Effective Planning

At some point in our lives we all have experienced or become part of a chaotic

environment where we are not sure what is expected of us. Most people have experienced some

level of insecurity that results from these environments. Usually a failure to manage and organize

time and set the appropriate expectations produce such environments. The classroom is one of

the environments where chaos becomes a damaging experience. Preparedness is a key to success

of both, teacher and student. In this paper I identify the most important topics I have learned in

chapters four, five and six of Kauchak and Eggens (20012) Leaning and Teaching and the

competencies 003.004 and 008 of pedagogy and professional responsibilities.

Planning for teaching

If you fail to plan you are planning to fail. This quote becomes a reality when it is

applied to education. Weather the plan is elaborate or simple, an effective teacher knows how

valuable it is to plan the instructional time and how it becomes essential to a successful day. A

successful day in class starts with a plan that is effective by reflecting and clarifying what

students are learning and exactly what it will be accomplished throughout the day. When a

teacher prepares she is personalizing her lesson to benefit both her and the students by

preparing with students diversities in mind, anticipating their needs, organizing materials

needed and as a consequence , reducing the level of anxiety that students often experience in

lesson participation. Well planned lessons create in the students a sense of security, confidence

and the opportunity to be a part of the lesson.

Effective Teaching

An effective teacher will make the difference in her classroom by creating a positive

environment where students feel comfortable and look forward to participating and learning. A

positive classroom reflects the teachers enthusiasm, shows her true acceptance of the students

by honestly caring about them and communicating clearly. Teachers can show their care by

learning students names, taking time to know their families and always maintain positive

standards and expectations. Students, also, feel comfortable when the environment reflects order

and organization. An organized classroom invites the student to experience a maximum of

instructional time, increase achievement and fosters participation by using a variety of

techniques to maintain the students focus and motivation. Effective teachers know the

importance of instructional time and create a learning focus classroom by modeling to the

students the importance of study, effort and learning.

Increase learning Through Student Involvement

An effective teacher gives the students the opportunity to participate in both activities and

lessons by guiding with the use of appropriate strategies. The use of questions assist the teacher

in assessing the students current understanding of content, increase students motivation and

guides new learning. Teachers start the process of student participation by having clear stated

objectives to guide students thinking and conduct participation. Involving students with direct

objectives in mind will frame the interaction of the students and organize the presentation of

content. Questions are an essential part of the students involvement. Teachers benefit from

focusing their questions to be frequent, equitable to students background, open ended,

prompting, using repetitions to emphasize essential information and using waiting time to
 increase the quality of students response. In preparation to involving students and increase

learning , teachers plan their questions by using the strategies of asking low and high level

questions, selecting who should be called on to answer questions and deciding when a call out or

choral response is appropriate

Conclusion

In concluding, I have learned that an effective teacher who takes the time to prepare her

lessons, makes use of strategies, focus on clear objectives and keep the lesson as a classroom

event by involving all her students, achieve greater results. Perhaps the greatest of all these

results is an increased knowledge by both student and teacher.