An effective teacher is one who runs an effective classroom, and touches the
lives of children. An efficient teacher is one who knows what they are doing and
does the right thing consistently. To be and effective and efficient teacher you
must have three very important characteristics for student success. Positive
expectations, extremely good classroom management skills, and know how to design
lessons for student mastery. Positive expectations are essential to student
success. When the teacher has high expectations, not high standards, the
students will perform to your expectations. If you believe that all students are
above average and that they all are capable learners, these expectations will
transmit to the student, and the student will succeed. If these expectations are
apparent toward all students it will benefit both the teacher and the students.
Good classroom management is important for student success. For this to happen,
the teacher has to be very organized, and consistent in everything. The teacher
must maintain control so that instruction and learning can occur. Much of the
control that a teacher has over a class is effected by what the teacher does on
the first day of school. If you can maintain control during the first week, that
is an accurate indicator for how well the students will do for the rest of the
year. Designing lessons for student mastery is also very important for student
success. To teach for mastery, an effective teacher must do two things, know how
to design lessons in which the student can learn, and know how to evaluate the
learning to see if the student has mastered the concept. You can learn to be an
effective teacher by learning from your mistakes as well as from your mentors
and fellow teachers. Every one of us is both a student and a teacher. We are at
our best when we teach ourselves what we need to learn.