trusting source for establishing those relationships
since He is our creator. Seek His guidance as you go
about going from being a good teacher to a great
one.
Create an Inviting Learning Environment
Aside from having an environment within the
classroom that is welcoming to the eye, great
teachers understand that the way students respond
and coexist in that room points equally to that
environment being inviting. Yes, it is important to
create an atmosphere visually that reflects
personality, positive messages, and content specific
resources, but the culture that is established and
reinforced, beginning day one, tends to supersede in
importance. Good becomes great when students
feel safe to grow as learners and do it together. As
an evaluator in this stage of my career, there is
nothing like walking into a classroom where the
students are doing most of the instructional talking.
Those great teachers realize that students learn best
from each other and when they are able to articulate
their thinking, teaching is more directed and
meaningful. This cannot happen if the environment
is uninviting, or even disinviting. A great professor
shared with our group recently that it doesn’t matter
what school a student goes to but it does matter
what classroom (s)he is in. When she said that, my
eyebrows raised and I began to nod agreeably in my
spirit from what I see when going into rooms. I
challenge you to not only decorate the room in a
welcoming way, but produce a climate that
welcomes the transfer of knowledge to go forth
everyday.
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Our students are our business,
without them we don’t exist. With
that being said, we must value the
quality of the instruction we provide
each day.
Passionately Teach
I chose to subtitle this section in that order rather
than teach passionately because this notion involves
passion for what you do to get ready to teach as
much as it does during and after teaching. Our
students are our business, without them we don’t
exist. With that being said, we must value the quality
of the instruction we provide each day. Good
teaching becomes great teaching when teachers
become researchers that use personal data in an
ongoing fashion. Researching techniques that could
potentially yield better results is key. This research
should include collaborating with other teachers
both in and outside of your building. Empowering
the research is reflection. Great teachers reflect daily
on what they did that was effective and not
effective. This is what makes the next day such a gift.
Those things happen before and after great lessons.
During the lessons of a great teacher you see a
teacher that knows how to get out of the way. The
classroom of a great teacher is not filled with his/her
own voice, but that of the learners. In my research
there was an article that spoke to this notion
beautifully when it mentioned, “So often good
teachers—in their tremendous goodness—have