Levels of Instruction for any Teacher

Teachers should always find ways to improve themsleves as well as their lessons. As stated early in my blogs, teachers need to constantly improve on how they teach a grade or subject... or lesson... doing the same thing over and over again does not improve the teacher or the student. Think of it this way, if you were a Information Technology person working in Corporate America... Would your company still be working out of folders and paper... yes it works, but are we being competitative? Having worked for some large Investment Banks in the past, I can assure you, even if it works, it can always be better, faster, and more efficient. Education needs to take this type of mentality, just because the way you used to teach Math 10 years ago, resulted in many people who have graduated from highschool and on their way to college, doesn't mean that you should continue to teach it the same way. Now, you might be saying, if it isn't broke why fix it... I am not talking about the basic principles of teaching, you can only teach addition one way and one way only, I am talking about advancing that teaching to a level that will engage the students and make the year after even better. There are a number of Instructional philosophies out their and each one of them slightly overlap the other, so that the student is building a repitoire of ideas, philosophies, conceptual strengths and areas of development that they can continue to use as their educational career blossoms.

Direct Instruction: There is always room for direct instruction, but researchers are finding it that the "lecture" doesn't have to consume the entire 40 or 50 minute lesson. approximately 20% of the lesson should be direct instruction... this allows for the teacher to interact with the students either in a group setting or one on one instruction for heightened development. It also allows more time for students to ask questions... questioning brings out the curiosity in the student, there is not stupid questions, just the ones that go unasked.

Interactive Instruction: This is when the teacher is working within a group setting of students or on a one on one area... this invokes brainstorming and cooperative learning among classmates. Given a problem, then group must solve it with a variety of parts, the students then have the opportunity to brainstorm the problem.. highlighting developed areas of reasoning and problem-solving within the students mind.

Indirect Instruction: Lets take that same Problem that needed a solution, now the students can explain to the remainder of the class how they identified the problem, created a solution, possibly multiple solutions, the ways that they thought about the problem, and then the final solution that made the most sense and why... the digital storytelling is a great way for students to show how they went from start to finish and put together an example of their work. This is agreat for students who have a tendency to run on and on and on and on and on... like myself.

Independent Instruction: Research papers are now a thing of the past, sure you must beable to look up information on a particular subject, site sources, etc... but there is a better way to develop the insightfulness that students need...JOURNALING- again going back to their ability to question... why do we have strict guidelines on recycling in our neighborhood? These students were born into a generation where all of these things are what I like to call "Automatics." Its a given, just like when I was born, there was gas shortage... I didn't understand why, until I got further along into my school and we learned about OPEC and the problems that surmised from this creation. Journaling allows for the student in an open, judgement free area to question why things are the way they are, how they contribute to the topic in question and are there ways for them to change. It isn't always about learning their ABC's and their 123's its about these students becoming adults in a world that needs more people asking questions and finding solutions.

Experimetnal Instruction: We can all remember the days of the bunson burners and eye goggles, you were given a project to see how much heat is needed to melt something... we all remember this from chemistry... but we need to take this one step further, role playing and surverys are now in conjunction with these hands on approaches. Allowing students to survey if students like Taco Tuesdays or Fish Fridays is important for their social skills as well as their ability to collect data, organize, analyze, filter, hypothesize, and report on the results.

So now that we understand the new ways that we can add life to the standard way of teaching, you maybe asking yourself how can I create this in my classroom when my district is still caught in the Web 1.0 phase? Great questions: Let's say you do not have a large budget... there are so many free sites out their, really what you are investing is your time... but isn't that why we got into teaching, keep a binder of websites in the teachers lounge... use that as a first step, possibly another teacher came across a similar situation... if not once you have identified it... add it to the binder for other teachers to use. Second, collaborate with other teachers/grades... it is possible when you are in 3rd grade, much of the software may also be applied in fourth grade as well as fifth, etc... by collaborating you are creating a seemless transition from each grade for the students leveling their expectations as well as the parents expectations. You will find alot of the the textbooks that are being created will now have an alignment to technology... this will give any teacher a base to start their experiments on, but may also trigger something that the teacher has never thought of... in addition, your early mastery learners may also find this time to really expand on their knowledge... get them working too... they have great minds and make strike on something that you can expand on... you not only have them involved but now you have a new idea.

There are so many websites out their that if you are focusing the children on Informational Processing Methods or Social Interactive Methods, technology will not only make it easier, but it will enhance your lesson tenfold. It will also allow for you the teacher to find those precious few minutes that you so desperately beg for to work with the students that need your attention.