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Thursday, October 17, 2013

If you want a good definition of effective teaching, read Miguel Solis’ answer | Dallas Morning News

If you want a good definition of effective teaching, read Miguel Solis’ answer | Dallas Morning News:

If you want a good definition of effective teaching, read Miguel Solis’ answer


Miguel Solis, former Marsh Middle School teacher and current candidate for DISD school board
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