His teaching methods were quite effective since I remember every book he ever read to us as a class, recall the rules of grammar he hammered into us, and upon his recommendation, had read all of the books that had received Newberry awards at that time. Mr. White's class was my favorite class despite my well developed distaste in the subject matter. He made the class interesting and I, along with my counterparts looked forward to his very popular English class. I remember that at the beginning of the class, he would have us sit quietly and work on an easy assignment he had written on the board. These assignments were fairly simple; for example, he would have us write a brief summary about the homework assignment for five minutes. He never conducted roll call rather he had arranged seating and would determine who was absent based on the empty seats. Mr. White frequently wrote the agenda for the class and would erase them once they were completed and very often, we would hardly notice him doing it.
Mr. White as an Effective Teacher
Mr. Harry Wong, an inspirational speaker for teachers and author of "The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher" states that an effective teacher must have good classroom management skills, teaches for mastery, and has positive expectations for student success (Wong 2001). Based on Wong's characteristics, I can confidently state that Mr. White did portray all three characteristics within his classroom environment. First of all, Mr. White's class was quite and very well behaved. I was a naturally spunky child suffering from a slight tendency and desire to create a ruckus in the classroom. However, my attempts to do so were thwarted numerous times by Mr. White and he did so in the most compassionate and understanding manner. I never felt belittled or hated by him and realized that he would like me regardless.
