If you want a good definition of effective teaching, read Miguel Solis’ answer
Here is an excerpt from the Dallas Morning News questionnaire of Miguel Solis, a former Marsh Middle School instructor who is running for the DISD school board. I point this out because this attitude is what makes for a good educator:
What is an example of how you led a team or group toward achieving an important goal?
I consider my time as a teacher to be the most important training one could have to serve as an effective School Board member. My first year of teaching, my 130 students and I set a goal to reach 80 percent passage of the TAKS test, 60 percent of those passing obtaining a “commended” score, and each student leaving a “world-minded” student. My first task was to invest my students and their parents/guardians into these big goals. This took quite a bit of time and effort and included personal conversations with each student and phone calls/home visits/parent-teacher conferences. Once my students were invested, my strategic plan had to be purposeful at all levels (year-long/unit/daily plans) so that I was not selling false hopes to my students. Throughout the year it was critical that I executed my plan to perfection, and