Building a Better Teacher

This is a recent article from the New York Times that I examined for one of my credential classes. It looks at the real problem behind struggling test scores. Doug Lemov went to many different struggling schools and found that the problem could be the way teachers are teaching. Therefore, he created a 357 page book on simple teaching techniques that could be incorporated into everyday use. For example, when giving directions to students, stand still. Students are more likely to pay attention to you if you are giving your full attention to them instead of passing out papers or multitasking in some other way. I tried a few of these strategies out with my tutee in my Literacy & Learning class and she really responded well to them. I really want to read this book and find out about more strategies to improve my teaching. This article also gave me a sense of responsibility in that it stresses that if a student or a class is not doing well in something the teacher needs to change his/her approach. You cannot put blame on your students, but you need to adjust your teaching strategies to support their needs.