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Educational Articles Do You Have What It Takes?(Part 1)
The Personal Side: Skills & Competencies Required of Today's Educators Who Teach the At-Risk or Low-Achieving Student By Kitty Scharf for Remedia Publications
We at Remedia like a book titled At Risk, Low-Achieving Students written by Judy Brown Lehr and Hazel Wiggins Harris. In the book, the authors report on a successful project carried out at the Furman University Center of Excellence. The project addressed the need for improved preparation of instructors to teach low achievers in regular classroom settings. A major goal of the project was to identify the skills needed to teach at-risk students. A core of 220 outstanding classroom teachers (K-12) were identified by their school principals, area curriculum coordinators, and consultants as successful teachers of low achievers. A total of 156 of these teachers completed an open-ended survey identifying up to fifteen skills/competencies. The skills were categorized into five major areas. This month we present the major area of Personal Skills. The comments that follow are a sampling of the unedited responses of the participating teachers. Teachers of low-achieving students need to be: 1. Accepting "Accept each child as a person of worth, no matter what his level." 2. Caring, Concerned, Empathetic, Loving, Respecting, Humanistic "I feel the greatest need for a teacher of low-achieving students is to care for his or her students as individuals." "I let my students know that I am human and that I too make mistakes. I don't know it all. I'll try to find the answer if I don't know." 3. Enthusiastic & Energetic "Energy... most of the students require constant motivation, stimulation... each new class needs a "fresh and peppy teacher." "Spontaneity...show excitement and joy, it's highly contagious." 4. Humorous "Humor - where would I be without it!" "Have a sense of humor - sometimes it's the only thing that saves the day!" 5. Patient "Patience-Patience-Patience" "Ability to practice unending patience." 6. An Effective Communicator with Students & Parents "The willingness to listen to children and the perception to hear what they are really saying." "Work cooperatively with the parents of the low achiever explaining what is expected of them." 7. Creative "Creative, new ways to do the same old thing." "Creative and innovative approach to teaching." 8. Flexible "Flexible - be ready(!) with two or three other ways to teach a concept... not always easy, but..." "Flexible - to be able to take a prepared lesson for the day and scrap it at a moment's notice to adapt to the needs of the students at that time."
Check in with us next month to find out what Professional Skills are necessary to teach at-risk, low-achieving students. -- By Kitty Scharf
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