various types of thinking skills activities applied to content areas. While different disciplines frequently require different types of thinking, some techniques are effective across disciplines.

Critical Reading

The topic of teaching students to think while reading-- critical reading--should be central to any discussion of thinking skills, in part because the reading of textbooks plays such a prominent role in the content fields. Critical reading has been defined as learning to evaluate, draw inferences and arrive at conclusions based on the evidence (Zintz and Maggart, 1984).

One method that promotes critical reading involves the use of news media in the class. Newspapers, magazines, television, and radio can motivate students to develop critical listening and reading skills. Differing accounts and editorials can be compared as a way of helping students read with a questioning attitude. Students can construct their own arguments for discussion or publication in student newspapers. In the process, they become more discriminating consumers of news media, advertising, and entertainment.

Children's literature is another powerful tool for teaching thinking. Somers and Worthington (1979) noted that "...literature offers children more opportunities than any other area of the curriculum to consider ideas, values, and ethical questions." Furthermore, literature that inspires and challenges helps students learn how to engage and interact with a book.

Writing to Learn

In keeping with the current emphasis on writing across the curriculum, composition and rhetoric scholars stress the teaching of thinking through writing. Elbow (1983) has presented a two-step writing process called first-order and second-order thinking. For first-order thinking, he recommends freewriting--an unplanned, free-association type of heuristic writing designed to help students discover what they think about a topic. The freewriting technique produces conceptual insights. Elbow asked students to write a few incidents that came to mind without careful thinking. This resulted in more intuitive, creative thinking. Elbow cautions that the reflective scrutiny of second-order thinking is a necessary follow-up of freewriting. In this stage, the writer examines inferences and prejudices and strives for logic and control.

Classification Games

Classification plays a significant role in the development of logical thinking and abstract concepts from early childhood to adulthood. Classification skill is integral to vocabulary-concept development and, therefore, to reading and retention of information (Gerhard, 1975). For example, young children group concrete objects or pictures in their efforts to form abstract concepts such as "vegetables," "vehicles" or "wild animals" (Gerhard, 1975).

All classification tasks require the identification of attributes and sorting into categories according to some rule (Furth and Wachs, 1974). While the sorting of concrete objects is an appropriate activity for the young child, verbal analogies (e.g., "How are a diamond and an egg alike?") are appropriate for a learner of any age. A number of commercial materials contain verbal analogies, logic puzzles, figural and symbolic problem-solving, and attribute games. However, application to a wide variety of environmental objects must follow (Furth and Wachs). Integration of classification activities into content areas is crucial to their value. Applications to mathematics and science, especially the inquiry approach to science, are readily apparent.

What may not be obvious are the applications of classification to reading in the content fields (for example, social studies) and the retention of information read. Schema theory holds that information, if it is to be retained, must be categorized with something already stored in memory (Tonjes and Zintz, 1987). Brainstorming techniques that aid comprehension are recommended to help students access their prior knowledge about a topic to be read, and thus classify and retain the new information.

Devine (1986) pointed out that it may be necessary to restructure students' schemata when prior experiences that are limited to a different context interfere with gaining a new concept. Devine used the example of students who were having difficulty seeing relationships between the concepts of social class and caste system. In a word association task, the students were asked to list everything they knew about each term separately. Then they were asked to find similarities--for example, classify related facts and events, identify the common thread among them, and label them--thus forming new concepts or schemata.

Five Reasons to Stop Saying "Good Job!"

By Alfie Kohn

NOTE: An abridged version of this article was published in Parents magazine in May 2000 with the title "Hooked on Praise." For a more detailed look at the issues discussed here -- as well as a comprehensive list of citations to relevant research -- please see the books Punished by Rewards and Unconditional Parenting.

Hang out at a playground, visit a school, or show up at a child’s birthday party, and there’s one phrase you can count on hearing repeatedly: "Good job!" Even tiny infants are praised for smacking their hands together ("Good clapping!"). Many of us blurt out these judgments of our children to the point that it has become almost a verbal tic.

Plenty of books and articles advise us against relying on punishment, from spanking to forcible isolation ("time out"). Occasionally someone will even ask us to rethink the practice of bribing children with stickers or food. But you’ll have to look awfully hard to find a discouraging word about what is euphemistically called positive reinforcement.

Lest there be any misunderstanding, the point here is not to call into question the importance of supporting and encouraging children, the need to love them and hug them and help them feel good about themselves. Praise, however, is a different story entirely. Here's why.

1. Manipulating children. Suppose you offer a verbal reward to reinforce the behavior of a two-year-old who eats without spilling, or a five-year-old who cleans up her art supplies. Who benefits from this? Is it possible that telling kids they’ve done a good job may have less to do with their emotional needs than with our convenience?

Rheta DeVries, a professor of education at the University of Northern Iowa, refers to this as "sugar-coated control." Very much like tangible rewards – or, for that matter, punishments – it’s a way of doing something to children to get them to comply with our wishes. It may be effective at producing this result (at least for a while), but it’s very different from working with kids – for example, by engaging them in conversation about what makes a classroom (or family) function smoothly, or how other people are affected by what we have done -- or failed to do. The latter approach is not only more respectful but more likely to help kids become thoughtful people.

The reason praise can work in the short run is that young children are hungry for our approval. But we have a responsibility not to exploit that dependence for our own convenience. A "Good job!" to reinforce something that makes our lives a little easier can be an example of taking advantage of children’s dependence. Kids may also come to feel manipulated by this, even if they can’t quite explain why.

2. Creating praise junkies. To be sure, not every use of praise is a calculated tactic to control children’s behavior. Sometimes we compliment kids just because we’re genuinely pleased by what they’ve done. Even then, however, it’s worth looking more closely. Rather than bolstering a child’s self-esteem, praise may increase kids’ dependence on us. The more we say, "I like the way you…." or "Good ______ing," the more kids come to rely on our evaluations, our decisions about what’s good and bad, rather than learning to form their own judgments. It leads them to measure their worth in terms of what will lead us to smile and dole out some more approval.

Mary Budd Rowe, a researcher at the University of Florida, discovered that students who were praised lavishly by their teachers were more tentative in their responses, more apt to answer in a questioning tone of voice ("Um, seven?"). They tended to back off from an idea they had proposed as soon as an adult disagreed with them. And they were less likely to persist with difficult tasks or share their ideas with other students.

In short, "Good job!" doesn’t reassure children; ultimately, it makes them feel less secure. It may even create a vicious circle such that the more we slather on the praise, the more kids seem to need it, so we praise them some more. Sadly, some of these kids will grow into adults who continue to need someone else to pat them on the head and tell them whether what they did was OK. Surely this is not what we want for our daughters and sons.

3. Stealing a child’s pleasure. Apart from the issue of dependence, a child deserves to take delight in her accomplishments, to feel pride in what she’s learned how to do. She also deserves to decide when to feel that way. Every time we say, "Good job!", though, we’re telling a child how to feel.

To be sure, there are times when our evaluations are appropriate and our guidance is necessary -- especially with toddlers and preschoolers. But a constant stream of value judgments is neither necessary nor useful for children’s development. Unfortunately, we may not have realized that "Good job!" is just as much an evaluation as "Bad job!" The most notable feature of a positive judgment isn’t that it’s positive, but that it’s a judgment. And people, including kids, don’t like being judged.

I cherish the occasions when my daughter manages to do something for the first time, or does something better than she’s ever done it before. But I try to resist the knee-jerk tendency to say, "Good job!" because I don’t want to dilute her joy. I want her to share her pleasure with me, not look to me for a verdict. I want her to exclaim, "I did it!" (which she often does) instead of asking me uncertainly, "Was that good?"

4. Losing interest. "Good painting!" may get children to keep painting for as long as we keep watching and praising. But, warns Lilian Katz, one of the country’s leading authorities on early childhood education, "once attention is withdrawn, many kids won’t touch the activity again." Indeed, an impressive body of scientific research has shown that the more we reward people for doing something, the more they tend to lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward. Now the point isn’t to draw, to read, to think, to create – the point is to get the goody, whether it’s an ice cream, a sticker, or a "Good job!"

In a troubling study conducted by Joan Grusec at the University of Toronto, young children who were frequently praised for displays of generosity tended to be slightlyless generous on an everyday basis than other children were. Every time they had heard "Good sharing!" or "I’m so proud of you for helping," they became a little less interested in sharing or helping. Those actions came to be seen not as something valuable in their own right but as something they had to do to get that reaction again from an adult. Generosity became a means to an end.

Does praise motivate kids? Sure. It motivates kids to get praise. Alas, that’s often at the expense of commitment to whatever they were doing that prompted the praise.

5. Reducing achievement. As if it weren’t bad enough that "Good job!" can undermine independence, pleasure, and interest, it can also interfere with how good a job children actually do. Researchers keep finding that kids who are praised for doing well at a creative task tend to stumble at the next task – and they don’t do as well as children who weren’t praised to begin with.

Why does this happen? Partly because the praise creates pressure to "keep up the good work" that gets in the way of doing so. Partly because their interest in what they’re doing may have declined. Partly because they become less likely to take risks – a prerequisite for creativity – once they start thinking about how to keep those positive comments coming.

More generally, "Good job!" is a remnant of an approach to psychology that reduces all of human life to behaviors that can be seen and measured. Unfortunately, this ignores the thoughts, feelings, and values that lie behind behaviors. For example, a child may share a snack with a friend as a way of attracting praise, or as a way of making sure the other child has enough to eat. Praise for sharing ignores these different motives. Worse, it actually promotes the less desirable motive by making children more likely to fish for praise in the future.

Once you start to see praise for what it is – and what it does – these constant little evaluative eruptions from adults start to produce the same effect as fingernails being dragged down a blackboard. You begin to root for a child to give his teachers or parents a taste of their own treacle by turning around to them and saying (in the same saccharine tone of voice), "Good praising!"

Still, it’s not an easy habit to break. It can seem strange, at least at first, to stop praising; it can feel as though you’re being chilly or withholding something. But that, it soon becomes clear, suggests that we praise more because we need to say it than because children need to hear it. Whenever that’s true, it’s time to rethink what we’re doing.

What kids do need is unconditional support, love with no strings attached. That’s not just different from praise – it’s the opposite of praise. "Good job!" is conditional. It means we’re offering attention and acknowledgement and approval for jumping through our hoops, for doing things that please us.

This point, you’ll notice, is very different from a criticism that some people offer to the effect that we give kids too much approval, or give it too easily. They recommend that we become more miserly with our praise and demand that kids "earn" it. But the real problem isn’t that children expect to be praised for everything they do these days. It’s that we’re tempted to take shortcuts, to manipulate kids with rewards instead of explaining and helping them to develop needed skills and good values.

So what’s the alternative? That depends on the situation, but whatever we decide to say instead has to be offered in the context of genuine affection and love for who kids are rather than for what they’ve done. When unconditional support is present, "Good job!" isn’t necessary; when it’s absent, "Good job!" won’t help.

If we’re praising positive actions as a way of discouraging misbehavior, this is unlikely to be effective for long. Even when it works, we can’t really say the child is now "behaving himself"; it would be more accurate to say the praise is behaving him. The alternative is to work with the child, to figure out the reasons he’s acting that way. We may have to reconsider our own requests rather than just looking for a way to get kids to obey. (Instead of using "Good job!" to get a four-year-old to sit quietly through a long class meeting or family dinner, perhaps we should ask whether it’s reasonable to expect a child to do so.)

We also need to bring kids in on the process of making decisions. If a child is doing something that disturbs others, then sitting down with her later and asking, "What do you think we can do to solve this problem?" will likely be more effective than bribes or threats. It also helps a child learn how to solve problems and teaches that her ideas and feelings are important. Of course, this process takes time and talent, care and courage. Tossing off a "Good job!" when the child acts in the way we deem appropriate takes none of those things, which helps to explain why "doing to" strategies are a lot more popular than "working with" strategies.

And what can we say when kids just do something impressive? Consider three possible responses:

* Say nothing. Some people insist a helpful act must be "reinforced" because, secretly or unconsciously, they believe it was a fluke. If children are basically evil, then they have to be given an artificial reason for being nice (namely, to get a verbal reward). But if that cynicism is unfounded – and a lot of research suggests that it is – then praise may not be necessary.

* Say what you saw. A simple, evaluation-free statement ("You put your shoes on by yourself" or even just "You did it") tells your child that you noticed. It also lets her take pride in what she did. In other cases, a more elaborate description may make sense. If your child draws a picture, you might provide feedback – not judgment – about what you noticed: "This mountain is huge!" "Boy, you sure used a lot of purple today!"

If a child does something caring or generous, you might gently draw his attention to the effect of his action on the other person: "Look at Abigail’s face! She seems pretty happy now that you gave her some of your snack." This is completely different from praise, where the emphasis is on how you feel about her sharing

* Talk less, ask more. Even better than descriptions are questions. Why tell him what part of his drawing impressed you when you can ask him what he likes best about it? Asking "What was the hardest part to draw?" or "How did you figure out how to make the feet the right size?" is likely to nourish his interest in drawing. Saying "Good job!", as we’ve seen, may have exactly the opposite effect.

This doesn’t mean that all compliments, all thank-you’s, all expressions of delight are harmful. We need to consider our motives for what we say (a genuine expression of enthusiasm is better than a desire to manipulate the child’s future behavior) as well as the actual effects of doing so. Are our reactions helping the child to feel a sense of control over her life -- or to constantly look to us for approval? Are they helping her to become more excited about what she’s doing in its own right – or turning it into something she just wants to get through in order to receive a pat on the head

It’s not a matter of memorizing a new script, but of keeping in mind our long-term goals for our children and watching for the effects of what we say. The bad news is that the use of positive reinforcement really isn’t so positive. The good news is that you don’t have to evaluate in order to encourage.

Responsibilities of a Teacher

By Loveleena Rajeev
Last Updated: 2/24/2012

Responsibilities of a teacher transcend the act of merely passing on knowledge and disciplining students. A proactive teacher can direct a student to lead a fulfilling life that can go beyond a successful career. Read on to know about the several responsibilities a teacher needs to fulfill.

"The educator, believing in the worth and dignity of each human being, recognizes the supreme importance of the pursuit of truth, devotion to excellence, and the nurture of democratic principles. Essential to these goals is the protection of the freedom to learn and to teach, and the guarantee of equal education opportunity for all." ~ National Education Association's (NEA) Code of Ethics for the Education Profession.

If you thought a teaching job was a cakewalk, think again! The responsibilities and duties of a teacher are many and varied. Teachers act as facilitators for incorporating and encouraging intellectual and social development in the formative years of a student's life. The emphasis that education helps uplift someone socially, intellectually, emotionally, and personally is what a teacher fosters in children all through preschool, high school and college. A preschool teacher plays a pivotal role in a child's development, and although, the role of a preschool, high school and a college teacher may differ to meet specific age and subject criteria, it cannot be argued that the duties and responsibilities of a teacher will always remain the same.

Roles and Responsibilities of an Educator

Towards Themselves

To be a teacher out of choice, and not by default.
To acquire relevant professional education and training to get the right concepts of teaching.
Honesty and sincerity towards the profession.
Accept that being a teacher does not make you a 'know-it-all'; so it's important to become a partner in the learning cycle with the students.
Accept that no two students will think, act and react alike, and respect that diversity.
Upgrade knowledge and learn new ways of teaching.
Avoid indulging in unethical behavior, and at all times maintain the dignity of a teacher-student relationship.

Towards Students

Inculcate model behavior and mannerisms by self example.
Prepare long-term teaching programs and daily lessons in accordance with the guidelines of the school's education system.
Provide activities and materials that engage and challenge the students intellectually.
Understand and implement the use of information technology in lesson preparation and teaching.
Shift between formal and informal methods of teaching, like debates, discussions, practical activities, experiments, projects and excursions.
Plan, set and evaluate grade test, exams and assignments.
Supervise student conduct during class, lunchtime and other breaks.
Understand the diverse background students come from, their strengths, weaknesses and areas of interest.
Be honest in student appraisal and avoid favoritism.
Enforce discipline by firmly setting classroom rules.
Resolve conflict among students by encouraging positive debate.
Be ready to adjust teaching styles to meet individual needs of students.

Towards Parents

Keep parents well-informed about their ward's progress.
Take time out to discuss an issue, or a problematic behavior.
Encourage parents to promote various diverse interests of their children.
Inform parents about after-school activities like excursions, meetings, as well as detention.
Keep the parent feedback journal updated.
Encourage parent participation in parent-teacher meets.
Finally, work with parents for the betterment of their child's future.

Towards Management

Actively involve in staff meetings, educational conferences, and school programs.
Voluntarily participate in organizing sporting events, and other excursions like camping trips, picnics, educational tours, etc.
Maintain a healthy relationship with all teaching and non-teaching staff members.
Help out in formulating school policies.
Carry out administrative duties relevant to your position in the school.

In an emerging world, responsibilities of an educator have increased several folds. From being a person who just imparts bookish knowledge, an educator now has the power to shape a better world for the students and empower them with knowledge to take on the world!

EDSCI History

It was in 2006 that the realization of a family’s dream of establishing an educational institution which could provide excellent and quality yet affordable education started. That realization manifested as a school named Escuela de Sophia Caloocan, Inc.

Escuela de Sophia Caloocan, Inc. (EDSCI), initially offered preschool to Grade VI with 200 students. In a span of 3 years, EDSCI was able to accommodate the inclusion of secondary education starting with just first year and second year high school in 2007, third year high school in 2008, and finally fourth year high school in 2009.

Due to the steady growth in enrollment, school facilities where constructed and improved. In 2010, four additional rooms, a preschool play room and an audio-visual room where constructed to provide the needs of the school’s growing population.

Aside from EDSCI’s facilities improvement, instructions were enhanced. Teachers employed updated teaching styles and strategies. The school also takes pride in its advanced computer curriculum matched with its 1:1 student-computer ratio. Other facilities of the school include the library with the internet, the science laboratory, the school playground, the T.L.E. room and the covered court.

EDSCI has gained its reputation to be a private non-sectarian school which is committed in developing individuals who strive for excellence in all aspects of their lives regardless of their background, religion, affiliation, socio-economic status or culture.

EDSCI believes in holistic education. It trains its students to excel in all aspects of their lives by providing them with meaningful educational and wide range academic experiences while also providing co-curricular activities to tap and develop the multiple intelligences of every child. More importantly, EDSCI trains its students to develop good values and faith in God through the various learning experiences in school. Hence, EDSCI provides a balanced curriculum which is aimed toward the full development of individuals.

Certainly, the long, the exciting and meaningful history of Escuela de Sophia Caloocan, Inc. is something to be experienced and witnessed by each child who wishes to achieve excellence in all aspects of his/her existence.

VISION

Escuela de Sophia of Caloocan, Inc. will be known as the school of excellence in the field of basic education, community service, and educational leadership in the community and beyond.

MISSION statement

Escuela de Sophia of Caloocan, Inc. is dedicated in producing basic education graduates who will be positive elements in the community and nation’s progress and development. This mission is propelled by the school’s commitment to produce graduates who respond to the call of wisdom and believe that it is a supreme. It guides every individual to upright living (Proverbs 4:5-9)

EDSCI is focused on developing graduates who understand the concept of being WISE and they are expected to:

W - World class and globally competitive

I - Intellectuals with strong inner lives

S - Spiritual and God-fearing

E - Excellent servant leaders

“ WISDOM is SUPREME … esteem her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. “ (Proverbs 4:7-8)

The torch symbolizes the unceasing search for wisdom to render excellent service to God, country and fellowmen. In pursuit of wisdom, holistic development of an individual is given utmost importance through proper guidance and provision of a strong and solid foundation based on truth principles of life.

Goals of the EDSCI Basic Education Department

The EDSCI Basic Education Department shall fulfill the vision in producing excellent basic education graduates by its commitment to:

1. EXCELLENCE in ACADEMICS

This will be pursued through continuous training of teachers and using latest innovations in teaching;

2. EXCELLENCE in MORALITY

This will be pursued through strengthening faith in God by daily devotions and prayers;

3. EXCELLENCE in SERVICE and LEADERSHIP

This will be pursued through community services and networking or linking with NGO’s and GO’s for community project and endeavor.

THE EDSCI PHILOSOPHY

Escuela de Sophia of Caloocan, Inc. believes that every child is unique with his own abilities, talents, interests and potentials which must be discovered through proper guidance that leads him to a better understanding of others and of himself and enables him to live in a better safer world where love, Godliness, truthfulness, integrity, respect, and dignity reign.

EDSCI believes to the belief that learning is by doing. The teaching-learning process involves a deeper involvement of the child that makes him responsible for all his actions and decisions.

EDSCI understands that a child must pass through certain stage of development and he must go through every stage in order to be fully developed. It does not

impose learning, rather introduces it through creative, manipulative and realistic ways which the child will surely enjoy and appreciate.

EDSCI believes and adheres to the principle of lifelong learning. Learning takes place from ograve.

EDSCI uses “thinking curriculum in which every child is taught “HOW” to think rather than “WHAT” to think.

EDSCI adheres to the belief that a child must develop inner strength, in order to cope up with the challenges of this ever changing world. It trains up child to use failures as stepping stones for success. It teaches to look beyond what he can see and have visions for himself.

NAME:

NICKNAME:

AGE:

ADDRESS:

DATE OF BIRTH:

PLACE OF BIRTH:

CIVIL STATUS:

RELIGION:

FATHER’S NAME:

MOTHER’S NAME:

PHILOSOPHY IN LIFE:

Educational Background:

Primary:

Secondary:

Tertiary:

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