What should teacher preparation programs be teaching future teachers to best succeed in your 21st Century School?

Please collaborate to capture the our discussion today:

What are the skills that they need?

1) Building a community in their classroom to  support classroom management

2) How to effectively plan - plan lessons with plan b’s in mind..etc. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

3) Communication: how to effectively communicate with parents, students, colleagues.

*Parent communication -- teacher / parent communication struggle quite a bit.

*How to create relationships and collaborations with colleagues.

4) Social Media Digital Citizenship  

5) Being more data-informed throughout the year, not just the end of the year. Data-based decision making.

6) Formative data and assessments.

7) Informed decisions about tools or sets of tools for specific learning tasks and how to critically evaluate a tool. No tech for tech sake.

8) How to coach especially when you don’t have those skills.

9) Need for mentors to help build new teacher skill sets.

10) How to make students take ownership of their own learning.

*New Teachers have ownership of their own learning. How do you inspire that in others.

11) Elements of Game Theory - what motivates people to do certain things and behave a certain way?

12) Teacher programs don’t model the skills they may teach. Ex: Computer lab super siloed (it’s not just the job of the tech specialist to teach tech skills.)

13) Collaboration -- willingness to take risks.

14) The idea that you’re not going to be a master teacher on Day 1. It’s an on-going learning process.

15) Should be taught in a one-to-one environment

16) They need to be on #NTchat -- leverage other new teachers.

17) They need to be encouraged to collaborate effectively and create content/resources through collaboration.

18) Grit, Persistence, Struggle through achivements

19) Taking a risk, be uncomfortable with the unknown.

20) It’s ok not too know

21) “New teachers are great students but terrible learners”

22) Take a give constructive criticism

23) We need to recognize their strengths and build on them

24) How to create an engaging classroom (then you won’t have to deal with classroom management)

What are some examples of how it can/has been taught?

  • Unlearning - getting rid of what you know and start from scratch. Unlearn how you teach “rigor” and “grammar” to provide hooks to get them interested in the subject/topic. Ex: Incorporate mythology within latin.
  • Carrie Ross: An example of a program that was project-based and gamified. Forced you to work collaboratively. The environment simulated the environment you’re learning about.
  • Dean Mantz: Has Students Blog Every Week. Develop DIgital Footprint while they learn. Get feedback from the public. Google Hangouts + backchanneling skills. Modeling global education.
  • George Couros: School teacher vs classroom teacher. Treating all kids as their own. Any student is their kid. Changing perspective.
  • Teachers following brands/education influencers/resources on twitter.

  • Notes:
  • Don’t use the term failure  -- it’s called learning.
  • Too often we talk about collaboration but what do we individually bring to the table.
  • FAIL - First Attempt At Learning.
  • #profchat -- on twitter. Join the chat - what are we doing :)
  • From Lisa Dabbs: #ntchat held on 7/3/13 to add to this convo. Topic: What’s missing from your teacher ed/prep program? http://storify.com/teachingwthsoul/new-teacher-chat-ntchat-on-7-3-13

 

Does this need to be a conversation that is held with Teacher Education professors or K-12 students.