Welcome to k4teens.info!

Focusing on school issues for Adolescents with Learning and Behavioral Differences
and Adult Learners with disAbilities in Community Colleges
Information gathered and shared by Veteran Educator, Kay Jones, A.A., B.A., M.S.

Teaching Strategies

I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.~ Dr. Haim Ginott

I just "googled" teaching strategies: 20,100,000 hits! Where to begin?

I suggest with Paula Rutherford's two books: Instruction for All Students and Why Didn't I Learn This in College?

Why? Because her books are based on this tenet: The best classroom management system is a strong instructional program. And, that's the truth as I know it.

Instruction for All Students includes chapters on: The Big Picture, Lesson & Unit Design, Presentation Modes, Active Learning, Giving Assignments, Assessing with Balance, Products & Perspectives, Differentiation of Instruction, Thinking Skills for the 21st Century, The Learning Environment, Collegial Collaboration, and Resources & References.

Why Didn't I Learn This in College? includes chapters on: A Good Place to Learn, Framing the Learning & Questioning, Learning is NOT a Spectator Sport, Surprise! You're a Reading Teacher!, Assessment 101, Beginning with the "Ends" in Mind: The Year, The Unit, & The Lesson, Organizational Systems for You, the Learners, & the Classroom, Parents as Partners, Tools, and Resources & References.

I will review many of the first 100 hits that I got when I googled "teaching strategies" over the next few months and I'll list the best online resources here. For now, start with Paula's books. She covers all subjects and all grade levels and gives multiple examples for each teaching strategy. Effective teachers have few classroom management problems.