Empowering Educators: A Teacher's Guide To Success by

Who do you want to be as an educator?

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 01:56:37 UTC

For my first post I really wanted to welcome each reader into the Realm of Education! Embarking on the path of teaching is not just about imparting knowledge; it's a profound exploration of who you are as an educator. For today's post we will be focusing on some helpful tips that can help a teacher or future teacher learn a bit of who they would like to become. To get started start scrolling!

Find your Learning Style!!

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 02:07:58 UTC

The first step to learning about yourself as an educator is becoming more aware of how you learn something. What is your Learning style? This is important because in knowing your preferred learning style it can help you tailor your professional development, ensuring that you engage with new information and concepts in a way that resonates with you personally.

Multiple Intelligences Exam

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 02:16:57 UTC

Multiple Intelligences (MI) is a theory developed by Howard Gardner, proposing that intelligence is not a singular, fixed trait but a collection of distinct abilities or intelligences. Gardner identified several independent intelligences, each representing a different way people can excel. The Multiple intelligences theory encourages educators to recognize a broader range of talents into their teaching. (The above link will take you to a Multiple Intelligences exam for YOU to find yours!)

Implicit Bias

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 02:21:42 UTC

The Implicit Bias is the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. These implicit attitudes that may live in all of us is crucial to become aware of especially as educators because it can unconsciously affect disciplinary decisions. Above is a Harvard Implicit exam that is very helpful to find what your implicit bias can be.

Be a teacher that makes change!

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 02:33:17 UTC

In this video, we explore the pervasive nature of implicit bias, emphasizing that it occurs in various aspects of our lives. As educators, being well-informed about implicit bias empowers us to actively work towards mitigating its effects. Watch to discover how awareness can be a powerful tool in interrupting and addressing implicit bias within educational settings.

What expectations do you want to set as an educator?

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 02:44:30 UTC

This concept of the Pygmalion Effect focuses on how high expectations lead to better performances and low expectations lead to worse performances. This video highlights 4 key factors that can help an educator implement this concept into the classroom:

Climate- create a warm classroom environment.
Input- going beyond what they need to know.
Response Opportunity- encourage students to develop their answers.
Feedback- focus on the wrong answers, do not accept partially right answers. Help students get the full correct answer.

Self-fulfilling Prophecy vs Sustaining Effect

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 02:57:30 UTC

These two concepts highlight the importance of understanding how beliefs and ongoing conditions shape outcomes in various contexts.

Self-fulfilling Prophecy: A person's expectations about someone or something can influence their actions in a way that ultimately validates those expectations.

Sustaining Effect: Accurate in initial reading of student and respond to student appropriately.

Behavior Expectations

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 03:05:29 UTC

Behavior expectations are very important to set as new teachers. It allows you to build trust with your students, set boundaries between teacher and student, prioritize the content class, and allows for discipline and positive reinforcement. It set's the overall tone for student learning in your classroom. Some examples may be:

setting clear expectations on how to use technology.
making rules and expectations with students so they feel like they have input.
setting rules for participation
clear rewards and consequences

Academic Expectations

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 03:16:11 UTC

Setting high academic expectations will influence your students to try and reach those expectations that you lay out. It is important to make sure that each student is treated the same and has the same expectations. This is important because it allows for students success, structure, and feels like their is something for your students to achieve. Some examples may be:

Due Dates
Coming to class prepared
Rubric
Academic honesty
Checklists for what students need to accomplish

Connecting with your students: Building Meaningful relationships

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 03:20:31 UTC

I am back again to talk about how important it is to create and build relationships with your students. It allows you to establish trust, enhance classroom environment, personalize instruction, foster a sense of belonging, support social-emotional development, and so much more. Below will be some helpful tips on how you can begin the process of building relationships with YOUR students!

Positive Learning Environments

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 03:30:22 UTC

A positive learning environment refers to a setting in which learners feel safe, supported, engaged, and motivated to actively participate in the learning process. This environment fosters both academic and social-emotional growth, creating conditions that promote student success. It is important to find some basic tips that you can incorporate on day one. The next post will highlight just that.

Icebreaker Activities and Team Building

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 03:35:22 UTC

This video will help give you some examples on how to get your students involved and talking. It will allow you to even get to know your students. But these are just some examples to help you get started.

Learning About the Different Learners in your Classroom

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 03:46:08 UTC

In every classroom, there's a diverse mix of students, each with unique abilities and learning needs. Some may be gifted, others may have special needs, and there are also English learners. Additionally, you might encounter students who are twice exceptional, those with both learning challenges and exceptional gifts. To better understand your students, consider asking questions about their preferred learning styles, how they'd like to demonstrate their understanding, and even what qualities they value in a teacher. This approach allows you to gain valuable insights into each student's individual learning preferences and helps you create a more inclusive and personalized learning environment.

Fostering A Caring Community

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 03:55:30 UTC

As educators, it is imperative that we educate ourselves about the adverse experiences and traumas that some of our students may encounter. This awareness is crucial because many children and families grapple with stressors that can significantly impact their ability to fully engage in the classroom. Being well-informed is a pivotal first step in creating an environment that is not only comfortable for students facing these challenges but also in establishing a foundation of trust with them. What can you do:

Recognize trauma in the classroom
Seek support
Connect before correct
3:1 positive negative feedback
Create a sense of calm and safety in your classroom
Praise publicly and criticize privately
Chill zone or Calming corners
Informing yourself of resources in your community and the students.

Social-emotional Learning

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 04:04:41 UTC

Social-emotional learning goes beyond academic achievement, fostering the holistic development of students and preparing them for success in various aspects of life. The positive impact of SEL extends not only to the individual student but also to the overall school culture and community. This ultimately allows students to build stronger relationships, positive behavior, stress reduction, and more. Some examples could be:

Mindfulness breathing
Emotion check-ins
Goal Settings
Reflective Journals

Instruction

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 04:11:08 UTC

How we present instruction as a teacher is so important to master because this is what keeps your students interested and motivated throughout the day. Instruction is the means through which teachers transfer information and knowledge to students. It involves presenting content, explaining concepts, and providing examples to support understanding. Effective instruction considers the diverse learning needs of students. Teachers use various instructional strategies to differentiate their approach, catering to different learning styles, abilities, and interests within the classroom.

Understanding the Common Core Standards

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 04:18:12 UTC

Understanding the Common Core Standards is essential for creating a cohesive and effective educational system. It provides a framework for educators to set learning goals, plan instruction, and assess student progress, ultimately contributing to the overall improvement of the education system.

Standards: Learning goals for what students should know and should be able to do at each grade level.

Curriculum: Is the detailed plan used to teach students the learning goals embodied in the standards. These include activities, lessons, units, assessments, and instructional decisions made in the classroom.

How to Plan!

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 04:27:23 UTC

Planning a lesson is no easy task but do not worry I will give you some helpful tips to start. First, planning is so important because it relives so much stress off of you. It allows teachers to go into the lesson confidently and double check their understanding to ensure that all the materials are gathered to teach the concepts. A great tip is Backwards Planning!

this type of planning works backwards where you first think of the desired results you are trying to achieve, than you will determine assessment evidence (how will you know the students understood the big ideas), and lastly planning the learning experiences and instruction.

Universal Design For Learning

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 04:28:20 UTC

The model of Universal Design for learning provides the opportunity for all students to access, participate in, and progress in the general education curriculum by reducing barriers to instruction. This design is built to improve and optimize learning for all people. It's main focus is providing:

Multiple means for Engagement
Multiple means for Representation
Multiple means for Action & Expression

Assessments

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 04:28:27 UTC

It is important to know the differences between each type of assessments.

Formative Vs Summative Assessment:

Formative: You are forming an opinion about a students learning it occurs while teaching content.

Summative: You are summing up a students learning, usually occurs after teaching a unit/lessen series.

Formal Vs Informal Assessment:

Formal: Grading based on criteria or standards

Informal: Based on Observations, anecdotal notes, and portfolios

Universal Design For Learning Checklist

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 04:37:18 UTC

This Checklist can be used while you are creating a lesson to ensure that you are trying to meet each of your students needs.

Classroom Management

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 04:47:44 UTC

Now today is all about Classroom management it refers to the strategies, techniques, and systems that teachers use to establish and maintain a positive and effective learning environment within the classroom. It involves creating a setting that is conducive to learning, fostering student engagement, and minimizing disruptions. Effective classroom management contributes to a productive and supportive atmosphere where both students and teachers can thrive.

First step: What is behavior and what isn't behavior?

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 04:55:58 UTC

It is our responsibility as teachers to distinguish between what behaviors are and are not. When we tell a student that they are "being disrespectful" that is not a clear behavior to them that they can fix. Try phrasing that statement as "you are leaving your seat without permission and walking around the classroom" this is a great explanation as to what the student is doing that they can fix. By being specific a student will understand more about what they are doing wrong and what they are doing good.

Why do students do what they do!

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 05:10:17 UTC

When it comes down to behaviors students do them because of two reasons 1. to get good stuff and 2. to avoid bad stuff. So as an educator it is Important to learn about the ABC's of behaviors.

A (Antecedents): Happen Prior to and trigger a behavior.

B (Behavior): Things people say or do.

C (Consequences): Happen Prior and determines the likelihood of reoccurrence.

Antecedents could be the cause of miscommunication or unclear instruction from the teacher. It can also be due to aversive demands like a task being too hard, too easy, too long, and etc.

Consequences should occur immediately following a behavior. A pleasant consequences increases the likelihood of a behavior happening again. Whereas as an unpleasant consequence decreases the likelihood of a behavior happening again.

Positive reinforcement examples:

receiving praise for doing homework.
earning class money for following expectations

Negative reinforcement examples:

taking away homework for following classroom expectations.

Behavior occurs because of 4 reasons:

As a means to get attention
To allow us to escape an activity or situation
So that we can get tangible items
For self-stimulation/sensory

Positive Behavior Support

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 05:22:29 UTC

PBS is any set of procedures or techniques designed to improve behavior.

Multi-Tiered System of Supports

Tier 1: Primary mechanism for preventing problem behavior. School-wide and classroom wide systems for all students. (Whole group)

Tier 2: Specialized group systems or individualized systems for students with at risk behaviors. (Small Group)

Tier 3: Intensive, individualized interventions and supports.

Tier 1 Support:

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 05:25:31 UTC

The jar of stars is a great example for rewarding your whole class for meeting classroom expectations. This motivates positive behaviors.

Tier 2 Support:

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 05:27:39 UTC

Table points are a great way to promote positive small group behaviors.

Tier 3 Support:

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 05:31:02 UTC

The above support is a great example for an tier 3 individual support that acknowledges the good behavior of one student. Maybe you can even give out prizes for filling our a punch card!

Classroom Routines and Procedures

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 05:40:21 UTC

When it comes to your classroom routines and procedures it is crucial you set these before you enter the classroom. You must think about what you want your classroom to look like and run. The idea of "Pay me now vs Pay me later" is something you should have in the back of your mind when coming up with these routines and procedures because you do not want to be dealing with something you did not plan for later in the school year.

Some questions to ask yourself:

What do you want your students to do when entering the classroom?
How do they ask to use the restroom or get water?
Lining up routines or teacher attention signals
Dismissal routines or procedures
How do you want them to turn in their work?
How do you communicate noise level expectations when working?
What do they do when they are finished with an assignment?

Why are all of these aspects so Important!?

brianacflores11 — 2023-12-11 05:48:54 UTC