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New Teacher Network Meeting
May 4, 2006The New Teacher Network meetings for the 2005-2006 school year focused on Martin Habberman’s seven key characteristics found in common among star urban teachers. Participants explored these characteristics through real-life situations and collegial reflection and dialogue.
The May meeting focused on teacher fallibility. This characteristic of star urban teachers involves the following beliefs and behaviors:
- Star teachers recognize that students cannot learn in a classroom environment where mistakes are not accepted.
- Star teachers accept their own fallibility and are comfortable apologizing for personal and professional errors they make in the classroom.
- Star teachers willingly acknowledge that they can and do make serious mistakes in their relationships with students. In contrast, less successful teachers will often only admit to making minor mistakes, such as misspelling a word on the board or giving students a wrong answer.
- Star teachers recognize that if they publicly embarrass or falsely accuse a class that their apology must likewise be public.
Participants received a “Quick Flip Questions for Critical Thinking” flipchart. Elementary teachers took lesson ideas for teaching higher-order thinking skills using two versions of the three little pigs fairy tale back to their classrooms. Participants also created critical thinking question dice and used them during our video case study on teacher fallibility.
Is Mr. Wolf Guilty? – Use the three little pigs story in your own classroom to teach students to compare and contrast. The handout contains two versions of the story as well as a graphic organizer. There are also group and extension activities and a task-oriented question construction wheel based on Bloom’s taxonomy.
Question Matrix and Dice – How can you create questions that challenge students to think at higher levels? The answer is with good questioning skills. The best teachers understand how to construct good questions. This handout breaks down the many facets questions can cover, and using the question matrix on page three of the handout can help you as you plan classroom discussions and assignments that challenge students. Finally, you can create questioning dice when you put the matrix on two die so students can generate their own questions based the stems rolled.
