Student Success

When you are teaching in an actual classroom it is extremely important that you know what you are teaching, you need to look at the standards and decide what essential understandings you want to communicate to your students. Once you have done this you need to decide what the students really need to know and how you are going to assess their knowledge of the topic. If you can prepare before hand what objectives you want to meet, then you will be more prepared with how to help your students grasp the concepts. Think ahead, evaluate the students in your classroom and use what you know about them to plan your instruction. You need to incorporate ways to teach that will be significant and doable for all the different learning profiles of your students, and whenever you can, so, most of the time, make your instruction engaging and meaningful! When you teach a lesson you need to plan out what they are going to learn and be able to plan your instruction in a way that you are reaching ALL of your students, not just a select few. You must always take in to account that each student is different and have a variety of ways set in place for them to reach the goals you are setting out for them, TIER your instruction!!! Every student in your class must learn the established curriculum, so it is up to you to deliver it to them in a way that is attainable and understandable for them all. You should always be looking for new and fresh ways for your students to explore ideas. I know it is easy to get comfortable with material you teach year after year, but be open to new strategies and ways of teaching your children. We live in a digital age, so, even though it will be more work for you, go to trainings to learn how to use technology in the classroom. I can promise you that it will benefit you in the end. Technology allows the students to interact and manipulative concepts and it may help you reach learners in a way you have never been able to before. Look for new ways of doing things and always get to know your students and structure your lessons around their strengths. It is our job as teachers to help our students obtain success. I don't know about you, but I want all of my students to be successful and I want to help them discover what they are good at. One last point I want to touch on is how important it is to integrate real life into what you are teaching students, validate for them why they are learning something. I don't know about you, but there were many times while I was growing up and learning that I thought "why am I even learning this, I will never use it." WE ABSOLUTELY NEED to communicate to students that what they are learning in the classroom is something that is beneficial and will be useful in the world around them.