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About Effective Teaching

The most important factor in improved student learning is with an effective teacher.  Written ten times a year, Harry and Rosemary Wong feature effective teachers and administrators and what they do to enhance student learning.  The columns provide specific strategies and activities that you can download and use.  An archive of past articles can be found at the end of every column.

These strategies and activities are all based on the teachings and works of Harry and Rosemary Wong and they are happy to share with the profession the work of effective teachers.  If you have an effective strategy or technique that works, please share this by sending it to hwong@harrywong.com. The Wongs will consider it for sharing in future Effective Teaching columns.

About Harry and Rosemary Wong...

Harry and Rosemary Wong are teachers.  Harry is a native of San Francisco and taught middle school and high school science.  Rosemary is a native of New Orleans and taught K-8, including working as the school media coordinator and student activity director.

Harry Wong has been awarded the Outstanding Secondary Teacher Award, the Science Teacher Achievement Recognition Award, the Outstanding Biology Teacher Award, and the Valley Forge Teacher's Medal.  He was recently selected as one of the most admired people in the world of education by readers of Instructor magazine.  Rosemary was chosen as one of California's first mentor teachers and has been awarded the Silicon Valley Distinguished Woman of the Year Award.

Harry Wong is the most sought after speaker in education today.  He has been called "Mr. Practicality" for his common sense, user-friendly, no-cost approach to managing a classroom for high-level student success.

Nearly a million teachers worldwide have heard his message.  Because he is fully booked for two years, he has agreed to and has invited his wife to join him in doing a monthly column for teachers.net so that more people can hear their message.

About Their Work...

Harry and Rosemary Wong are committed to bringing quality and dignity to the materials they produce. For this, they have formed their own publishing company, of which Rosemary is the CEO.  They have dedicated their lives to leaving a legacy in education and making a difference in the lives of teachers and students.

Their latest contribution to helping teachers succeed is an eLearning course, Classroom Management with Harry and Rosemary Wong.  The course can be taken in private at the learner's convenience.  The outcome of the course is a 2 inch binder with a personalized Classroom Management Action Plan.

This Action Plan is similar to the organized and structured plan used by all successful teachers.  Details for the classroom management course can be seen at www.ClassroomManagement.com.

The Wongs have written The First Days of School, the best-selling book ever in education.  Over 3 million copies have been sold.

The third edition of The First Days of School includes an added bonus, an Enhanced CD featuring Harry Wong. The Enhanced CD, Never Cease to Learn, is dedicated to those teachers who know that the more they learn, the more effective they become.

The Wongs have also produced the DVD series, The Effective Teacher, winner of the Telly Award for the best educational video of the past twenty years and awarded the 1st place Gold Award in the International Film and Video Festival.

They have released a new set of CDs with Harry Wong LIVE, called How to Improve Student Achievement, recorded at one of his many presentations.  He is the most sought after speaker in education and his presentations are legendary.

When the book, video series, CD, and eLearning course are used together, they form the most effective staff training tool for developing effective teachers. Staff developers and administrators who would like to know how to implement the aforementioned book, video series, and CD are encouraged to consult the book, New Teacher Induction: How to Train, Support, and Retain New Teachers. Information about these products can be found by visiting the publisher's website at www.EffectiveTeaching.com or www.HarryWong.com.

Best Sellers

The First Days of School with Enhanced CD, Never Cease to Learn
by Harry & Rosemary Wong
$23.96 from Amazon.com
More information

 


The Effective Teacher (Video Set)
Presented by Harry Wong

8 DVDs, with Facilitator's Handbook in PDF, book The First Days of School, and storage case, $695.00 from EffectiveTeaching.com (volume discounts available)
More information

 

Classroom Management with Harry and Rosemary Wong
eLearning course for individual use, CEUs available Preview the course and order at www.ClassroomManagement.com $124.95 (Group discounts available.)

 


How to Improve Student Achievement
Hear Harry Wong Live! in this 2 CD set
$31.95
More information

 


New Teacher Induction:  How to Train, Support, and Retain New Teachers
by Annette L. Breaux, Harry K. Wong

$24.05 from Amazon.com
More information

 



Pathways: A Guide for Energizing & Enriching Band, Orchestra, & Choral Programs
by Joseph Alsobrook

$12.57 from Amazon.com
More information

 


Results : The Key to Continuous School Improvement
by Mike Schmoker

$20.95 from Amazon.com
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Improving Schools from Within : Teachers, Parents, and Principals Can Make the Difference
by Roland Sawyer Barth

$13.30 from Amazon.com
More information

 


A First-Year Teacher's Guidebook, 2nd Ed.
by Bonnie Williamson, Marilyn Pribus (Editor), Kathy Hoff, Sandy Thornton (Illustrator)

$17.95 from Amazon.com
More information

 


Schools That Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education
by Peter M. Senge (Editor), Nelda H. Cambron McCabe, Timothy Lucas, Art Kleiner, Janis Dutton, Bryan Smith

$24.50 from Amazon.com
More information

 


The Courage to Teach : Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
by Parker J. Palmer

$16.76 from Amazon.com
More information

 


If You Don't Feed the Teachers They Eat the Students : Guide to Success for Administrators and Teachers
by Neila A. Connors

$13.96 from Amazon.com
More information

 

Effective Teaching...
by Harry and Rosemary Wong

September 2000

The Problem Is Not Discipline


Bob Marlowe is typical of the millions of devoted and committed teachers who fret about their next day's lessons. His major question every evening is, "What am I going to teach tomorrow?" So, he plans what he will cover or what activity he will do in class the next day. He thinks this is teaching because

  1. most teachers cover or do activities,
  2. then they discipline when things go wrong.

And when things go wrong, Bob Marlowe frets again the next evening wondering

  1. what he can do to get the students to pay attention to their lessons and,
  2. thus, have fewer behavior problems in the classroom.

He asks that perennial, but incorrect question, "What can I do to motivate my students?" thinking that motivated students will be more attentive and better behaved.

But the next day, the cycle repeats itself and Bob Marlowe continues to

  1. cover and
  2. discipline.

The problem is that most teachers do not spend any time managing their classrooms. If classroom management procedures were taught, most all class discipline problems would disappear and more time in the classroom could be spent on learning.

THE PROBLEM IS NOT THE PIZZA

Let's look at Bob Marlowe as if he owned a pizzeria. Every night, Bob would ask himself

  1. What kind of a pizza can I make tomorrow?
  2. Then when customer problems occur, he fires an employee.

As his business gets worse and worse, he frets over what he can do to motivate the diners to return to his restaurant. He wonders, "What new kind of a pizza can I serve tomorrow-Thai, eggplant, shellfish?" But, still the problem of having no customers occurs.

The problem with Bob Marlowe's restaurant is not his fabulous pizzas; it's his lack of management skill. He pays little or no attention to such things as teaching his employees the procedure for how to take an order, how to cook a pizza, how to store leftover ingredients, how to clean the pizza paddle, or how to clean the restroom. He thinks that all he has to do to run a successful pizza restaurant is to have a great menu featuring fun, creative, and exciting pizzas.

Bob Marlowe, the teacher, is no different. He thinks that all he has to do is cover the material-maybe even make the lessons fun and exciting. He pays no attention to such things as procedures for getting student attention, heading papers, entering the classroom, taking lecture notes, passing papers in, absences and tardies, maintaining a current grade-record book, what to do if a student finishes early, and a myriad of other procedures that happen on a daily basis in a classroom.

An effective teacher is a master at classroom management skills. The effective teacher knows that student achievement will only occur when the student's work environment is organized and structured so that learning can take place. When students are engaged in the learning process, there is a concomitant reduction in behavior problems.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND DISCIPLINE

Classroom management and discipline are not the same thing. Owners don't discipline a store; they manage a store. Coaches don't discipline a team; they manage a team. Likewise, teachers don't discipline a classroom; they manage a classroom.

No learning takes place when you discipline. All disciplining does is stop deviant behavior, which must be done, but no learning has taken place. Learning only takes place when the students are at work, or as we say in education, on-task.

DISCIPLINE: Concerns how students BEHAVE
PROCEDURES: Concern how things are DONE

DISCIPLINE: Has penalties and rewards
PROCEDURES: Have NO penalties or rewards

We have been getting many questions about what to do with the behavior of certain students. We regret that we cannot respond to each situation because we have no background on the student, the classroom environment, and, most importantly, the specifics of how the classroom is managed.

We suspect that the great majority of what teachers call behavior problems in the classroom have nothing to do with discipline. The number one problem in education is not discipline. It is the lack of procedures and routines resulting in students not knowing what to do-responsibly-in the classroom.

WHY PROCEDURES ARE IMPORTANT

Students readily accept the idea of having a uniform set of classroom procedures, because it simplifies their task of succeeding in school. Efficient and workable procedures allow a great variety of activities to take place during a school day, and often several activities at a given time, with a minimum of confusion and wasted time. If no procedures are established, much time will be wasted organizing each activity and students will have to guess what to do. As a result, undesirable work habits and behaviors could develop which would be hard to correct.

Procedures are the foundation that set the class up for achievement. Student achievement at the end of the school year is directly related to the degree to which the teacher establishes good control of the classroom procedures in the very first week of the school year.

When a class is managed with procedures and the students know these procedures, they will more willingly do whatever you want them to do. You can then be an exciting, creative, and informative teacher with a well-oiled learning environment.

CLASSROOM PROCEDURES
 

    Ineffective teachers begin the first day of school attempting to teach a subject and spend the rest of the school year running after the students.

    Effective teachers spend most of the first two weeks of the school year teaching students to follow classroom procedures.

There must be procedures in the classroom. Every time the teacher wants something done, there must be a procedure or a set of procedures to accomplish the task. Some procedures that nearly every teacher must teach include the following:
 

  • entering the classroom
  • dismissing at the end of the period or day
  • returning to class after an absence
  • arriving to class tardy
  • quieting a class
  • beginning of the period or day
  • asking for help
  • moving of students and papers
  • listening to/responding to questions
  • working cooperatively
  • changing groups
  • keeping a student notebook
  • finding directions for each assignment
  • collecting/returning student work
  • getting materials without disturbing others
  • handing out equipment at recess
  • moving about the room
  • going to the library/tech center
  • heading of papers
 

TEACHING CLASSROOM PROCEDURES

Most behavior problems in the classroom are caused by the teacher's failure to teach students how to follow procedures. Teachers must learn how to effectively convey the procedures just as students must learn how to follow the procedures. Below is a summary of an effective method of teaching classroom procedures.

The Three-Step Approach to Teaching Classroom Procedures
 

  1. Explain: State, explain, model, and demonstrate the procedure.
  2. Rehearse: Rehearse and practice the procedure under your supervision.
  3. Reinforce: Reteach, rehearse, practice, and reinforce the classroom procedure until it becomes a student habit or routine.
 
Please refer to Chapter 20 of The First Days of School or the video series, The Effective Teacher, to see how the three-step technique is used to teach selected procedures.

I AM SO EXCITED TO GET TO SCHOOL EACH MORNING
(A letter written to Harry K. Wong)

I began teaching in 1992 fresh out of college, 21 years old, single and no clue as to what I was getting into. I opened a new high school teaching three classes of Consumer Math and two classes of Algebra II.

I went through a year of TOTAL hell! I gave serious thought to not returning in the Fall of 1993. I had no order in my classroom. I posted the rules but did not put much emphasis on my rules and policies.

The next three years were no better. Last year was awful! Pregnant with my second child I found myself sick and put to bed 31 weeks into my pregnancy. My students suffered greatly. When I was able to return part time I found there was NO organization present in my classroom. Needless to say when my students completed the semester I truly believed I was a failure as a teacher.

I was not looking forward to returning in August until I heard you speak to our county teachers at our preschool meeting. I decided to make some major changes in my classroom structure. I never knew what one simple thing I was missing until your session in August. I went home that night and started writing. By the time I finished, everything I expected was written out and ready to give to my students on the first day of class. I spent the first two days doing nothing but discuss and practice my policies and procedures. Then, I reinforced them the next full week.

We are five weeks into this school year (as I write this letter) and I have to say I am having a wonderful year! My students follow my policies and procedures without any gripes. The greatest thing is that my students are really learning this year! They walk in the door on task and stay there for 90 minutes every day. My first block students are even in class before the first bell; they do not wait until the second bell anymore.

Plus, we were on a testing schedule last week and my students were disappointed they were not going to be in class those days. Can you believe students being disappointed to miss Algebra II?!

I am totally sold on the technique of procedures and routines! They work! You saved my career as a teacher! I can't wait; I am SO excited to get to school every morning and start teaching my students.

                Jamie Davis, Math Teacher
                North Laurel High School

PLEASE SHARE WITH US

Your kindness in sharing your classroom procedures with us will be most appreciated. It can be e-mailed to us or sent to us at Harry K. Wong Publications, 943 North Shoreline Boulevard, Mountain View, CA 94043.

We hope all of you followed our summer columns and you had as successful a start to a new school year as Jamie Davis did and that you were able to present yourself to your students as a person worthy of
that noble title . . . Teacher.

 


For a printable version of this article click here.

Harry & Rosemary Wong products: http://www.harrywong.com/product/
Email Harry Wong: harrywong@teachers.net


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