Qualities of Great Educators
Post submitted by whole child blogger Caroline Newton, a sophomore at Temple University. Newton is studying journalism and writes for Jump: The Philly Music Project magazine.
"You know what we're gonna lay down today?" Todd Whitaker of Indiana State University asked the audience. "A bunch of frog pictures."
As a child, Whitaker's favorite part of the encyclopedia was the frog section, where the frog's body was dissected so that he could see its entire anatomy. In his session "What Great Teachers Do Differently" at ASCD's recent Annual Conference in Philadelphia, Whitaker dissected the traits of great educators.
"How many of you know which teachers will send the most kids to the principal's office next year?" Whitaker asked. More than half the audience raised their hands. "And you don't even have the rosters made up yet!" he said. "It's not the students. The variable is the problem."
Crummy teachers treat everyone like they are up to no good; punishing all the students when only a few were being bad, Whitaker said. Take as an example the beginning-of-the-year assembly where the rules of the school