What Makes Great Teaching?

There are many different things that make great teaching. I would say first off great teaching allows for the teacher to continue to learn even as a teacher. They are open to learning from their students and continue to find out more about the world around them. I would also say that great teaching is the ability to show understanding and compassion to your students. You cannot be a great teacher if you are not able to create relationships with your students. Children cannot learn from someone they do not feel comfortable with. Great teaching also allows students to discover their own passions and express their creativity. Rather than putting them in a box, great teaching allows for children to learn more about themselves. Great teaching provides students with many different assignments that allow them to express their creativity. My top five assignments that I chose that we have done in this class are: Blogging, One Pager, 3-2-1 Research Reports, 3 Minute Pause, and Black-Out. I feel as those these assignments will allow me to be a great teacher. First, I chose blogging because it allows students and teachers to express their creativity and share their ideas with others. I secondly chose the one pager assignment because it allows students to express their creativity through writing and pictures. They can depict what they learned like a summary but in a creative way. My third top assignment was the 3-2-1 Research Report. The reason why I love this assignment is because it allows us to make connections from what you learned to your prior knowledge and discuss what you think about this topic. For the fourth assignment I chose was the “3 Minute Pause” assignment because you can express what you learned and how you feel about it. Lastly the assignment I chose was the Black-Out poem, it allows people to find what they see meaningful in a text and create a poem out of it. When reading it allows, we will all find different words and phrases that are meaningful. This allows students to express their creativity. 

    

                                  

 

Top 5 List- Zehra Ali

                                       Top 5 List- Zehra Ali

1. Blogging with other educators:

To blog with other educators, we need to create a blog, and then be comfortable sharing our ideas and opinions as educators with others and be able to formulate them into a blog format. I was able to do this as I felt confident in what I was writing about to create a blog that other people could read and interact with.

2. One Pager:

To do the One Pager you need to look at the information presented to you and understand it so then through writing, drawing create a piece of paper that encompasses what you have learned. This worked for me as I understood what I learned in the module and then was able to portray that through writing, and sketches on a piece of paper. 

3. 3-2-1 Research Reports:

To do the 3-2-1 Research Reports you need to have the ability to look at the information you are reading as well as share what you have learned, your thoughts, and different ideas or connections you have made based on the reading. This worked for me as I was able to read 3-5 articles and analyze them finding the information that I thought was very valuable and how the information pertains to me.

4. 3 Minute Pause:

To do the 3 Minute Pause assignment you need to be able to look at the different sources, such as videos and articles presented to you and reflect on the information presented to. This worked for me as I was able to express my reaction to the information and how it affected me. 

5. Black-Out Poem:

To do the Black-Out-Poem you need to be able to read through the poem and identify what words or phrases you see as most valuable and that push your main point across. This worked for me as I was able to point out in the poem the words and phrases, I thought were most important to the course/module.

 

 

What does money really have to do with it?

As a future educator it is important that we ask ourselves. What does money really have to do with it? How does money effect the lives of our students. Does it have an affect on their schooling and how so? Does it have an impact on their ability to achieve. How does money pertaining to education and our students affect us as teachers? The first article I read pertaining to this topic was "The Secret to High achieving schools". I thought it was very valuable how the article stated that the main reason for high achieving classrooms is the teachers. “Unequal school funding in the United States” by Biddle and Berliner discusses how "Better-funded school districts can attract teachers with higher levels of education, more experience, and higher scores on competency tests..." (Biddle and Berliner).  This shows that schools districts with more money than others attract teachers that in a way would be more well equipped in ensuring their students success. Teachers at school districts who are better funded also have it easier as they are provided with better facilities, school supplies these are very important to creating a great school environment. Often people in society including educators believe in the myth of the culture poverty. The article "The Myth of the Culture of Poverty" by Paul Gorski discusses that teachers often fall victim to believing this myth. He explains that people of lower income collectively different than those of a higher income level. However like he explained that is not the case at the beliefs and ways of living are different amongst people of a lower income people. He also tackled the many stereotypes held against poor people. Some including that they do not work as hard, their parents do not value education, and they more so than then rich people abuse drugs and alcohol. However none of these assumptions or generalisations based on research are true. This shows that money does not have to do with teachers making assumptions about their lower income students. They should not expect less from them as low income does not mean inadequate. I think it is very important for teachers to remember this as they are taking part in the culture of classism. Money more so has to do with the funding the schools they attend get. This will greatly impact their education and the socioeconomic opportunity gap students of lower incomes face. As teachers and society as a whole we need to focus on this rather than viewing poor people as the issue in the inequities in their future. Money does not have to do with the behavior and beliefs of a group of people. Rather it affects their opportunities in school and their future.