Reflection about Qualified Teaching

Questions:  

            1.    What does it mean to be a qualified teacher?

2.     How do you assess qualifications?

3.     What is good teaching, and how is it measured?

4.     How do qualifications make a difference? What knowledge or skills would a qualified teacher possess that an unqualified teacher does not?

5.     How do school systems that may have a paucity of qualified teachers (such as rural and urban schools) work to meet the requirements established by No Child Left Behind? 

Answer: 
          
         A qualified teacher can differ among people but according to the NCLB (No Child Left Behind), a qualified teacher is seen as someone who hold a bachelors degree from a four year institution, has teacher experience, has the content knowledge to teach core academics, a teacher certification, and a state teaching license. 
        I personally assess qualifications of a teacher by how knowledgeable they are regarding the subject they are teaching because if they don't really know what they are talking about, how am I suppose to learn? My geometry teacher in high school did not understand what he was teaching at all, so as a result, I didn't do as well as I wanted to in that class. Also I assess qualifications by how enthusiastic the teacher is to be in the class, teaching and making sure we succeed. When they have a good attitude coming to work, I will have a good attitude to come to class. 
        Good teaching is the amount of knowledge a teacher has about a topic and will go out of their way to make sure their students learn it and are successful in the end. and it is measured by how successful the students are and how much they are able to achieve based off of how qualified the teacher is in the subject that they are teaching and also by the effort the teacher puts into his or her teaching. 
         Qualifications can make a huge difference when it comes to the achievement of students in school. By teachers having to meet certain qualifications, you can guarantee that the students will achieve a lot more than with a teacher who doesn't meet the qualifications.  If a teacher got a degree in a specific subject, they are automatically so knowledgeable about that topic, that they can focus on making sure their students are just as knowledgeable. 
         Because of the shortage of teachers, some states have restored to recruiting nontraditional candidates and offering them alternative, temporary or emergency certificates to fill empty classrooms. In order to make sure these candidates meet the federal definition of a highly qualified teacher, they have to go through 3-8 weeks of pedagogical training which is  training in learning theory, teaching methods, classroom management, curriculum, lesson planning and other activities.