Surviving Your Rookie Year of Teaching: 3 Key Ideas & High Leverage Techniques

About this course: Learn 3 high leverage ideas and techniques to thrive in your first (or fifteenth) year of teaching.

Created by:  Match Teacher Residency

• Taught by:  Mr. Orin Gutlerner, Director, Match Teacher Residency

Commitment 4 hours of videos and assessments. Language English How To Pass Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. User Ratings 4.5 stars Average User Rating 4.5See what learners said Coursework

Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.

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Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.

Certificates

Earn official recognition for your work, and share your success with friends, colleagues, and employers.

Match Teacher Residency Match Education is an engine of discovery and applied innovation in education. We operate high-performing urban public charter schools and a unique graduate school of education that trains teachers for high-poverty schools.

Syllabus


WEEK 1


Teaching and Learning: Key Beliefs



Lectures during the first week will introduce students to the Match Teacher Residency’s key beliefs around teaching and learning. Week 1 will discuss the dynamics of classroom learning as well as the complexly layered decisions that teachers make during every period of instruction. Students will be asked to complete a quiz covering lecture material as well as a quiz on a short supplemental reading. We recommend approaching the material by first watching the lecture videos and then doing the associated reading. Afterwards, the quiz is a summative assessment that allows you to demonstrate mastery of the Week 1 material.


3 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Video: Big Ideas
2. Video: The Learning Formula
3. Video: The Teacher Brain
4. Reading: Module 1 Reading

Graded: Module 1 Quiz

WEEK 2


Consistency



Lectures during the second week will introduce students to the concepts of Consistency and Automaticity in classroom management. Without the ability to make certain predictable management decisions on a minute-to-minute basis, a rookie teacher will have trouble devoting sufficient mental "bandwidth" to higher-level teaching decisions about content, rigor, engagement, etc. Students will be asked to complete the Week 2 Quiz covering lecture material and a short supplemental reading. During Week 2 you will also complete your first peer-reviewed planning assignment. We recommend approaching the material by first watching the lecture videos and pausing to do the associated reading when prompted. Alternatively, watch the videos in their entirety and then do the reading.


2 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Video: The Inconsistent Instructor
2. Video: Becoming Consistent
3. Reading: Module 2 Reading

Graded: Module 2 Quiz
Graded: Peer Review

WEEK 3


Ratio



Lectures during Week 3 will focus on the concept of "Ratio" in the classroom: how much of the mental heavy lifting are your students doing relative to you, their teacher? Ratio has two dimensions: participation ratio (the number of students involved), and thinking ratio (the rigor of the task students are engaged in). In an ideal classroom, the teacher is doing relatively little of the high-level thinking, and (all) students are consistently engaged in those rigorous cognitive tasks. Week 3 will also introduce a strategy for boosting the ratio in your own classroom: the Turn and Talk.


2 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Video: Ratio
2. Video: Turn & Talk
3. Reading: Module 3 Reading

Graded: Module 3 Quiz

WEEK 4


Relationship Building



Do you call your students or their parents at home? While there is a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest that building relationships with students can increase classroom effort, many teachers don't proactively try to do similar outreach to the parents or guardians of their students. Week 4 offers anecdotes and a rigorous scientific study on the value of calling home. We try to make the case for why calling home is too effective *not* to do, then offers detailed advice on how to script "the praise call" and "the correction call." This week, in addition to the quiz, you'll also be asked to do a short written assignment in which you plan and script phone calls to your students or their parents. Click here for guidelines and to access this assignment.


2 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Video: Building Relationships
2. Video: Calling Home
3. Reading: Module 4 Reading

Graded: Module 4 Quiz
Graded: Final Peer Review