1) A Great Teacher Will Always Be There-
If you are not in your classroom, you are not teaching. Yes, teachers must take days off occasionally, but do not make it a habit. If you are feeling a little sick, unless it is serious, show up! A sick regular teacher is ten times better for his or her students than a healthy sub is. Regular attendance is a must. Be proud to have a perfect attendance record.
2) A Great Teacher is Accessible-
You need to help your students at all times. That means before school, during lunch, and after school. No, you do not have to do it all the time. Start out with something like two days a week before school, lunch, and after school. You are the best tutor your students can get. Teach them!
3) Great Teachers Know Their Students on a Personal Basis-
Talk to them during lessons. What is their favorite music? TV? Movies? Talk to them in the hallways. The more you know, the more you can adapt. It is easy to converse during class time. Little comments between concepts can go a long way. If some show up early for class, you can really get personal. No class time? Pass out a questionnaire. Above all, learn their names quickly!
4) A Great Teacher Knows Many Parents-
Get phone numbers. Make two calls a day to parents. If you can, make more. They do not need to be long. Just a short hello and that you are interested in their child. In just a short time, you can indeed make contact to at least one parent of each student. Parents can be your biggest ally. Students will perform and behave better if they know you are talking to their parents.
5) A Great Teacher Knows What They are Teaching-
If you do not know what you are doing, how can you teach? This involves complete preparation.
6) A Great Teacher Attends school events-
Make yourself seen at school sports and performances. Being seen in this setting shows students you care about them and support them.
7) A Great Teacher Lives in or Visits the Neighborhood-
If you do not live in the same place as your school, make some visits on weekends. Go to a local place to eat. Shop at a local store. Many of your students may have parents who own local businesses. Patronize them. Visit a church. The more your students see you, the more they will be willing to behave in class. They will see you as someone who is willing to be on their level.
8) A Great Teacher Eats Lunch on Campus-
Wander around at lunch and sit at a student table. Buy a school lunch and join them. Many students help sell food. Make a point to buy something.
9) A Great Teacher is Always Fair-
Expect the best, but be flexible. Fairness does not have to mean leniency It simply means to grade your students on a balanced scale.
10) Great Teachers Never lose Their Cool-
Bite your tongue. All things will pass. Never carry a grudge. Things in your classroom will happen. This goes hand in hand with being professional. Acting like a raving lunatic is a sure way to shorten your career.
Source: http://www.squidoo.com/classroomteachers
Monday, October 3, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Four Learning Styles
There are four learning styles that most people fit in to. Visual/verbal, tactile/kinesthetic, visual/non verbal and auditory/verbal. These four learning styles will help you to understand and process any information given to you. Once you know which style you fall in to, you can begin learning the best ways for you to study.
The visual/verbal learning style means that you learn the best from viewing information both visually and in a written format. It works best for you when your instructor uses the blackboard or an overhead projector. If the most important parts of a lecture are put into a bulletin format or used in an outline, you will find it much easier to follow along. Textbook information and class notes will be a great way for you to study and when you're trying to retain information or remember something, you often can "see" it or picture it in your mind.
Of the four learning styles, the visual/verbal person will want to use color coding to help them retain information from books or notes. Highlighters and different colored pens are a great way for this learner to absorb information. Summarizing important information from your notes or textbook is another good way for you to retain what you have learned. This person might also try flashcards, diagrams, illustrations and print-outs to aid in studying.
The second of the four learning styles is visual/non verbal. This person learns best when they are presented with pictures or visual aids. Instructors who incorporate film, videos, maps or diagrams will hold the attention of the visual/verbal learner. You may not find study groups helpful and would prefer to work in a quiet room. If you're trying to remember something, you might picture it in your mind. These learners often tend to be very artistic.
To aid in your retention of information, the visual/non verbal learner should try using flashcards that have important information on them. Illustrating them with pictures and symbols is another good way to help the information to be retained as well as using highlighters and pens.
The third of the four learning styles is tactile/kinesthetic. This learner enjoys "hands on" activities in the classroom. Any type of lab setting or field work will help this type of person to understand the information given. Instructor's that provide their students with demonstrations, presentations or student learning experiences will be helping the tactile/kinesthetic person learn.
Lectures might be hard for this person to sit through, and that's why it's important for them to sit in the front and take notes. Spelling shouldn't be a concern when you're writing notes and you should write down important words you here or draw pictures to depict them.
When you're studying, try incorporating action into it- read when you're on the exercise bike or walk back and forth while reciting information.
The last of the four learning styles is auditory/verbal. The auditory/verbal learner works best when information is given to them in an oral format. Lectures and group discussions work well for you and listening to audio tape information is a good idea too.
To study more efficiently, you might want to join a study group or find a person that you work with every day for a few hours on certain material. Read information out loud and tape record your lectures.
Source: http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/articles/index.pl?page=7;read=1682
The visual/verbal learning style means that you learn the best from viewing information both visually and in a written format. It works best for you when your instructor uses the blackboard or an overhead projector. If the most important parts of a lecture are put into a bulletin format or used in an outline, you will find it much easier to follow along. Textbook information and class notes will be a great way for you to study and when you're trying to retain information or remember something, you often can "see" it or picture it in your mind.
Of the four learning styles, the visual/verbal person will want to use color coding to help them retain information from books or notes. Highlighters and different colored pens are a great way for this learner to absorb information. Summarizing important information from your notes or textbook is another good way for you to retain what you have learned. This person might also try flashcards, diagrams, illustrations and print-outs to aid in studying.
The second of the four learning styles is visual/non verbal. This person learns best when they are presented with pictures or visual aids. Instructors who incorporate film, videos, maps or diagrams will hold the attention of the visual/verbal learner. You may not find study groups helpful and would prefer to work in a quiet room. If you're trying to remember something, you might picture it in your mind. These learners often tend to be very artistic.
To aid in your retention of information, the visual/non verbal learner should try using flashcards that have important information on them. Illustrating them with pictures and symbols is another good way to help the information to be retained as well as using highlighters and pens.
The third of the four learning styles is tactile/kinesthetic. This learner enjoys "hands on" activities in the classroom. Any type of lab setting or field work will help this type of person to understand the information given. Instructor's that provide their students with demonstrations, presentations or student learning experiences will be helping the tactile/kinesthetic person learn.
Lectures might be hard for this person to sit through, and that's why it's important for them to sit in the front and take notes. Spelling shouldn't be a concern when you're writing notes and you should write down important words you here or draw pictures to depict them.
When you're studying, try incorporating action into it- read when you're on the exercise bike or walk back and forth while reciting information.
The last of the four learning styles is auditory/verbal. The auditory/verbal learner works best when information is given to them in an oral format. Lectures and group discussions work well for you and listening to audio tape information is a good idea too.
To study more efficiently, you might want to join a study group or find a person that you work with every day for a few hours on certain material. Read information out loud and tape record your lectures.
Source: http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/articles/index.pl?page=7;read=1682
Monday, September 19, 2011
Three Common Mistakes to Avoid as a New Teacher
New teachers come across a myriad of difficulties during their first year in the classroom. No matter how thorough the teacher preparation program a teacher goes through prior to obtaining a teaching position, mistakes will be made. Here are three common mistakes new teachers make that can be avoided.
Get Adequate Rest as a New Teacher
Often new teachers live and breathe teaching and planning and one common pitfall is to not get adequate rest. Getting enough sleep is one of the key factors in helping new teachers remain healthy. A solid night’s sleep is one important aspect of rest for a new teacher, but mental rest is equally important.
To get mental rest, teachers need to find a way to stop thinking about school. While this may seem simple on the surface, in fact, new teachers are so consumed with the importance of their student’s education and have difficulty leaving it behind even for a short period of time. New teachers need to find at least one person in their life that can make the purposeful effort to bring the conversation away from school and students.
Try New Ideas but Don’t Over Do It
New teachers are the recipients of a plethora of good ideas. Attempting to use these ideas in the classroom makes teachers better at what they do. There is a limit to how many new ideas should be put into place in the classroom, though. The line should be drawn at the point where one idea works well.
So for example, if a teacher attempts one new idea for how to choose students to answer questions and it works wonderfully, attempt a new idea the very next day is not necessarily the best strategy. Keeping new ideas in a journal or teacher idea book is a much better way to handle new information so that when one idea does not work with a particular group of students, the teacher has a handful of ideas to pull out and attempt.
Befriending Students Will Backfire on a Teacher
A teacher is many things in the classroom, but friend should not be one of them. Teachers can be confidant and counselor, but not a buddy. Teachers need to remain in charge of the classroom at all times, which requires that they not become equals with the students. Friends are equals and becoming friends can result in discipline problems further down the road.
It is important that new teachers work to develop a relationship with students that include trust and respect, but the students should always remember that they answer to the teacher and must obey the rules. New teachers need to find the balance between developing a rapport with students and remaining their superior in the classroom.
There is a huge learning curve for new teachers entering the classroom for the first time. While many mistakes will be unavoidable and good lessons for the teacher to learn from, others can be avoided. Learning how to get adequate rest, collect new ideas appropriately and develop an appropriate rapport with students will help new teachers avoid three common mistakes during their first year.
Source: Suite 101.com http://www.suite101.com/content/three-common-mistakes-to-avoid-as-a-new-teacher-a289860#ixzz1G5mJi9NI
Get Adequate Rest as a New Teacher
Often new teachers live and breathe teaching and planning and one common pitfall is to not get adequate rest. Getting enough sleep is one of the key factors in helping new teachers remain healthy. A solid night’s sleep is one important aspect of rest for a new teacher, but mental rest is equally important.
To get mental rest, teachers need to find a way to stop thinking about school. While this may seem simple on the surface, in fact, new teachers are so consumed with the importance of their student’s education and have difficulty leaving it behind even for a short period of time. New teachers need to find at least one person in their life that can make the purposeful effort to bring the conversation away from school and students.
Try New Ideas but Don’t Over Do It
New teachers are the recipients of a plethora of good ideas. Attempting to use these ideas in the classroom makes teachers better at what they do. There is a limit to how many new ideas should be put into place in the classroom, though. The line should be drawn at the point where one idea works well.
So for example, if a teacher attempts one new idea for how to choose students to answer questions and it works wonderfully, attempt a new idea the very next day is not necessarily the best strategy. Keeping new ideas in a journal or teacher idea book is a much better way to handle new information so that when one idea does not work with a particular group of students, the teacher has a handful of ideas to pull out and attempt.
Befriending Students Will Backfire on a Teacher
A teacher is many things in the classroom, but friend should not be one of them. Teachers can be confidant and counselor, but not a buddy. Teachers need to remain in charge of the classroom at all times, which requires that they not become equals with the students. Friends are equals and becoming friends can result in discipline problems further down the road.
It is important that new teachers work to develop a relationship with students that include trust and respect, but the students should always remember that they answer to the teacher and must obey the rules. New teachers need to find the balance between developing a rapport with students and remaining their superior in the classroom.
There is a huge learning curve for new teachers entering the classroom for the first time. While many mistakes will be unavoidable and good lessons for the teacher to learn from, others can be avoided. Learning how to get adequate rest, collect new ideas appropriately and develop an appropriate rapport with students will help new teachers avoid three common mistakes during their first year.
Source: Suite 101.com http://www.suite101.com/content/three-common-mistakes-to-avoid-as-a-new-teacher-a289860#ixzz1G5mJi9NI
How to Manage Stress As a Teacher
Teaching is a highly stressful job and is not, contrary to popular belief, an easy "half-day job with lots of paid vacation time." Teachers on average, spend seven hours a day providing tuition and entertainment to groups of sometimes ill-behaved and disinterested students. After this they spend time on extra-mural activities, some of which they have no training for. Then they return home with piles of marking and related administrative tasks; after which they must once again prepare the content and resources for the following day's lessons.
New teachers then need to enter the profession with their eyes wide open. Sensible school managers will spend time inducting new staff members into the school and profession. A well-structured orientation course will relieve much of the potential stress a new teacher will face. A new teacher should only be assigned classes which he or she is qualified to teach, to alleviate the stress of preparation. If the school Principal is too busy to walk the new staff member through the first two or three weeks of the quarter, a sensitive and empathetic more experienced teacher should be identified as a "mother-hen" to assist the "newbie".
One of the greatest stressors identified by teachers the world over is classroom management regarding discipline and student behaviour, or misbehaviour. Teachers new to the profession or the particular school, need to be trained in the specific disciplinary procedures used at the institution. The age-old advice "Don't smile until Christmas" should be emphasised at the outset. A firm, consistent, no-nonsense will be tolerated approach from day one will ensure that teaching and learning can take place, without unnecessary interruptions.
To avoid the stress of ill-disciplined students, teachers need to be well-prepared for every class. An experienced teacher will always keep a store of resources on hand to fill any "free time" resulting from a lesson which does not take as long as anticipated. If the average attention span of the class as a whole is fifteen minutes, then teachers should prepare a series of related, but varied activities for every lesson. If a teacher-tell approach is the greatest trigger for misbehaviour then this strategy should be minimised. The lesson could begin with teacher-tell, move to ten minutes of group work, shift to whole class participation activities, then move to individual paper and pen work.
Teachers should remember that slower students and those who finish tasks more quickly than the rest need to be accommodated in the lesson planning stages. Students who have nothing to do or who have been left behind, create disturbances in the classroom. Disturbances in the classroom lead to heightened stress for teachers. An organised teacher will spend time with slower students while the class is engaged in individual work. Resources such as subject-related reading cards should always be available for the more advanced students. Among these resources one can include crossword puzzles, word searches and similar fun activities for completion. A system of class rewards linked to extra work completed could be implemented too.
Another major and oft quoted stressor faced by teachers is that of difficult parents. All teachers would be well-advised to keep an incident book available in their classroom at all times. A page per student works well. A well-documented record of transgressions is a valuable weapon when a parent comes to a Parent Teacher meeting to find out why little Johnny has failed your subject. Teachers should remember to start with positive input before moving into problem areas. Parents, despite what you may think, love their children and long to see them achieve. When recording daily classroom activities, teachers must make sure that they record positive experiences too. A letter sent home to reward a diligent child or an average child who has shown improvement, will go a long way to gaining the respect and support of parents.
Diligent teachers soon discover that their entire life becomes consumed by their profession. Here, a word of caution is necessary. To avoid stress-related burnout teachers really do need to create "me-time" for themselves. Spend the first few days of the vacation period preparing all the materials needed for the following quarter to prevent daily planning pressures for the quarter which lies ahead. Another way to create time and avoid stress is to plan a carefully structured assessment program. Teachers need at least two nights free a week to spend with their families or just to relax. Teachers should also ensure that they keep at least two weekends free a month to spend on themselves. The advice we mete out to students 'to work on Friday and enjoy the rest of the weekend" would be worth following ourselves.
Strangely enough the first signs of teacher stress related burnout are feelings or perceptions that one is not making a difference, that the children or parents do not appreciate what one is doing, that teaching is not as rewarding as one expected. Teachers need to visit a healthcare professional if these signs of impending burnout persist.
Careful time management, proper planning, and personal time-outs are a teacher's best weapons in the fight against job-related stress.
Source: ESL Teachers Board http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/articles/index.pl?read=4212
New teachers then need to enter the profession with their eyes wide open. Sensible school managers will spend time inducting new staff members into the school and profession. A well-structured orientation course will relieve much of the potential stress a new teacher will face. A new teacher should only be assigned classes which he or she is qualified to teach, to alleviate the stress of preparation. If the school Principal is too busy to walk the new staff member through the first two or three weeks of the quarter, a sensitive and empathetic more experienced teacher should be identified as a "mother-hen" to assist the "newbie".
One of the greatest stressors identified by teachers the world over is classroom management regarding discipline and student behaviour, or misbehaviour. Teachers new to the profession or the particular school, need to be trained in the specific disciplinary procedures used at the institution. The age-old advice "Don't smile until Christmas" should be emphasised at the outset. A firm, consistent, no-nonsense will be tolerated approach from day one will ensure that teaching and learning can take place, without unnecessary interruptions.
To avoid the stress of ill-disciplined students, teachers need to be well-prepared for every class. An experienced teacher will always keep a store of resources on hand to fill any "free time" resulting from a lesson which does not take as long as anticipated. If the average attention span of the class as a whole is fifteen minutes, then teachers should prepare a series of related, but varied activities for every lesson. If a teacher-tell approach is the greatest trigger for misbehaviour then this strategy should be minimised. The lesson could begin with teacher-tell, move to ten minutes of group work, shift to whole class participation activities, then move to individual paper and pen work.
Teachers should remember that slower students and those who finish tasks more quickly than the rest need to be accommodated in the lesson planning stages. Students who have nothing to do or who have been left behind, create disturbances in the classroom. Disturbances in the classroom lead to heightened stress for teachers. An organised teacher will spend time with slower students while the class is engaged in individual work. Resources such as subject-related reading cards should always be available for the more advanced students. Among these resources one can include crossword puzzles, word searches and similar fun activities for completion. A system of class rewards linked to extra work completed could be implemented too.
Another major and oft quoted stressor faced by teachers is that of difficult parents. All teachers would be well-advised to keep an incident book available in their classroom at all times. A page per student works well. A well-documented record of transgressions is a valuable weapon when a parent comes to a Parent Teacher meeting to find out why little Johnny has failed your subject. Teachers should remember to start with positive input before moving into problem areas. Parents, despite what you may think, love their children and long to see them achieve. When recording daily classroom activities, teachers must make sure that they record positive experiences too. A letter sent home to reward a diligent child or an average child who has shown improvement, will go a long way to gaining the respect and support of parents.
Diligent teachers soon discover that their entire life becomes consumed by their profession. Here, a word of caution is necessary. To avoid stress-related burnout teachers really do need to create "me-time" for themselves. Spend the first few days of the vacation period preparing all the materials needed for the following quarter to prevent daily planning pressures for the quarter which lies ahead. Another way to create time and avoid stress is to plan a carefully structured assessment program. Teachers need at least two nights free a week to spend with their families or just to relax. Teachers should also ensure that they keep at least two weekends free a month to spend on themselves. The advice we mete out to students 'to work on Friday and enjoy the rest of the weekend" would be worth following ourselves.
Strangely enough the first signs of teacher stress related burnout are feelings or perceptions that one is not making a difference, that the children or parents do not appreciate what one is doing, that teaching is not as rewarding as one expected. Teachers need to visit a healthcare professional if these signs of impending burnout persist.
Careful time management, proper planning, and personal time-outs are a teacher's best weapons in the fight against job-related stress.
Source: ESL Teachers Board http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/articles/index.pl?read=4212
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)