recommendations for new teachers

1. recommendations for new teachers By: Claire Moyer claire.moyer@smail.astate.edu

2. Develop Relationships with Children, Parents and Staff • Use registration time to build a foundation • Create detailed student information sheets • Send out Parent surveys • Make Open House a special event • Contact them with good news regularly • Utilize technology whenever possible • Establish an Open Door Policy

3. Have Fun and Love What Your Doing • Be Enthusiastic about Teaching • Be Caring and Supportive for your Students • “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer • “The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn” – Benjamin Franklin • “I am not a teacher, but an awakener” – Robert Frost

4. Be Prepared, Organized and Have Systems Developed • Characteristics of Successful Classroom Management • Learners know what behaviors are expected. • Students feel welcome to participate in learning activities. • Classroom procedures and routines are clearly defined. • Established rules are phrased positively and reinforced regularly. • Classroom culture is based on mutual respect. • Lessons and activities are well planned and learner centered.

5. Consistency in Expectations • Materials developed for the course must be consistent. • Students should be evaluated at the same level with the expectations of learning. • Higher level evaluations may include: multiple choice questions or pictorial representations, essay questions, or critiques of literature. • Give students assignments or projects that encourage higher level learning.

6. Engaging Students, Developing Confidence, and Promoting Independence • Developing Confidence and be able to work independently: • Acknowledge all contributions positively • Encourage learning from mistakes • Welcome wrong answers as the springboard to new understanding • Use positive language and value different approaches to problem solving • Encourage independent and small group research • Developing Positive Attitudes: • Use a wide range of tasks and resources • Enthusiastic teachers with a “can do” attitude • Plenty of opportunities for students to be successful • Hands-on approaches to learning • Use real life examples and explore links with other subjects. • Offer positive role models • Provide enjoyable activities and additional optional ways for study.

7. Listen to advice, ask questions & for help • Feedback is a crucial part of learning for both students and teachers. • Ask yourself some of the following questions to improve your classroom techniques and materials: • What topics or aspects of the course did the students have difficulty with? • Were there question formats that the students had difficulty with? • Where did the students succeed? • What content would you like to focus on differently? • Does the overall organization of the course lead to mastery? • Did you adequately assess if the students achieved the learning objectives of the course? • Did the students overcome their misconceptions or stereotypes? • Gather advice from colleagues as well.

8. Planning Courses • To Help Students become intentional, responsible and enabled learners • Help students become integrative thinkers and see connections among disciplines, reflect on their acquired knowledge and their learning to learn skills. • Since responsibility to act as informed citizens is based on values, principles and commitments, we need to help students acquire these values and principles through actions and decisions. • Enabled learners can use their knowledge and skills to communicate their ideas, solve complex problems and manage practical situations.

9. Be Flexible! • Don’t try to do it all. • Don’t reinvent the wheel!

10. Reflect and Change Where Necessary • Revising Course by next year • Consult with school administration and review curriculum content options. Also contact other faculty who teach courses that require your course as a prerequisite. • Get ideas from previous students in a post-course survey or some other type of survey. Keep administration informed of changes so they know what to expect. • Revisions may not be perfect but consulting many resources for ideas and ways to improve will help.

11. Importance of Documentation • Things to Document • Parental contacts, student behavior, failing students, incomplete assignments, verbal warnings, discipline referrals and more including date, time, student’s name and a brief statement describing what happened. • Why so important? • To avoid teachers being manipulated by parents or other teachers. • Be Proactive: Documentation shows parents what their child is or isn’t doing and get confirmation from their teacher.

12. Gaining Knowledge and Growing

13. REFERENCES • http://www.teachthought.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/tips-for-new-teachers.jpg • http://www.usciences.edu/teaching/tips/ • http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/9-techniques-building-solid-parent-teacher-relationships • http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/13122-success-is-not-the-key-to-happiness-happiness-is-the