Expectations

One of the principles taught in the Wong textbook is the idea that an effective teacher communicates positive expectations. Reflecting upon my years of experience in school I see much evidence to support this idea. Every subject in which I felt successful was supported by a teacher who vocally supported the students and showed confidence in their abilities.

As a student, one of my favorite "first-day" activities (whether it be first day of school or first day of a unit) was for the teacher to show successful displays of students in former years. Seeing that other students just like me had created such effective work gave me confidence in my own work.

I recently saw this in action in TEE 125 when Geoff assigned us to make a communication collage. He showed an example of a student who went above and beyond the year before and made a soccer ball which had images of various types of communication. Before he showed that example my ideas for the project were small. I was thinking a poster-board with magazine clips cut out. Once I saw the example he gave, I suddenly thought much bigger. It enabled me to think outside the box, simply seeing that a student at my level had accomplished so much. It literally added a whole new dimension to my project, bringing it from a flat collage into an three-dimensional object.

I feel that if I strive to show my students successful examples of great work they will feel more capable of success and therefore put forth better effort, which in turn increases learning.