What role does professional satisfaction play in the effectiveness of a classroom?
I think professional satisfaction plays an important role in the effectiveness of a classroom. If you are happy and satisfied as a professional then that will roll over into your classroom. I know that when I am personally feeling good about my profession then I feel I am effective in my classroom.
I think professional satisfaction can mean different meanings for different people. For myself, professional satisfaction means doing what I can to be the best and most effective teacher. I have been taking classes online for the past couple of years so I can be satisfied as a teacher. I think the more classes you take that relate to your subject the better you are as a teacher.
This then will go over to the effectiveness of your classroom. It you are feeling confident as a teacher then you will feel you are being an effective teacher in the classroom. In dictionary.com effectiveness is defined as “adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or expected result.” I know my purpose as a teacher is to help students learn what they need to know to be successful. The interesting thing I’m finding out is that the way to achieve this purpose is to do exactly the same thing for myself that I need to do for them. By taking classes that help me learn what I need to know to be successful, I am better able to help others to be successful. I am feeling effective in that I am taking classes and able to use what I learn in my classroom. I feel that I am being an effective teacher.
Weimer (2009) lists some great effective teaching strategies that I would like to become more skillful with:
- Interest and explanation- “When our interest is aroused in something, whether it is an academic subject or a hobby, we enjoy working hard at it. We come to feel that we can in some way own it and use it to make sense of the world around us.”
- Concern and respect for students and student learning- Students will respond to you if you are concerned and respect them.
- Appropriate assessment and feedback- A teacher should use a variety of assessments, because not all students learn the same.
- Clear goals and intellectual challenges- Students should know what you want them to learn and be challenged.
- Independence, control and active engagement- teachers should create learning tasks appropriate to the student and students should have a voice in their learning.
- Learning from students- Effective teachers learn from their students. You don’t know everything so be willing to learn from them as well.
All of these are effective teaching strategies that I think should be used in the classroom. I know that professional satisfaction does play a role in effective classroom. I am feeling professional satisfaction in what I am doing and feel that I am being effective as a teacher. I know what I am doing is helping my students and that is what I want as a teacher.
Reference
Effective. (2015). Retrieved September 11, 2015, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/effectiveness
Weimer, M. (2009). Effective Teaching Strategies: Six Keys to Classroom Excellence. Retrieved September 11, 2015, from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/effective-teaching-strategies-six-keys-to-classroom-excellence/
teacherclass@ak 
I like how you said “If you are happy and satisfied as a professional then that will roll over into your classroom.” If we are excited and value the learning taking place in our class the students can feel it. Elementary teachers typically have to teach all subjects but they might not like to teach all subjects and this can translate their students without them even realizing.
On a happy side note – Congratulations! I hear you are going to be an aunt again. I saw Aliyah the other day at school and she is pretty excited.
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Oh yes! I am excited as well! It is going to be a boy!
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I completely agree that students can feel our excitement. Last year, I got tired of hearing my students groan when I told them that it was time for math, so I got really excited and started jumping up and down as I told them about what we were going to do in math. My students got excited too. Our excitement really does make a difference.
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I’m looking back at blogs that I missed from the beginning of this course and I’m enjoying the tone of our earlier writings now that we’ve all had a chance to dig deeper into leadership and change 🙂
The list you included in your blog was especially interesting to me, particularly the last three points:
Clear goals and intellectual challenges – I agree that being able to communicate clearly with students is extremely important. Sometimes when we are constantly looking at the overall lesson and the big picture, we forget what it’s like to be on the receiving end of these great inspirational lessons we design! The intellectual challenges should be exciting and lead students on a quest of learning towards those clearly defined goals.
Independence, control and active engagement – I am a firm believer that students are capable and interested in directing their learning; they may need our help to gain the confidence and begin seeing themselves in this way, but we learn so much about them when we create the opportunities for them to express that unique voice that only they can bring to our learning environment.
Learning from students – This one is my favorite, for teaching to be effective, we also have to walk away with something from the experience, and my greatest lessons about my practice have come from students. Modeling what we believe they are capable of doing not only benefits them, it helps us determine if we have made the best choices in designing the learning experience!
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