Effective Teaching – Measuring the Immeasurable
Article from the Series: Essentials for Effective New Teachers “Development of effective teachers” has become a common goal in education—I would even say, it is a catchphrase. Internet lists of teacher qualities inspire us; merit pay motivates us; mentorships instruct us; administrators inspect and evaluate us. Responsibility for and expectations of “effectiveness” have been heaped upon us teachers. When we turn the calendar page to June…
Selecting Essay Topic on FTCE
Many teacher licensing exams, such as the Florida FTCE, have a writing test that gives you an option to choose your prompt. Both prompts will lend themselves to excellent essays. The trick is to choose the one that fits your skills and experience. Here are some points to consider. Match your selection with your knowledge. When you read the prompts, you will likely have…
Countdown to Teacher Licensure Exam
As you approach your teacher licensure exam, you can take specific actions that will ensure you are confidently prepared to test. You want to show up on your state’s annual pass rate report in the pass column rather than in the fail column. You have been anticipating this exam since your first education course your freshman year of college. Now, you find that the time has…
Effective Teachers Organize
Article from the Series: Essentials for Effective New Teachers Any healthy list of “Factors that Overwhelm New Teachers” is incomplete without a mention of “the stuff.” The combined accumulation of what you bring to the classroom and what you inherit from your predecessor may have you spiraling. You’ll need to get organized for the sake of your own efficiency, but most of all for the sake…
Passing the Composition Exercise: Mechanics
PrepForward provides online preparation courses to candidates practicing compositions for state teacher tests, including the MTEL Communication and Literacy Skills exam in MA. In this series, I’ll share the most common errors I see and tips for making a solid score on each performance characteristic. Other articles in series: Passing the Composition Exercise: Usage Spelling, punctuation, capitalization — these three areas are evaluated under the Mechanics trait on…
Effective Teachers Evaluate
Article from the Series: Essentials for Effective New Teachers Is it fair to say that every on-the-job minute of a teacher’s life is spent evaluating? Never a moment passes that a teacher is not called upon to evaluate student learning, classroom atmosphere, lesson delivery, behavior, and more. Based on these evaluations, teachers are expected to use their quick wits and their long term planning strategies to…