Summary: Building a Better Teacher

Final.
Teaching techniques are critical to keeping students on track. However, knowing your students and their environment outside the classroom is also a huge component. In order to hold a students attention, information must be relative to the student in some way. It is not necessary to be on their level but that the information be relative to the situation. It is a good idea that teachers must remind themselves not everyone learns the same way.

Building a Better Teacher the author Elizabeth Green found that having great resources students don't necessarily receive the best education. After many years in the education field, Doug Lemov has concluded a teacher must be taught the how to's of his field to be successful. "A good teacher is not born but made." Lemov has an extensive resume first as a teacher, advanced to principal and is a successful charter-school founder. Most recently he has been traveling as a consultant across the country to observe how teachers teach using a video camera. He has concluded there is a technique to being a successful teacher. Lemov found that the most caring teacher with the latest curriculum and software will not produce the brightest students.

Lemov observed in a Syracuse, N.Y. classroom that the latest software did not produce the test results they were expecting. He realized teachers need training in how to get and keep control of their class. Driving back to his home in Albany, he tried to figure out how to instruct the teachers for a better outcome. In his observations he noted no respect for teachers and students gearing off the topic subject. The teachers, daily task of getting students to learn was missing.(Green)

Across the country there is a great concern for what students are retaining.(Green)
Teachers were studied in Tennessee for three years and they found the weak teachers students would score 50 percentile points behind a student with a strong teacher.
The identical material given to students in different classes produced very different outcomes. The margins were huge. Across the country the concern is growing for what students are retaining.

In Michigan State's School of Education, Director Judith Lanier,began to research new innovative ways to teach education. She began two new programs and recruited educators from across the country. An elementary teacher,Deborah Loewenberg Ball, videoed her classroom and it became a model for teacher training. She concluded that teaching is extraordinarily specialized.(Green) It must at times be altered to meet the needs of each pupil.Ball learned through studying math herself and creating,"Math Knowledge for Teaching" that each student learns differently and tools can be made available to reach everyone. Ball began to classify the classroom actions and skills and concluded the best approach is to assume the best in each student. Lemov calls this "Strong Voice."

There is a movement in education to create monetary incentives for teachers who produce affectively. The Obama Administrative Educational Department is supporting merit-pay. Will it lure teachers back into the classroom? Teachers retiring will create a tremendous void. Estimations are that one million new teachers will be hired between now and 2014. They will need proper training to teach affectively.

Lemov, in his frustration after gathering national data regarding teachers helped found charter schools called, "Uncommon Schools" in the Northeast. Their purpose is to prepare students for college, reach high standards in academics and character. The teachers main goal is to give priority to instructional time. Lemov does not believe in replacing teachers but instructing them to a higher standard. "Good teachers have a deliberate technique." (Green)

Lemov turned out a five year project seeking the best teachers across the country. He documented their styles by video and now presents workshops across the country.
Lemov has concluded, "the best approach is simplify the instruction, be systematic, speak only once, be deliberate, make it fun and the students will listen."(Green)

Lemov has a book entitled, "Teach Like a Champion" in it he concludes, capture the attention of the class and you will succeed, be direct and specific using positive reinforcement as you teach,ignore negative behavior and reinforce thank you's. A teachers control should be an exercise in purpose not in power. Lemov's favorite approach stolen from Harvard Business School is, "no one raises their hand to answer a question." The teacher calls randomly on the student. Thus it forces the students to do the work. "A good teacher is not born but made."

I have ordered Lemov's book in hopes of applying some of his ideas to becoming a better home school teacher. I have two years remaining before he graduates from high school and I hope to acquire additional knowledge from reading "Teach Like a Champion" to help improve my sons study techniques. Homeschooling does not allow for classroom interaction with other students but his recent experiences at B.C.C.; University of Mass-Dartmouth and Regent University greatly impressed my husband and I and we look forward to his future education.