The Intentional Teacher

In the newest Exchange resource, The Intentional Teacher:  Choosing the Best Strategies for Young Children's Learning, Ann Epstein offers this description of an "intentional teacher":

"To be 'intentional' is to act purposefully, with a goal in mind and a plan for accomplishing it.  Intentional acts result from careful thought and are accompanied by consideration of their potential effects.  Thus, an 'intentional teacher' aims at clearly defined learning objectives for children, employs instructional strategies likely to help children achieve the objectives, and continually assesses progress and adjusts the strategies based on that assessment.  The teacher who can explain just why she is doing what she is doing is acting intentionally....

"Effective teachers are intentional with respect to many facets of the learning environment, beginning with the emotional climate they create.  They deliberately select equipment and materials and put them in places where children will notice and want to use them.  In planning the program day or week, intentional teachers choose which specific learning activities, contexts, and settings to use and when.  And they choose when and how much time to spend on specific content areas and how to integrate them.  All these teacher decisions and behaviors set the tone and substance of what happens in the classroom."

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