Best Teaching Practices - Are there any?

I came upon this blog about Best Teaching practices. by James Sigler who I already follow on Twitter. This started me thinking about my teaching practices and how I am a constant "self doubter" when it comes to classroom management. It is noted in some of my observations and I am a constant critic of myself when it comes to the class management piece of my job. No one ever tells you what it is going to be like. There is no training that can really prepare you for the classroom from you know where! It is that miserable combination of students who feed off of each other, who yell across the room, who get out of their chair without asking, who shout out when they should be quiet, you know the ones right?? Well, I am taking my lack of classroom management and going to a training Tuesday on how to deal with difficult students and their behavior. Secretly, I am hoping it helps me with my own children who are 16, 13 and 11! Two for the price of one.

So, when I read the above blog post, I think I do a lot of the tasks mentioned, but I try to be a little laid back in the classroom style that I run. I think that computers should be fun, hands on, interactive, and cooperative. It should be a place where you are not just figuring out how to change margins on a word processing document, but why you might want to change the margins so you can conserve paper and print on one page. I want the kids to figure it out or ask each other for help.

I think I am pretty good at coming up with the projects, which I think are what the kids would like, but I am not so sure they all are of the "higher" order thinking that is mentioned in the new Blooms Taxonomy. I aspire to work towards making all of my lessons based upon Understanding by Design principles, which all touch upon a part of Blooms, but I just have never had the time to convert them all over to that high quality! Plus link them all to the standards for ICT as well as any GLE standards for the school goals.

I am hard on myself, I know that. I think being a computer teacher (or part of the Unified Arts department) is another issue in itself. Sometimes the kids and possibly, I am not pointing any fingers, but the core teachers even look at us as less. We are the right brain teachers who are trying to help our students be creative, think outside of the box. I am reading Daniel Pink- A Whole New Mind right now. Hopefully this will shed some light on the creativity reasoning.

I think I like teaching students. I am pretty sure I enjoy middle schoolers. I like them, I know that, because I keep going back. The discipline is difficult though, and I know I am not a follow througher.. if that is such a phrase! I will keep you posted after my seminar to see if I can find some help. I would hate to have to change jobs again in my life, since I am almost 40 now! :) I wish I knew exactly what I want to be when I grow up.