I’ve written several posts sharing pieces by Marvin Marshall, who has written some great stuff about positive classroom management strategies. I’d encourage readers to subscribe to his blog.
Today he shared two simple reflective questions he’d suggest that teachers ask themselves to evaluate their work:
If I were a student, would I want me as a teacher?
If yes, list the reasons.
If no, list the reasons.
Short, sweet, and effective…assuming that the teacher has at least a limited sense of self-awareness. One would hope that most teachers would pass that threshold…
Thanks so much. Something I really needed.
I think one thing to be careful about with these questions is that there seems to be an implicit assumption that all students (or at least the hypothetical student) is like the teacher. While the Golden Rule is a good principle, it can lead to perpetuating the success of only students like the teacher, so that those who are “good at school” become the ones who succeed and then go on to teach.
Meredith
Short and sweet is right. Sometimes we learn the simplest things last.
Reader might like my 6 question to measure growth. See my post: “The Reflective Teacher: The Taxonomy of Reflection” http://bit.ly/92kDwc