On Your Mark, Get Set, Goal: Measuring Your Success

By Tova Davis Ed.D.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Goal takes evidence-based strategies to provide easy-to-digest, self-help exercises to improve any classroom.

This book is a must-read for any teacher or leader seeking to add to his or her instructional toolbox, set and achieve goals, enhance communication skills, and ultimately increase self-performance and student achievement.

Tova Davis, Ed.D., founder of Northstar Educational Consulting Group in Atlanta, draws on her experience helping hundreds of teachers and leaders to answer questions such as:

• How do you develop short- and long-terms goals for professional performance and student growth?
• How can you build self-efficacy for teaching?
• How can you communicate self-awareness and purpose about teaching and student performance?
• How can you develop a deeper understanding of teaching standards?

The author also establishes five primary areas of professional improvement and breaks these areas into smaller components on which to focus your attention.

Get a blueprint to improve self-performance and student achievement with the insights and lessons in this training guide for educators.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781663242532

Tova Davis Ed.D.

Dr. Tova Jackson Davis is the founder of Northstar Educational Consulting Group in Atlanta, Georgia. Through her work, she has changed the lives of students and helped hundreds of teachers and leaders by improving the quality and effectiveness of instruction through training and development.

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Copyright © 2022 Tova Davis, Ed.D.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-3493-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-4253-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022913134

iUniverse rev. date: 12/08/2022

CONTENTS

Introduction

Overview

Goals and Objectives

Domains for Reflection

Rating Scales

The Circle of Action

The Desert Island

Chapter 1 Are You Scurrying to the Finish?

Classroom Organization and Management

Case Study

Classroom Flow and Arrangement

Maximizing Student Behavior

Strategies for Success (What Really Works)

Evaluation and Self-Reflection

Additional Resources

Chapter 2 A Marathon or a Sprint?

Instructional Planning and Delivery

Why Instructional Planning and Delivery Are Important

Content Preparation (Unpacking the Standards)

Review Your Data

Value Collaboration

Differentiate

Effective (and Appropriate) Use of Technology

Strategies for Success (What Really Works)

Evaluation and Self-Reflection

Additional Resources

Chapter 3 How Do You Relay?

Effective Communication and Positive Relationships

Why Effective Communication Is Important

Why Positive Relationships Are Important

Strategies for Success (What Really Works)

Interactive Exercises

Evaluation and Self-Reflection

Additional Resources

Chapter 4 Who’s Tracking?

Evaluating and Monitoring Student Learning

Why Evaluating and Monitoring Student Learning Are Important

Use of Data

Assessment Types

Reteaching and Enrichment

Strategies for Success (What Really Works)

Interactive Exercises

Evaluation and Self-Reflection

Additional Resources

Chapter 5 Winning

The Game Is Professionalism

Why Professionalism in the Classroom Is Important

The Many Facets of Professionalism

Body Language

Modeling Behavior (Serving as an Example of Professionalism)

Evaluation and Self-Reflection

Additional Resources

Chapter 6 Measuring Your Success

Goals—Let’s Go!

Managing Change

Developing SMART Goals

• Specific

• Measurable

• Attainable

• Realistic (or Relevant)

• Timely

Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

I don’t have to tell you teaching is tough.

Sure, you might hear snarky remarks from uninformed individuals who mistakenly believe you get your summers off or who view teaching as glorified babysitting. But you know as well as I that an educator is in beast mode from the moment the bell rings. Unlike with many of your friends’ workdays, there are no hour-long lunches (let alone bathroom breaks) or opportunities to surf the internet to kill time. Your evenings are not spent binge-watching shows but, rather, grading papers, coaching, or chaperoning events. And those summers you supposedly get off? I’m sure plenty of you have taught summer school or taken classes for continuing education.

More importantly, the work you do in the classroom directly impacts the lives of thousands of future members of society and leaders of our communities—so much so that a great teacher can set a student on a path to realizing her or his full potential, and a not-so-great teacher can prevent a student from finding his or her true calling in life.

By virtue of the fact that you are reading this book, my assumption is that you are either a skilled, effective, and passionate educator who strives for personal growth and enhanced success on the part of your students or a thriving new teacher ready to create a culture of success for your students.

With On Your Mark, Get Set, Goal, my hope is that you can combine my experiences, research, and best practices with your own reflections in a manner that helps you achieve your personal and professional best.

Tova Davis, Ed.D.

OVERVIEW

Education isn’t rocket science. Well, technically, it can be if you happen to teach physics or advanced mathematics. That said, the actual nuts and bolts of instruction don’t need to be complicated to be effective.

As with anything else, if you break up the complex, overarching methods and principles of teaching into smaller pieces you can examine and improve upon, becoming a better educator can be quite easy.

To that end, this book will do four things:

1. establish five primary areas of professional improvement;

2. break these areas into smaller components on which to focus your attention;

3. establish a means for self-reflection and evaluation of your skills and processes; and

4. provide a road map to help you get where you need to be.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

On Your Mark, Get Set, Goal is designed to help put you on a path to achieve the following:

• Develop short- and long-terms goals for professional performance and student growth.

o No meaningful improvement is going to happen overnight. As with most things, becoming a more effective instructor will entail learning new skills, breaking old habits, and forming new ones. By making small improvements in the short term and committing to them for the long term, over time, the improvements will be significant and permanent.

• Build self-efficacy for teaching.

o Self-efficacy, quite simply, is believing in yourself. Just like a musician, actor, or public speaker, as a teacher, if you don’t believe in your message, your audience (in this case, the students) won’t buy into it either. Fortunately, with the improvement of your skills comes confidence that will translate into better engagement and shared commitment with your students.

• Communicate self-awareness and purpose about teaching and student performance.

o For you to truly teach at your best, it is crucial to be aware of your goals, your outcomes, and your purpose for teaching. Ask yourself why you decided to go into this profession in the first place. Was it to make a difference? Was it simply because you needed a job? Do you genuinely care about the people you serve? What do you really believe about teaching and learning? Reflecting on questions like these can provide self-awareness and help you become a more effective instructor.

• Develop a deeper understanding of teaching standards.

o Let’s say, for example, you are an Olympic figure skater. Do you think you would have a better chance at winning a medal if you understood what the judges were looking for