What is an Effective

Teacher?

Sandra Roberts
Summer 2002
EMG 807
What is an effective teacher?
 A kind of teacher
that can change the
course of a
students’ life.

 A FAVORITE
teacher!!
How Effective Teachers Perceive
 Themselves

 Their students

 Teaching

 Their subject
Effective Teachers Never Forget

 Positive self-perceptions
 Doesn’t take misbehavior PERSONAL!
 Works WITH students not just NEAR.
 Never forgets what it is like to be a KID.
 Empathic
 Feels good about themselves and are
effective people in general.
 Effective Teachers are
Effectively NAI VE
 Positive perceptions about students.
 HIGH EXPECTATIONS
 Believe that somewhere down deep
there are good kids in everyone just
trying to get out.
 Sustains POSITIVE expectations even
when presented with negatives.
 Effective Teachers See the BIG
Picture
 Focuses on two important things –
KIDS and EDUCATION.
 Believes their job is to produce
effective, happy competent human
beings.
 “How will these kids be better ten years
from now because of what happened in
class today?”
Effective Teachers Know Their
Stuff
 Knows their subject
and gains personal
satisfaction from
sharing what they
know.
 Uses enthusiasm,
humor, dramatics,
and self-disclosure.
 Nine “M’s” of Motivation
1. Emotion – Control the emotions and you
control the message. 93% of the message
is the emotion and sensory associations.
2. Imagination – Get students to imagine or
envision new actions. Imagination is so
rarely tapped. At-risk learners fantasize
regularly and become skilled at it.
Imagination taps the natural, practiced
cognitive processes of some learners.
Imagination can be bold, daring, impractical,
and even absurd.
 Nine “M’s” of Motivation
1. Movies of the Mind – Communicate so
learners can access remembered life
experiences related to your content. Use
sensory or evocative language (images,
feelings, odors, touch, taste).
4. Motive – Answer the question “Why” in
compelling and attractive ways in the first
three minutes of your communication.
Remember that your motive may not be the
learner’s motive. Get students to do the
right thing for the wrong reasons.
 Nine “M’s” of Motivation
1. Mind Sets – Like a flashlight pointed in the
darkness, we find only what we look for.
Mind set often reflect our beliefs and
remembered associated experiences.
When you change the mind set, you change
the meaning.
2. Metaphors – The mind is metaphoric. Use
stories and analogies as a way of
expanding meaning and motivation. Ask
students to draw a picture of your message.
 Nine “M’s” of Motivation

7. Models of Excellence – We become a

lot like the people with whom we spend
time. We mimic or parent like we were
parented and teach like we were taught.
Getting learners to identify and
describe admired adults provides a
frame work for understanding subliminal
meaning making and motivation.
 Nine “M’s” of Motivation
1. Mottos – Voices of the past become platitudes of
the present. Most of us repeat internal “self-talk”
unconsciously which reflects an internal dialogue
as an effort to make meaning. Inquire about the
self talk. What are the mottos of the learner?
2. Morphic Resonance – The culture of a peer group
or climate of a classroom has implied rules for
acceptable and unacceptable responses. To
change the culture, you must change the rituals
and often the informal leaders who unconsciously
determine the rules and reactions of others.
 Model What You Want
 Teachers who preach futility and practice
helplessness develop impotence in their students.
 Teachers who are enthusiastic have enthusiastic
students.
 Teachers who are cynical promote apathy in their
students.
 Teachers who are hopeful have students who are
optimistic.
 Teachers who model combativeness and hostility
produce angry, self-centered students.
 Teachers who are kind and respectful to others have
students who show compassion.
 Classroom Rituals

Rituals are activities that are repeated that

communicate, “What’s Important Here!”

What are the existing rituals in your classroom?

What’s important here? How is improvement
celebrated? What is the dominant emotion of
learners? How do you handle questions,
attendance, discipline, grades, parents,
humor, conflict, homework, etc?
 Choosing the Classroom Ritual
Questions the teacher should answer in selecting a
ritual:
2. What is important here?
3. What is the legacy I want to leave with learners
today?
4. What am I teaching worth remembering for a
lifetime?
5. What is the dominant emotion I want learners to
feel?
6. How can I connect what I am teaching to learner
mind motives?
We find what we look for…

Look for improvement, not perfection.

Acknowledge indicators of improvement.
Celebrate quality performance and efforts
at improvement.
If we look for problems and imperfection,
we will find them and encourage and
expand them by drawing attention to
them.
 One of the greatest gifts is to
hear…

“Youare my
FAVORITE
TEACHER!!”
 References
 Wasicko, M. (2002, July 10). Building successful
relationships with children. Educating Kentucky’s At-
Risk Kids: Best Practices for Alternative & Non-
Traditional Setting Conference at Eastern Kentucky
University, Richmond, KY.
 Phillips, G. (2002, July 12). What teachers do to
succeed with students who fail. Educating Kentucky’s
At-Risk Kids: Best Practices for Alternative & Non-
Traditional Setting Conference at Eastern Kentucky
University, Richmond, KY.