I remember being a student teacher in 1974, sitting for two weeks in the back of my cooperating teacher"s classroom watching her teach carefully before I had my chance to try. Her lessons flowed
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from beginning to end, leading me to believe that teaching would be easy. I remember how
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I was the first time I stood in front of 25 ninth-graders and attempted to teach them Spanish. My lesson wasn"t awful, but it was far from graceful and
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. Teaching is a highly complex
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and only the teacher who is very skilled can make it appear so simple.
How do effective teachers
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the skills that make their lessons appear easy and appropriate for all students in the class
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, a lot can be learned from attending university classes,
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conferences and workshops, reading professional literature,
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experienced teachers, discussing
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and ideas with others and, of course, reflecting
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one"s own teaching. However, some of the most important lessons that teachers learn do not come from these standard
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—they come from the students themselves.
Most students are probably not aware of the important role they
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in the training of teachers. However, to the wise teacher, the classroom is a
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in which various approaches and strategies are
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and refined and in which students communicate, in clear as well as subtle ways, whether a lesson was a success, a failure, or
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in between.