Chapter 6: What makes a teacher effective?

    The single most important characteristic of an effective teacher is classroom management. A teacher has to create a learning environment and be the manager in the classroom. A teacher can be knowledgeable on a subject and lecture about it but that does not make him/her an effective teacher, because he needs to gain the students attention and maintain them engaged with the lesson. A teacher has to be prepared with materials, resources and activities to enhance the students learning. I was once in a class where the professor was very knowledgeable about the topic but the students in his classroom where talking all the time, sleeping or working on something else. It was stressful for the students that wanted to learn because he did not manage the classroom. I was also in a classroom where the teacher had the whole day filled with lesson plans and activities and the experience was very positive. I like the definition of classroom management in the book, "actions taken to create and maintain a learning environment conductive to successful instruction."

Chapter 5: What is Taught?

             Strategies of differentiated instruction.
       I did not experienced any of the strategies of differentiated instruction. The students can benefit of the strategies because we have diversity in our schools and different types of learners. Traditionally, the teacher would lecture and the student would listen and try to retained all the information they can. With the strategies such as the stations or problem solving, the students would participate in the lessons and work in groups and by themselves rather than be a passive learner. As a teacher, we have to utilize the resources available to us and come out of the comfort zone to ensure the success of our students.   

Chapter 4: Social Challenges

          Chapter 4: Social Challenges

 Drug and Alcohol Abuse:

          Drug and alcohol abuse is a major problem among students of all ages. I would recommend to openly talk about these problems with the students. One strategy can be talk about the risk of using drugs and alcohol, how it will affect them personally if the consume them. It can also be beneficial to play a movie or documentary to get the point across. Police officers are involved to help the kids stay away from any substance, invite them to come to the classroom to talk to the students. Find out what programs are offered in the area to bring people in to communicate and teach the students about the abuses of drugs and alcohol. Always listen and be aware of the students changes of mood and performance at school.

Multiple Intelligences Menu

          I feel I am strongest in the visual area of the Howard Gardner multiple intelligence. I can communicate better with charts, maps, or graphs to get my lesson or point of view across the audience. I used to work for a company training their managers and my classes consisted in lecture, videos, power points, graphs, games, etc.. and my audience was very receptive to the lessons. I think that when you can learn a lesson with any type of visual instrument the lesson stays with you longer and the time is more enjoyable.