Derek Place

Designing lessons that are flexible, engaging and accessible for all students is the goal of Universal Design.  It is important to consider the impacts of your design.  What may be beneficial for some students may create a barrier for others.  Car planning and design is imperative to meet the individual needs of all students.

A good teacher is always open to trying new things, using new materials and adjusting lesson to keep them engaging for students.

It is important to take notes and reflect on your lessons so that you can continue to improve your instruction.

Blooms taxonomy can be used to help create lessons that allow students to demonstrate their understanding using different depts of knowledge.

Keeping a folder, or google file, of lesson plans will help you make adjustments and changes to your plan for the next time that you teach it.

It is important to use many resources when planning your lessons.  Pretests allow you to have an understanding of what students already know, what skills they have and what skills they need to learn.

Consistency in grading is important.  Using a point system allows students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding in different ways. Keeping your grade book accurate and up to date give students feedback about how they are doing and shows them you care about their work. 

It is important to consider your pacing and to know where you are in a lesson so you can adjust as needed.

It is also important to always have a plan B, just incase things do work out as planned.

Using multiple sense when sharing information and instructing students will increase student ability to retain information

Learning is the most important aspect of the classroom, nit the teaching.  I will focus on student learning.  I will plan lessons and lab activities that focus on the learning and less on my teaching.  I will also model how to handle mistakes so that my students know that we are all human and make mistakes.  It is how we handle the mistake that is the important part.

Changing mind set is important.

Instead of:"what is wrong with you?'  

Try: " Where is this behavior coming from?"

or  "What happened to you?'