On Thursday, December 2, 2010 a handful of Villa Academy faculty and staff teamed up to participated in the Cystic Fibrosis Stair-climb. Every step (56 floors in total) brings us one step closer to the a cure! Way to go!!

Spanish Teacher, Teresa Woodward is currently attending SPU’s  Certification and Master’s program.  As part of the program students have to reflect on a variety of topics and experiences that affect our learning.  The keynote speaker at the Archdiocese of Seattle Catholic Schools Teacher Excellence Day on inspired Ms. Woodward’s most recent reflection topic, Rev. Ronald J. Nuzzi, presentation on “The Importance of Catholic Schools.”

Continuing Education: Archdiocese of Seattle Catholic Schools Teacher Excellence Day 2010

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Teresa Woodward’s bPortfolio

Keynote Speaker:  Rev. Ronald J. Nuzzi, University of Notre Dame, “The Importance of Catholic Schools”.

Reverend Ronald Nuzzi was the keynote speaker at the Archdiocese of Seattle Catholic Schools Teacher Excellence Day.  He gave two lectures.  While both addressed the importance of Catholic schools, the first focused on the national successes of Catholic school education and the second focused on what effective classrooms and effective teachers look like. I will summarize his lecture on the classroom perspective.

Reverend Nuzzi referenced the Handbook of research on teaching and information from Barak Rosenshine as sources of the information he presented.  He stated that there are five characteristic teacher behaviors in classrooms where student achievement is significantly higher than the mean. These characteristics are enthusiasm, clarity, time-on-task, variability of method, and a business-like demeanor.

A teacher expresses enthusiasm with the tone of his or her voice, through their behavior, and in their enthusiasm toward specific learning. Effective teachers modulate their voice by changing the intonation, volume, and speed to create excitement and interest in the topic.  Thru their behavior they show they “own” the classroom and use the whole classroom to teach (not just the “T” space at the front of the room).  Enthusiasm in teaching should be used authentically and in moderation in order to engage students and motivate them to learn.

Effective teachers speak clearly and concisely, they do what they say they are going to do and are clear about their expectations:  they announce them, review them and follow thru on them.  They do not confuse students by talking too much, by introducing unrelated concepts to the lesson, and by failing to follow thru on what they say they are going to do. When effective teachers think ahead, plan a lesson and think it thru, they are clear in their teaching. This clarity leads to increased student learning and student achievement.

There is a direct correlation with time time-on-task and student achievement.  Reverend Nuzzi relates this to the percentage of time in a given class that students are actually engaged in learning.  There should not be more than 7 to 11% of class time affected by disruptive behavior.  Teachers can minimize disruptive behavior by using effective class room management skills, maintaining an organized room, and following predictable patterns of behavior in the class room (how work is returned, graded, how activities flow, etc).  How teachers address disruptive behaviors can also affect the time-on-task.  The best strategy to maintain time-on-task behavior is to re-focus the disruptive student without drawing attention to them.  This can be done thru visual cues between the teacher and the student, by moving closer to the student so he or she knows the teacher is aware of their behavior, or by picking up and moving their book or notebook on their desk.  Becoming upset, drawing attention to the behavior or the disruptive student only engages more students in the disruption and learning time is lost.

It is important to provide variety in your teaching.  The effective teacher uses a variety of teaching strategies in a lesson.  Reverend Nuzzi recommends the book “Models of Teaching”; it has thirty-seven different teaching models to choose from. Most teachers use at least twelve strategies well.  Providing variety in teaching keeps students interested and ensures that all types of learners and learning styles are reached in a lesson.  Providing an out of character teaching surprise or an episodic project is important in developing a relationship with students.  Being able to teach the same content in different ways is critical when a teacher needs to re-teach difficult content that was not understood by students the first time around.  Effective teachers are always thinking of new ways to present their lessons to ensure students are learning.

Finally, how teachers present themselves to students affects student learning or student achievement.  The total teacher professional package enhances student achievement.  The effective teacher presents him or herself with business-like demeanor, uses appropriate and correct language in communicating, follows the teacher code of ethics, and realizes that the inequality of the teacher-student relationship where the teacher is above the student is important and has a positive effect on the student/teacher relationship.

Reverend Nuzzi suggests interventions teachers can use to monitor their effectiveness as teachers:  videotaping themselves teaching a lesson, preparing lessons to ensure clarity, timing “time-on-task” during a lesson to assess their own effectiveness, observing other teachers to learn new teaching methods, accept coaching from other teachers to work on variability of methods, and reviewing the standards for business-like demeanor.

Reverend Nuzzi was successful in having me reflect on my practices as a teacher.  As he spoke, I thought through what I do as a teacher in each of the areas he addressed.  HIs suggestions for strategies to continue to improve as a teacher were helpful and I will be sure to use most of them as I continue to explore and grow in my effectiveness as a teacher.

Reference:

Nuzzi, Ronald J., Reverend (2011, September 17).  “The Importance of Catholic Schools.”  Keynote address at the Archdiocese of Seattle Catholic School Teacher excellence Day 2010, Meany Hall, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.