Time to Share Your Best Bits of Teaching Expertise
If you could share any piece of advice or nugget of knowledge to other teachers in the world, what would it be? Do you have an amazing organization tip that makes your life simple? Wonderful classroom management plan that works flawlessly? Captivating activity the students can't get enough of? This is where you spill the beans and take the credit. :)
When dealing with dicipline problems and defiance always give the student a choice. For example you have given the student an assignment and he refuses to do it. You know its a power struggle. Give the student a choice.
ReplyDelete+You can do this now or in detention later. I am not asking for perfection, just that you try.
+ You can do this assignment or part of snack break is taken away. Are you having trouble?
What ever age your working with giving them a choice is a way out of the struggle. They almost always choose the easiest way out which is to do the assignment.
After its all over ( at the end of the day)
say why the assignment was important. It helps understanding and going back to the situation helps the student remember for next time.
I love your comments about giving the students choices. I can totally see how the ability to make decisions regarding activities and/or punishments could held diffuse possibly confrontational situations with students. Thanks for sharing!
DeleteI think one of the biggest problems I've encountered in my teacher observation classroom is knowing whether or not the students are "listening". On days that they seem especially distracted or restless, I try to have them take a break in their classwork and play a listening game. I have several favorites, but in a classroom setting, I must pick the games that make the least amount of noise. Here is just one of my favoirtes:
ReplyDelete"When I go to California"
I have the children arrange the classroom chairs or desks in a circle so that we can all see each other. The teacher usually starts the game and says, "When I go to California, I will take my (puppy)" Then the student to the teachers left will say "When I go to California, I will take my (puppy) and my (toothbrush)". The game continues around the circle and requires that the students listen and remember what their classmates have said while adding something new and interesting to the list. I try not to call students out when they forget as some will have anxiety leading up to their turn, but rather, let the student next to them help coach them through their turn.
Playing this game teaches students the idea of respecting not only what the teacher has to say and listening intently, but to also value what their classmates say. After we finish the game, we go back to the assignment or classwork. The students have usually settled down after playing and have a new found respect for those that "listened well".
The best thing I took away from my first year of teaching was to make learning fun. I made up dances, songs, silly made-up words; just to make sure my kids understood the concept. My students learned the "Angle Dance" to remember all of the angles, we said that the numerator went "nup", so that all the students would understand the the numerator is the number on the top of the fraction.
ReplyDeleteThere were many a times that I made up silly dances, did weird faces, etc, but my kids remembered that material when it came to the test!!!
I am all about making learning fun and it sounds like your classroom is a great place to be. My mom is a veteran teacher and her claim to fame was that she made learning fun...silly songs, funny faces, lots of puppets. Thanks for the tips and keep up the good work!
DeleteWithout a doubt, I would have to say one of the biggest things I have learned as a teacher of Special Needs students is that I have to be flexible in EVERYTHING. None of my students learn like the others, so I have to constantly be creative with how I teach things to my students. What may hit home with one student will make absolutely no sense to the next one. There are some days when I may have one of the "world's greatest lessons" planned and two minutes intot he lesson have to stop because one of my students may be in severe pain due to the barometric pressure change in the air outside due to bad weather. I would like to think that being able to adapt on the fly helps me get through the day sometimes so much easier.
ReplyDeleteOne of the hardest things for me to learn is that it’s OK for students to make mistakes, let students make discoveries on what works don’t just tell them the answers. Physics and chemistry can be confusing for students but they have to experiment and observe to start to make connections and these connections will be more meaningful if they figure it out on their own. I wasn’t just here to pour facts into their heads but to guide them on their own discoveries.
ReplyDeleteIf I were giving advice to first-year teachers anywhere in the world, I would say to be flexible and just go with the flow of things. Each school year is different from the previous year. Students act differently, some are great, but some may be bad! Each new crop of students acts differently as a whole. It is weird how that happens, but it is true. So, you just have to stay focused on your lesson plans and on the ultimate goal of seeing your students learn and walk away from your classroom with knowledge, but you have to just take one day at a time and rearrange your lesson plans if students are stuck on something that they do not understand and things like that. Students are all different, and we must accept that.
ReplyDelete