The best teacher is a positive teacher. A teacher who pushes their students in a positive direction, is a good educator. A positive teacher is one thing I got out of Justin Tarte’s blog post, “The Power of Positivity”. The post consisted of three links: Nikki the Giraffe, Fourteen Simple Strategies to Be More Positive, and The Positive Teacher Pledge. While reading the reflection about “Nikki the Giraffe”, by Gene Ramsey, I asked myself “What is a true teacher?”. With time and patience, Nikki grew a connection with her students. Occasionally she would get aggravated, but she never gave up hope in her students. Nikki would not allow her students to see her negative energy and made certain all her students stayed positive independent learner. Indeed, Nikki was a true teacher.
Next, I read the link “The Fourteen Simple Strategies to Be More Positive” by Jon Gordon. His website compared positive and negative energy. To gain more out of life you must feed more into positive energy, than negative. Part of the Fourteen Strategies shows ways to turn negative outcomes into positive ones. Mr. Gordon gives advice on how to become a positive person, in his post as well.
Last link was “The Positive Teacher Pledge”, also published by Mr. Gordon. A pledge is described as a vow. This pledge was to be a positive educator , followed by certain conditions. One vows what they will do in a situation, instead of being negative, to stay positive. When something goes wrong one must look on the bright side not the dark side. To always be a positive teacher one has to encourage, not only their self, but the students too. At the end one can sign the pledge if he or she wishes to.
My comment on Justin Tarte’s blog describes how I felt for each link he provided. My favorite link was “Nikki the Giraffe ”; the story reminded me of a teacher I met on the search for my career choice. I did sign The Positive Teacher Pledge because, I want to be a strong teacher for my students. I briefly commented on, “The Fourteen Simple Strategies to Be More Positive”. It compares somewhat to the pledge, most likely due to the fact that both were written by Joe Dale.
Justin’s blog post provided resourceful information about what rigor is, and how it should be used in a classroom. He defines rigor as, “Supporting our students so that they can learn at high levels.” He also states that without the help of a teacher, to actually support the students, achieving any high level of education is pointless. You cannot expect students to just learn only through assignments assigned to them; teachers must help them to understand what they are learning, for later usage in the world. How to increase rigor? Justin provides the visual steps it takes to increase rigor, but as well as a level diagram for knowledge. The steps to increase rigor are remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. The diagram, called “Depth of Knowledge Wheel”, separates into four levels of education: Level One-Recall, Level Two-Skill/Concept, Level Three-Strategic Thinking, and Level Four-Extended Thinking. Justin suggest changing to a higher level per week, for at least one activity, challenging the student’s knowledge. Giving more complex assignments does not help to challenge a student’s mind; the assignments will just become a priority for a grade. What will challenge a student is his or her reflection on what they have learned. All together Justin’s post is valuable for educators to read.
My comment briefly described what my opinion of rigor was, before I read his blog. My opinion of rigor was based off hard work is equal to a higher level of success. After reading his blog I understood the actual point of rigor, changing my first preference about it. I agreed with him about the ways to increase rigor and how I would like to use his approaches in a classroom setting. I will not supply my students with only busy work, in order for them to be successful. Instead, I will test my students mentally through the advanced levels in the diagram. At the end of my comment I thanked him for his post, plus I mentioned for him to visit my class blog.
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