The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching
A Checklist for Effective Teaching
Using the do-confirm checklist is exciting for me for many reasons. Most importantly, the struggle of balancing effective instructional practices with the demands of managing a classroom always seems to be a challenging and draining balancing act. Using a checklist to manage the complexity of teaching has always seemed impossible because of the many demands of being an effective teacher. Before learning about the three imperatives, I was constantly juggling at least 10 different thoughts, which I am positive did not contribute to best practices. My thoughts would be all over the place and both my expectations and objectives would quickly tag along for the roller-coaster ride! Often times, as a result, my lesson is not at all what I planned because I am not prioritizing my many teaching duties. Now, my thoughts will all revolve around three imperatives of good teaching. Am I being demanding? Am I being supportive? Am I being Intentional?
Organizing and prioritizing my thoughts as a classroom teacher has always been the most challenging. I struggle with monitoring my own best practices while monitoring the students learning, engagement, misconceptions, motivation, etc! The do-confirm checklist is a "cheat sheet" that will help teachers to prioritize their MANY thoughts! Effective teaching has everything to do with what the teacher is thinking!
I can see this checklist improving my practice from planning all the way to Reflecting on the lesson & planning a re-teach! I imagine the list serving as a guideline to help create and facilitate the most effective lessons while monitoring students success.
Initially, I thought of the checklist as being something that should be followed in chronological order. I thought of it as being demanding in your planning, supportive in your teaching, and intentional about your feedback. While this is true, I also learned that these three imparatives feed off of each other. After reading further, I gained a better understanding of how being demanding does not end with planning. The do-confirm list helps me to think of how I am being demanding in my planning(Standards, set clear and high expectations) teaching, ( Be transparent about expectations and ensure every student has their own learning objective) and assessment (measure understanding against high expectations). I began to ask myself, how can I be supportive throughout the entire learning cycle? How can I be intentional throughout the entire cycle?
Using the do-confirm checklist is exciting for me for many reasons. Most importantly, the struggle of balancing effective instructional practices with the demands of managing a classroom always seems to be a challenging and draining balancing act. Using a checklist to manage the complexity of teaching has always seemed impossible because of the many demands of being an effective teacher. Before learning about the three imperatives, I was constantly juggling at least 10 different thoughts, which I am positive did not contribute to best practices. My thoughts would be all over the place and both my expectations and objectives would quickly tag along for the roller-coaster ride! Often times, as a result, my lesson is not at all what I planned because I am not prioritizing my many teaching duties. Now, my thoughts will all revolve around three imperatives of good teaching. Am I being demanding? Am I being supportive? Am I being Intentional?
Organizing and prioritizing my thoughts as a classroom teacher has always been the most challenging. I struggle with monitoring my own best practices while monitoring the students learning, engagement, misconceptions, motivation, etc! The do-confirm checklist is a "cheat sheet" that will help teachers to prioritize their MANY thoughts! Effective teaching has everything to do with what the teacher is thinking!
I can see this checklist improving my practice from planning all the way to Reflecting on the lesson & planning a re-teach! I imagine the list serving as a guideline to help create and facilitate the most effective lessons while monitoring students success.
Initially, I thought of the checklist as being something that should be followed in chronological order. I thought of it as being demanding in your planning, supportive in your teaching, and intentional about your feedback. While this is true, I also learned that these three imparatives feed off of each other. After reading further, I gained a better understanding of how being demanding does not end with planning. The do-confirm list helps me to think of how I am being demanding in my planning(Standards, set clear and high expectations) teaching, ( Be transparent about expectations and ensure every student has their own learning objective) and assessment (measure understanding against high expectations). I began to ask myself, how can I be supportive throughout the entire learning cycle? How can I be intentional throughout the entire cycle?
