Philip Reichle 7/13/16

Vision of an Effective Educator

As I view effective educators and gain an understanding of what will make me an
effective educator, there are a number of aspects that, once mastered, will enable
me to be an effective educator.
As curriculum drives the majority of the day-to-day activity in the classroom, it is
essential to have a good grasp on the topic. However, if the students are not
meeting with the ideas presented in the curriculum, they will not gain the essential
information and understanding needed to fully interact with the curriculum.
Therefore an effective educators starting point is that they help the students
engage in the learning process. An early 20 th century educator wrote, All learning
is self-learning, and it is an important reminder that if the student wants to learn,
no matter their ability level, they will learn something if the material is presented in
an accessible manner .
The effective educator, to successfully complete a class, has a goal for the day that
they point every activity toward. It is important that the effective educator make
that goal clearly understood, reachable within the time period, measurable in a way
that everyone knows where they stand in the learning process, and relatable to the
students life and understanding.
The effective educator uses assessments as it helps the educator in every step of
the learning processes see how the students are progressing. As learning is a
process, the assessment is not a test that is grade driven, but a tool that lets
both the student and the educator know how they are progressing towards a
particular goal. The results of the assessment will then be used to guide the
educator to further assisting the student to complete the learning process.
Relevance of material to the students is important to the effective educator. If the
material being covered is not relevant to the students life in some practical way,
their likelihood of remembering it is greatly lessened. However, if the relevance is
established, a driving force for the students understanding and long-term retention
has been established and the students now have a increased ability to encode the
information in their brains.
The use of learning groups is an effective tool in the arsenal of the effective
educator. Learning groups are a major support of learning for the student if they
are deliberately constructed by the educator to maximize the diversity of learners in
the group. As assignments and projects will be done in groups, peer learning can
then be used to effect maximum retention. Classwork, practice problems,
homework, and outside assignments can all be done in learning groups, with only
assessments being individual so that individual retention can be evaluated. The

Philip Reichle 7/13/16

effective educator will even arrange class seating with learning groups as a
centerpiece.
Finally, the effective educator knows that while technology is a wonderful tool for
learning, if an overreliance on the technology is created, it will lead to a general
decline in the mental aptitude and long-term retention in the students. Therefore,
technology should be used as a tool to supplement learning, instead of a go-to
panacea that only stifles the learning process. Specifically in the math and
sciences, technology is best used to crunch numbers and data and to check work,
instead of doing the primary problem solving.