Good Teaching Practices

I am always on the look out for new ideas and suggestions for "good teaching practices". I was impressed when I stumbled across Berkeley's website. I used to become frustrated when I was in university and I felt that what we were being taught compared to what was being practiced were light-years apart! Even though this is for university instructors, much of it can be easily adapted to the high school classroom.

Here is some of what I found:

Tools for Teaching excerpts

"A compendium of classroom-tested strategies and suggestions designed to improve the teaching practices of all college instructors, including beginning, mid-career, and senior faculty members. The book describes 49 teaching tools that cover both traditional practical tasks--writing a course syllabus, delivering an effective lecture--as well as newer, broader concerns such as responding to diversity on campus and coping with budget constraints."

Assessing Student Learning (from the Office of Educational Development)

I particularly liked "The One-Minute Paper" suggestions.

Motivating Students

I think every teacher struggles with motivating the unmotivated from time to time. I am particularly interested in strengthening self-motivation as well as balancing assessment.