If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, teaching is an art. Roller coaster physics, 3rd grade Chinese math, and whole brain teaching offer three diverse teaching strategies that all require training, practice, and seem to be quite effective. What a great reminder that teaching has no one-size-fits-all strategy or what I guess you could call a meta-strategy. Teaching requires creative teachers willing to learn, develop, make mistakes, and keep moving forward for the sake of the students and their futures.

The roller coaster physics class was, for me, the ideal learning situation. The teacher had obviously implemented and practiced excellent norms and procedures. From what could be observed on the video, it seemed every child knew what was expected of him/her and remained on task and engaged. There seemed to be an extremely high level of respect for one another (even the young girl with a severe speech impediment was not afraid to speak out) and this only aided their organized and safe learning situation. For a 5th and 6th grade class that was engaged to the level I observed in the video, student academic expectations must be consistently high. This high level of student expectation could be deduced from the teacher’s explanation of the unit and what she expected from each student.

The 3rd grade Chinese maths class is structured in a way considered “old school” by many western teachers and curriculum coordinators. Rote memorization, whole class focused on the teacher at the whiteboard, and student work being displayed on the whiteboard while peers observe student working out a problem have all but been disregarded for more more collaborative, creative, and less risky strategies. That being said, it is well documented that China (especially cities like Shanghai) boast top scorers on international maths tests. I have no doubt that procedures and norms are put in place, as students seem to know what’s expected of them. This teaching model may lend itself to a lower student expectancy than other models but likely students in this environment have very high social and parental learning expectations. In countries, like China, where education is valued so highly, behaviour problems are less frequent that in other learning cultures.

The whole brain teaching method seemed engaging if not a little overactive. As the website advertises, this teaching method is often found most effective for challenging learners. Student who have ADHD or any type of behavior concerns may find this whole body engaging way of learning necessary for engagement. Procedures and norms are obviously extremely high for this method of teaching. In fact, I am sure that as the year begins, there is a long process of teaching students the signs and procedures and then practicing often. Once in place, however, students will likely know exactly what’s expected of them in the classroom and this may result in less frequent behavior concerns and other distractions that take time away from learning.    

As a high school English and Biblical Studies teacher, I knowingly and unknowingly use some of these same strategies to create a learning environment that fosters high student expectations. Through my learning in this program, I have encountered strategies that I will implement to improve learning, behavior, and expectancy outcome in my students. After our learning from unit 2, it occurred to me that the few behavior challenges that I have had this year have been due to my lack of clear communication and implementation of rules, procedures, and norms as the year began. This is something I plan to change at the semester break. When class resumes for the second semester, I will be implementing some rules and procedures regarding the use of technology that I am certain will improve our class learning environment.

For this unit it became clear to me that I treat students differently depending on my level of learning expectancy that I have for them. Understanding this, I have taken stock of who and why I expect less from certain students and I have made a commitment to override my bias and ensure that I treat each student the same, exhibiting the same behaviors for each student. Today in class, I had a chance to mentally self-correct as I approached a student who I have a lower expectancy towards. I reminded myself that this student really does have the capability to learn at the highest level and my actions, tone, and demeanor adjusted to match what it is for the more “gifted” students.