An effective teacher must master the professional skills necessary to deliver a high-quality 21st-century education to their students. In this blog post, I will discuss the importance of teachers' curricular knowledge. There is much confusion regarding the differences between standards and curriculum. Educational standards are the learning goals for what students should know and be able to do. As used by most teachers, the word curriculum describes the academic content, exper

An effective teacher must master the professional skills necessary to deliver a high-quality 21st-century education to their students. In this blog post, I will discuss the importance of classroom climate and culture. A positive school climate and culture are fundamental components to high teaching and learning levels because they set the stage for achievement. In schools with healthy climates and cultures, students and staff are genuinely engaged, have better attendance, hig

An effective teacher must master the professional skills necessary to deliver a high-quality 21st-century education to their students. In this blog post, I will discuss the importance of content knowledge. There is an ongoing debate within education circles as to the appropriate place of content knowledge in the curriculum. Those who take a more progressive position contend that content knowledge should not be the primary educational outcome. Students should be engaged in lea

An effective teacher must master the pedagogical skills necessary to deliver a high-quality 21st-century education to their students. In this blog post, I will discuss the importance of student mastery of content and skills as well as practice and feedback. Mastery Complex skills are usually made up of mastery of several sub-skills. For example, to write well, students need to master vocabulary, grammar, syntax, mechanics, voice, and style. Additionally, they must also be abl