Sharing ideas on Education, Leadership and Life



Tuesday, January 6, 2015

WHAT SKILLS ARE NEEDED

picture: www.wildapricot.com

Today's prompt is on what advice would I give to new teachers?

So recently there was a Facebook conversation on the JEDLAB group page. Here was the question

A brand new teacher, fresh out of grad school, wants a good, practical, no nonsense, less abstract, more concrete, list of strategies book (or books) that will help her be a more effective teacher. (Cant get more loaded then that!) Suggestions? Tikvah Wiener Matt Williams Jon Mitzmacher Eliezer JonesPearl Mattenson Maccabee Avishur Shira Leibowitz Shira HochheimerNancy Levine Siegel Naomi Weiss Akevy Greenblatt Aaron Ross Aliza Chanales and the rest of JEDlab

There was such a lively discussion that a Google Doc was created to compile all the different answers. 

As many have mentioned before putting this into a short post with one or two ideas and skills is very hard. 

However  I would have to say two come to mind as being crucial. 

The first is  being a lifelong learner. Teachers need to be learning and growing all the time and they need to model this behavior for their students. The analogy I like the best is that some would not go to a doctor who attended medical school 20 years ago and is not current with he latest trends in the medical profession. Why would we and should we expect anything less from our educators and they  to need to be update on the latest trends in education. 

The second is developing a growth mindset. That to me probably should have been first. A growth mind set allows a person to grow and not be stuck where they are. It encourages risk taking, and being open to feedback and constructive criticism. So a growth mindset  includes many other important skills. 


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msaprilshowers.com

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