Manage It All: Students, Curriculum, and Time

Effective teachers successfully navigate their students' often-unpredictable
classroom behavior; they establish a classroom environment that facilitates learning; they
differentiate instruction and assessment; they facilitate learning through cooperative groups; and
they find time to meet their personal goals. How do they do it all? Veteran teacher Dr. Debbie Silver
shares her classroom management techniques and strategies as she explains how the teacher sets
the tone and climate of the classroom. Educators will learn to head off discipline problems before
they occur using student-centered discipline techniques. With strategies in place for managing
the classroom, Dr. Silver shifts to designing high-quality curriculum, integrating standards, using
backwards design principles, and developing activities suited to different learning styles. Dr. Silver
explains how she uses "discrepant events" to challenge students' prior assumptions, a technique
that improves learning and increases retention. Using zone of proximal development strategies,
educators learn to develop activities that are attainable but just beyond their students' reach.
Educators learn to use cooperative learning as a teaching strategy, where the teacher's role shifts
from direct instruction to facilitation. Using this approach, teachers reinforce concepts, clarify
directions, encourage students, and affirm positive group interactions. To motivate students,
teachers will learn to use intrinsic rewards, which prepare students for lifelong learning and success
rather than extrinsic rewards, which are generally short lived. Finally, because teachers never
have enough time in the day to do everything, they will learn how to evaluate and prioritize their
own activities, delegate, and make time to reach their personal and professional goals. Designed
for new and veteran teachers, this course provides timesaving strategies, practical tips, and great
ideas for all teachers to create an effective learning environment for their students.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Professional Development
• education technology
• leadership
• education