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Teaching Tips for the New Teacher. Lloyd Brooks The University of Memphis. First Day of Class.
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Teaching Tips for the New Teacher Lloyd Brooks The University of Memphis
First Day of Class • Hit the ground running on the first day of class with substantial content. Take attendance: roll call, sign-in, seating chart. Distribute an informative, artistic, and user-friendly syllabus. Give an assignment on the first day to be collected at the next meeting.
Do Not Become Overwhelmed • Beginning teachers can quickly become overwhelmed by a growing “to do” list of classroom plans as well as forms and technicalities that go with the job. • Find a seasoned teacher to “buddy” with and ask for help on how to prioritize. Develop your own “Newcomer Checklist.”
Build Relationships With Students • A good classroom teacher develops positive relationships with their students – celebrate birthdays, be interested in their lives (sports, brothers, sisters) – students respond and engage better in a class with teachers who they feel care about them and their education.
Consistent Communications • Schedule frequent one-on-one conferences with each student so that you are aware of any learning difficulties or concerns the child may have in your classroom. Make sure you are approachable.
Be Organized • It is important to be organized - attendance, record keeping, lesson plans, grading… You do not want to tell your principal after he/she enters your room and asks for your lesson plan: I don’t know where it is.
Be on Each Student’s Level • It’s crucial to modify work for different learning levels of students. Make work easier for students who have a learning disability or are not on the grade level. Challenge students who become bored when the class activity is too easy for them. Differential learning is essential in every classroom.
Classroom Management • Before the first day of school, have plenty of activities prepared for emergency use. Students will misbehave if they have nothing to do. A class full of bored kids will not sit quietly for ten minutes waiting for you to figure out what is next. • Effective classroom management is one of the biggest challenges for new teachers.
Give Feedback Quickly • It takes no more time to read papers and exams quickly and return them within the next day or two. For some students, it is absolute torture to wait… don’t have the students lose faith in your ability by letting too much time pass between performance and assessment.
Seek Student Participation • Don't answer your own question. Allow a few moments of calm silence. Inviting students to first writean answer virtually ensures that they will then have something to say. Create a safe environment that makes the students embrace classroom discourse without the fear of ridicule for wrong answers.
Use Good Questioning Techniques • There are several ways to ask questions that can lead to meaningful conversation and at the same time not lead to the answer. There is a difference between the following questions: (1) What’s the bookkeeping equation? (2) What is the relationship between assets, liabilities and ownership?
Use Bulletin Boards • A bulletin board should have a title, purpose statement, rubric, and standard posted. The bulletin board should be comprised of students’ best work. A student who is functioning at a lower level can still produce work that is bulletin board worthy. Each child should have the opportunity to see their work put up.
Use Parent-Teacher Conferences Wisely • These conferences provide an excellent opportunity to communicate achievements and concerns. Begin with positive comments to not make the parent defensive or uncooperative. No parent wants to hear only horrible things about their child. Ask for help, if needed. Parents can be helpful.
Use Lesson Plans Effectively • Your lesson plan will not be a word-for-word guide that you read to the class. Instead, it allows you to focus on your learning objectives and activities you have planned to achieve them. It is like a blueprint, but it is imperative that the blueprint has a meaningful, systematic approach which aligns to the standards you want to address.
Organize Your Classroom Environment • The organization of your classroom directly affects student behavior and learning. By thoughtfully planning your classroom environment, you can avoid some of the distractions that keep you and your students from functioning as effectively as possible. Make the classroom an attractive place to study and learn.
Professional Responsibilities • Work in a collegial manner with your colleagues. • Associate with and learn from positive mentors. • Join a professional organization. • Continue to learn through classes, workshops, conferences, in-service meetings, books, journals, tapes, and advanced degrees.
Develop a Clear Discipline Plan • Have a short, clear discipline plan developed, with both rewards and consequences. • A classroom discipline plan is a system that allows you to indicate the behaviors you expect from students and what they can expect from you in return. This plan provides a framework around which all of your behavior management efforts can be organized.
Find a Mentor in Your School • Locate a mentor or at least a peer teacher in your school. This can be your outlet for advice about teaching and school policy when needed.
Use Positive Reinforcement • Positive reinforcement is the key to effective discipline. You cannot change behavior just by using consequences. Verbal reinforcement is the most accessible vehicle to demonstrate that students are behaving appropriately. • Remember that all human beings need positives. Praise students daily. Hand-in-hand with positive verbal responses goes nonverbal responses. Use these responses often with all of your students.
Make Assignments Clear • An effective assignment results when a teacher tells the students what the students are to have accomplished or mastered at the end of the lesson. Basically, you teach with the end in mind. • Steps to Creating an Effective Assignment 1. Think what you want the students to accomplish. 2. Write each step as a single sentence. 3. Write in simple language. 4. Duplicate the list of steps and give it to the students.
Watch Your Distance • Your presence is a motivator to students. Close proximity sends a message that they are acknowledged and important. Remember: • Teachers spend most of their time near high achieving students. • Low-achieving students gain the benefit of close proximity primarily when there is a problem with their behavior. • Teachers tend to move about the room in patterns, such as the “terrific T,” thus establishing close proximity to those students in the front and those in the center.
Enhance Positive Expectations • When you look at the truly effective teachers, you will also find caring, warm, lovable people. • Name- Address a student by name. • Thank You- I really appreciate what you did, “thank you.” • Smile- A smile, the frosting on the cake. • Love- It all adds up to love.
Maintain a Sense of Humor • A sense of humor can help you become a successful teacher. Your sense of humor can relieve tense classroom situations before they become disruptions. • A sense of humor will also make class more enjoyable for you and your students and possibly make students look forward to attending and paying attention.
Do Not Gossip • There will be days when you hear things from students about other teachers that you just think are terrible. However, you should be noncommittal to the students and take your concerns to the teacher themselves or to administration. • What you say to your students is not private and will be shared.
Do Not Yell • Once you yell at a student, you have lost the battle. This doesn’t mean you will not have to raise your voice every once in awhile, but teachers who yell all the time are often those with the worst classes. • Practice other methods of communicating your message without yelling.
Avoid Humiliation • Humiliation is terrible technique to use as a teacher. Students will either be so cowed that they will never feel confident in your classroom, so hurt that they will not trust you ever again, or so upset that they will turn to disruptive methods of retaliation.
Grade Consistently • Do not allow students to turn in late work for full points at any time because this takes away the incentive to turn in work on time. • Further, use rubrics when you are grading assignments that require subjectivity. This helps protect you and explain the reason for the students’ grades.
Maintain a Positive Attitude • For example, you may find out the first day of school that you are teaching Accounting instead of Keyboarding. This would not be an ideal situation, but a teacher with the right attitude would try to focus on getting through the first day without negatively impacting the students.
Know Where to Locate Information • Become familiar with web sites such as the ones for the State Department of Education and the Memphis City Schools • Become familiar with web sites that provide teachers with resources for classroom use. • Become familiar with resources within your school: Where to go and who to ask.
Formula for Success • Success = Ability X Effort
