Each and every student is valuable and teachable.  Each student deserves an equal opportunity to learn.  Teachers need to realize the importance of the way that they teach and how it affects students.  Students are diverse and learn differently and I believe it is the teacher’s responsibility to prepare students to live and achieve in the world today.  Teachers need to thoroughly know their students.  Teachers need to know their students’ interests, family life, abilities, and learning styles. Understanding and knowledge will reach learners differently; teachers need to teach their lessons in a variety of ways to meet each child’s needs.  Too often, teachers teach lessons in the way that they would learn best and they don’t consider the students that learn differently from them.

    A successful teacher is eager and enthused with what they are teaching.  A successful teacher is open minded and flexible to meet all students’ needs.  Teachers need to implement technology in their lessons.  Students need to be familiar with the latest; they will use this technology in the real word.  A successful teacher has a balanced literacy program in their classroom to meet every students needs.  A successful teacher continually examines the effectiveness of their instructional strategies and practices.  A successful teacher is one who never stops learning.

    It is important that students know the purpose of what they are learning.  Every lesson needs to be designed with a purpose in mind.  When a teacher creates units and lessons, they need to create them based on standards, goals, and objectives.  Too often, teachers create lessons based on activities and they do not have a set of goals or objectives that they want their students to achieve.  Everything that is taught needs to have meaning.  Teachers need to assess their students formatively and summatively on the material that they want them to learn.  Teachers also need to have questions play an important role in the classroom.  Fewer questions should be asked and they should be on higher levels.  Questions can be used to probe and prompt students, to check for comprehension, and to assess students understanding.  After a teacher asks a question, s/he needs to give the student more wait time to answer the question.

    Every student deserves to learn in a safe environment.  A teacher needs to have good classroom management.  They need to stay in control of the classroom and of situations that happen in the classroom.  It is a teacher’s role to prevent and correct misbehavior.  Every classroom needs to have positive and negative consequences.  The students need to be aware of both.  I believe that every teacher needs to develop a respectful relationship with his or her students.  Everything that the teacher does in the classroom needs to be thought out and meaningful.  I believe that teaching is the most important profession.  Without teachers we would not have knowledgeable people working in other occupations in our world.