3- Effective teacher

            I still remember my social studies teacher from the sixth grade Mrs. Saiyidah. Of all the teachers who had taught me, she was the most effective. She smiled all of the time while she was teaching. When she asked the students questions, she gave us enough waiting time to answer, in this way she made us more engaged, so the engaged time were longer. Her reaction was praise and criticism by asking higher-order questions. Also she was Withitness all the time. When she was teaching, she had a lot of enthusiasm for her subject, and that made me love history. She taught history by telling stories not just giving dates and facts. When she would tell the stories, she would act out the story and not just tell about it. In this way, she made history come alive. She had maps (as a visual anticipatory set) to show us where we lived, how the world changed all the time in history, and how countries affected each other. She helped the students to draw maps in very interesting ways. I still remember how she taught me to draw the map of Italy as a boot.     

            Every day before class, she would ask the students what they remembered from the previous class to transition between old and new information. Next, she wrote on the board the title of the lesson and the main ideas. I think this was very good structure, because the teacher provided information and direction, and introduced the topics. Also, she drew the map on the board to show us it was not hard to draw a map. And that is good scaffolding.

            Now, I can understand Mrs. Saiyidah applied Progressivism philosophy of education, she was a facilitator guide, and her class was student-centered class, she used acting, art, group learning, and presentation as teaching strategies.