Foundations and Assessment of Education/Edition 1/In Today's Schools Table of Contents/Teacher Expectations

 Teacher Expectations   Observations and Reflections from Today's Classrooms

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I know that my expectations for my classroom will need to be adjusted throughout the beginning of my career. I like to think that every student can learn everything they need to if they are given the right tools, motivation, and time. I also know that since I will be teaching in the real world these expectations are not obtainable. There may not be enough time, tools, or motivation to reach every student. I do know that I will give every students as much of these as I have.Jnemo001 (talk) 01:55, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

One of my favorite teachers teaches 2nd grade. Her classroom is always under control and she is always calm and easy going which in turn makes her students calm and easy going. I admire her technique. What I've learned by watching her with her students is that she has clear expectations for them and expects them to be met. The students respond to that and meet them. Her class rules are posted in a place that's easy for kids to see. She means what she says and her consequences are clear (she uses the green, yellow, red light system of behavior). She disciplines in a positive manner and allows her students to make behavior choices and then be responsible for their actions. She doesn't overpraise, which I think is as much a problem as not being supportive. Overall, her students are very happy and secure in her classroom because they know what to expect from her and what she expects from them. 97.80.242.214 (talk) 23:55, 30 July 2009 (UTC) Sciaston (talk) 23:00, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

I observed the elementary art teacher, and her interaction with the class was typically positive. However, the thought that comes to my mind is not the teacher I observed, but another teacher I met while at this elementary school. She teaches kindergarten and I told her that I used to want to teach kindergarten until I decided on art. I told her some of my fondest elementary school memories were when I was in kindergarten. And she told me I wouldn't like kindergarten anymore because she couldn't do any fun stuff with them, they didn't even have centers anymore. My thought was the teacher makes the classroom fun, she might have certain rules to follow or certain things to teach, but she makes the class the way it is ... fun or not. I believe it is up to the teacher to decide how her classroom will run, and I felt terrible knowing that this teacher had called in the white flags of defeat because she didn't think she could make something different fun for her students. Hcogg001 (talk) 21:03, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

When I think about teacher expectations, I also think back to my elementary school and my favorite teacher of all time. She was my reading teacher in 3rd grade. She was always in control of her class, and she never ever had to raise her voice. She was always very calm and collected and she had a special way of dealing with the students that challenged her. There was always a lot of fun and learning in her class, but she always had high expectations for us. It was as if all of her students simply wanted to please her. As I can remember, there were a few students in my class had discipline problems. However, I never saw any of these issues in her class. It seemed like the students just knew that when they were in her class they were there to be good students and learn and that behavior problems were simply unacceptable. Alucy001 (talk) 00:35, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Educational theory argues that it is important for teachers to have high expectations for student performance. There have been studies that have shown that if teachers have higher expectations, students are more likely to achieve higher levels of success. For the classes that I observed, there did not seem to be very high expectations by the teacher. During the class, most of the students were sitting up during the first five minutes. But by the first 30 minutes of class, about half the class had their head down, and many of the students were not doing any work at all. This class had apparently been one where the students have acted up and not done much work; the teacher seemed a bit discouraged and therefore, there he did not express high expectations for them. Maybe if the class had started better, with less discipline problems and more organization, the teacher could have shared his high expectations for the class, motivating them to reach higher levels of success. Mbrowder (talk) 13:36, 17 August 2009 (UTC)