.1 Teacher Responsibility

The teacher's role in educational change is crucial, and the teacher needs to understand this in order to feel empowered in the classroom. Empowerment enables the teacher to do many things. Systematic experimentation becomes possible. Systematic experimentation is a very important part of ongoing classroom teaching. If the teacher is not systematically experimenting with different things, they grow old on the job. We do experimentation in this class constantly. Can you imagine what it would be like to teach the same material year after year? I keep myself from
getting bored by doing new things all the time. Experimentation can be something as simple as experimenting with different ways to get kids to put their names on papers, or it can be something as complicated as a whole restructuring of the class.

Secondly, you need to have the idea that in middle and high school, you can offset timing in multiple sections for perspective. Often times teachers think that the ideal situation is to have every class on the same day. You know, if I have three classes of U.S History, then on Monday I want all three classes to be at the same place in the curriculum. This makes things simple. But there are times you want to systematically offset your classes by a day. For example, I want to try one way of teaching in my first period, and then after I see how that works, modify it and try it again in
second period. If second period is always on Monday and first period is on Monday, I don't have any time to revise anything. But if my first period class has the subject matter on Monday that my second period class has on Tuesday, then I have a day to get organized. That gives me the advantage of my experience in teaching it to the other class better. It is not hard to offset, but you have to come up with a one period class that can be taught in any order. This gives you a lot more feedback and a lot more consolidation of what it is you are trying to look at than if you have to make a note to yourself for the next year.

Another responsibility of the teacher is to selectively focus attention on individual students. We don't want to treat students equally; we want to treat them equitably. When you find ways to give special attention and selectively focus on individual students, you're not just helping those students, you are helping the class. The effective teacher will find a way to selectively focus on many different individual students. Too many teachers omit selective focus, which is a very powerful and effective strategy.

Teachers have to learn to try new methods in content. I would get bored silly if I didn't add new content. Keep yourself alive by exploring new methods and new content. The world and the information available to us is constantly changing. Class material should reflect this.

You choose what kind of relationship you want to have with your students. You choose what kind of demeanor you have in your classroom. Whatever rules you have are in your control. Kids need to know what your rules are; don't catch them by surprise. Don't confuse informality with a license to be irresponsible in ways that students can legitimately get upset with. Imagine how you would feel about things if you were on the other side of the desk. As a public school teacher, you have a responsibility to give your kids your best. You are dealing with their lives. They
must have confidence that you are acting in their best interest.

	What elements of the classroom should teachers take responsibility for?	Answer Here
	Mr. Voyer is a seventh-grade American history teacher. Year after year, he has repeated himself to the point that the students that he failed that returned to his classroom already know the material before he says word for word what he did the previous year. What kinds of problems does this create for him, and how can he avoid doing this?	Answer Here