Best Teaching Practices

Topic: What strategies does the teacher use to actively engage the students? How effective are these?

"Mrs. Kay" has been teaching for many, many years all of which she has spent in special education.  I have learned countless things from her, the most important thing in my opinion has been her positive attitude.  This might not be a physical teaching tool, but I would watch a student in her class act out and say hurtful, mean things and "Mrs. Kay" would never fail to respond in a warm and kind way that would have a calming effect both on herself and the student.  Was it effective?  Very, all of the student had come to love her and it created an environment where the students learned so much more than they would have had she not reacted to situations the way she did.  Another tool I have seen "Mrs. Kay" use ,along with other teachers, is classroom responsibility everyday during opening exercises.  Each student in "Mrs. Kay's" class was assigned a color at the start of the school year and these colors were used to help keep students aware of their roles in the classroom without help from the teacher.  Was it effective? Yes, I think the students enjoyed having their own responsibilities and consequences for not being prepared for their daily class duties.  Also, it help keep the students attention during opening exercises.

Another great and inspiring trick "Mrs. Kay" used was teachers choice.  During the week, if the students were well behaved "Mrs. Kay" would offer teachers choice every Friday were she would spend time with the class as a whole watching a short movie, sharing an interactive story, learning a new song, or my personal favorite, cooking.  Was it effective?  Yes, again "Mrs. Kay's" positive attitude would come into play, but the students would have so much fun with her learning something new that she was so excited about.  Her excitement was contagious.  Lastly,  I know I have discussed this strategy before, but it works so well for the particular group of students "Mrs. Kay" teaches and that is centers.  Throughout the day in her class the student rotate from the reading table to the math table to workshops where they practice important skills in counting, spelling, and writing.  Was this effective?  Probably more so than any other tool "Mrs. Kay" used because it gave the students more free range to decide what they wanted to do first in workshops and always kept their mind moving.