Effective Teaching - PD according to Students

Talking and listening to a range of Year 9-10 and Year 12-13 and effective teaching according to students, it was interesting to listen to what they thought was important to learning and teaching. I'm always trying to make my classroom the three E's - Entertaining/ engaging and exciting! Linda and I are looking forward to doing this with the teachers and students at Torbay School.

• Effective/ fun in learning-not a chore-like to be engaged-
• Great memories to go with the learning - rather than writing everything down.
• TEACHERS - understanding different learning needs/ styles of learning to help them effectively.
• Peers/ family - help from a variety of people they help build life skills - face to face learning
• Making learning Entertaining/ Engaging/ Exciting - example - using XBox for a literacy session and then writing about it etc.
• Discovering new ways to learning - make the student comfortable to learn. Not making learning terrifying. The ways teachers are helping students are targeting all students to reach their goal.
• Impact of technology? Learning from outside sources eg youtube
• Learning environment / social media - ‘cooler’ kids disrespect learning
• Face to face communication- changes in the home-phones etc
• Admired qualities-inclusiveness but can backfire as “smarter” kids sometimes left out and result in “not getting it”.
• Introvert/extrovert- good teacher draws everyone in

Disliked Qualities

• Frightened teachers hide behind desks with worksheets-interesting
• Thick accents can distract
• Negative input- eg you are not going to pass
• Telling students that they can’t - students loose engagement/ the older you, the more critical you are.
• Continuing a topic/ lesson for too long - boring!

Slide about What makes a Great Teacher/ Teacher Effectiveness - here

Effective teaching according to students:(Year 12/13)

• Environment- social
• Set themselves up for the future - looking at where they will head into their passion area for the future - tertiary education. Just focusing on the aspect that will help them and not the other areas of their learning
• Interactive teacher-talk with not to
• supportive
• Impact on the person - guiding students - role models/ citizenship/ views on life/ character building - learning to learn
• The person that cares for your learning - is the person that can adapt their teaching to suit the need of the students.
• Teachers set the mood for that class - making the lessons memorable/ like them - fun and engaging that you want to listen
• Knowing students personalities - respect for that students. Understanding the culture of the students.
• ‘Sugar coat’ education at primary/ intermediate. Students need to also take responsibility for their own education. Learning that it’s important that students understand that they are incharge of their learning -  teaching = learning - learning to learn. Learning from your mistakes…. But if you keep making mistakes that’s STUPID! (students putting the effort in) reciprocal relationship builds success
• New ideas/alternate perspectives to expand brain/thinking- almost outside the square but challenges thinking to build own perspective- critical thinking skill development
• Make deliberate connections within learning to make it more meaningful/memorable
• Inspire rather than teach- not content deliverers
• Teachers need to be interested in what they are teaching - interested and engaged - in order to engage students.They need to share ”wonderment and awe” also
• Giving choices helps motivate- even if they might be selected to a point eg novel study- choice really helps in engaging in your own learning