Building Rapport Through Multimodal Lessons: Value Shields
By Maria Lisak While my students may feel lots of loyalty to each other for being Korean and united under Han (the Korean Han nation), classism, sexism, and lookism can … Read More
Category: Teaching & Learning
Come an’ Getcha KIIP – The Korean Immigration Integration Program
By Clare Rawsterne Anyone familiar with England, might know that the headline is a salute to the proverbial market stall owners of London, who call out over the crowds to … Read More
The Teacher as an Observer
Unlike regular teachers, Montessori teachers play two different roles in the Montessori classroom: one role as teacher and the other as observer. It takes a lot of effort to perform these two roles at the same time. Furthermore, because the teacher shares the same environment with their students, they must pay a lot of attention to their environment. Thus, Montessori teachers are always very busy in their classrooms.
There are lots of things to observe in the Montessori classroom. We should observe the behavior and learning status of the children and how the prepared environment of the classroom engages the student, and we even need to observe ourselves. Why should teachers observe themselves? In my opinion, I think that the teacher themself is included in the prepared environment of the Montessori classroom. The teacher must constantly ask themself how their behavior is affecting the children, how well they are performing as an observer, how well are they respecting the children, and are they giving proper assistance to the children.
Teacher Traits for Teaching Great
As an educator, no one wishes to be merely a mediocre teacher. We all wish to be thought of as very good or great teachers by our colleagues, our institution’s administration, and probably most importantly, by our students. There are numerous traits that contribute to making a teacher great. In the previous two installments of this column, we discussed ten of them (Gwangju News, May and June 2023), but I would be remiss to limit the discussion to those ten when there are so many more important traits to consider. I do not wish to suggest that a single teacher must excel at each of these great teacher traits, but it is obvious that the greater one excels at each trait and the more traits that one excels at, the more likely they are to be thought of as a great teacher. The great teacher traits presented here – as well as the ones presented earlier – are in no particular order of importance. I consider them all to be of equal importance.
The Role of Movement in Children’s Education
By Kim Yul Movement is an integral part of the Montessori Method. Through the lens of real-life methodology, it’s clear that movement is essential in order to self-actualize because movement … Read More
Traits That Make a Teacher Great
By Dr. David Shaffer Every teacher wants to be a good teacher. But like all good things in this world, it takes effort. It takes an effort to consider what … Read More
Stimulation and Recognition: Expanding Children’s Sensorial Experience in the Classroom
Montessori has developed a very specific and deliberate methodology to take advantage of the formations of development that exist in children from three to six years old. Until this point, children tirelessly absorb the sights, sounds, and messages of their environment and those around them. At the age of three, a child’s heightened sensitivity to order can be used to guide the fascinating task of learning to organize and decipher existing knowledge. In addition, by adding deliberate movement, you can improve the use of your senses while enhancing your awareness of mathematical principles and patterns that exist in the world around you.
Traits That Very Good English Teachers Exhibit
Have you ever sat back in your most comfortable chair and reflected on yourself as a teacher? Have you thought about what the most important traits are for an English teacher to possess and then considered how strong you were in each of those characteristics? This is something that we all should do, and do regularly, to improve ourselves as teachers. I think it is safe to say that no teacher is equally strong in all good teacher traits – if such a person were to exist, they would probably have moved into the business field, where they could rake in an income that would place them in a much higher tax bracket than that of teachers.
Let’s consider the following (short and by no means exhaustive) list of teacher characteristics and, as we do, reflect on how strong (or how weak) we may personally be in each of the characteristics, and consider what we can or should do to strengthen ourselves in that teacher trait. As you are reflecting, you need not stop with the items listed below; add your own items and reflect on them also.