Maintain High Expectations

I have been drowning in readings and video clips of effective teaching strategies. I stumbled upon a book about classroom management which has been useful, and quite insightful. The first chapter is titled, "Maintain high expectations for student's behavior and for one's own ability to assert authority in the classroom." This concept has been amazing to learn about. Each teacher has an objective daily for the classroom that goes along with the state standard, and the lesson for which the teacher has prepared. With this objective, each student has specific expectations they set for themselves as each standard is presented. The teacher meets with each student at the beginning of a new unit and goes over individual goals each student writes and strives to achieve individually. Then, the teacher meets with the student again at the end of the unit to assess the progress made at achieving that goal set forth. Pretty amazing, this allows each student to be held responsible for his/her learning throughout the school year. With this expectation comes and expectation for the teacher to as well set a standard for themselves. So, the teacher must post somewhere in the classroom his/her expectations as a teacher for themselves. This allows the teacher to model to the students how to strive after and achieve goals set forth! I love this model and definitely plan on using it in my own classroom!