Back in Middle and High school, my favorite subjects were Reading and Language Arts. I was not interested at all in Mathematics and had limited interest in Science because I felt they were too difficult for me to fully master, and I wanted to be a fantasy author, so they also felt quite useless.
My teachers were different every year, except one fantastic Math teacher who moved grade levels with us so that he could teach us Algebra(which was lucky, because I heard the other algebra teacher at the time was much less competent in the subject area, would frequently lose students’ work, and had rather poor classroom management skills). I only ever had one teacher in Reading/LA that I thought was ineffective. She taught mainly grammar rules, but she had a heavy accent that made her a bit difficult to understand, and almost every single student who had her complained that she often assigned work without explaining the grammar rules involved, or even administered unit assessments for concepts that had not been reviewed at all. I can’t remember whether this was true, but if it was it would have been a grave error on her part.
I haven’t started teaching yet, but I guess I can see myself- if I’m paying very little attention to my work as a teacher(for some reason)- giving the wrong assessment to students or perhaps slacking off and forgetting to teach a concept that I left on the assessment by mistake. That would most certainly be negative, and I would hope I never reach such a point in my teaching career. I think a good way to prevent this would be to follow the Principle of Reflection, which states that “Effective teachers think about the what, how, and why of instruction during and after each teaching activity. They engage in the process of reflection to solve instructional problems and set goals.” (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz, 2017). By reflecting daily on activities, what went well and what went wrong, and what I can do differently next time, I will become a more and more effective teacher and retain awareness of exactly where we are in the curriculum and exactly what we need to do next.
References:
Vacca, R. T., Vacca, J. A., & Mraz, M. (2017). Content Area Reading. Pearson Education.
Vacca, R. T., Vacca, J. A., & Mraz, M. (2017). Content Area Reading. Pearson Education.
I can totally relate to you, Hannah, with experiencing many different types of teachers in high school. The good and the not so good teachers, but having that one fantastic teacher that made an impact on your life. Just like your mathematics teacher was your stand out teacher, for me, it was my art teacher. She was always supportive, encouraging, and also very knowledgeable in her content area which all impacted me. All of these characteristics make a huge difference with knowing the difference between a great teacher and an "okay" teacher. A teacher with passion for not only the subject matter but also having a passion for students makes a huge difference in the way students learn.
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