Teaching is more than just standing in front of a group of students and reading aloud from a book or quoting some facts… As a teacher, you have to understand students and their needs, sometimes more than their own parents, in order to give them the ability to live life. No matter what subject you teach or their age, this Wikihow will help you evaluate your students and enhance their educational experience. Start with step 1 to become the teacher you want to be.
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Part 1 of 11: Knowing Needs
Step 1. Identify important academic skills
Think about the skills your students need to succeed in life. Think about the skills you used as an adult and how you could instill them in students. This is a must-have skill to live in society. For example reading and math. Make this a priority.
Step 2. Identify secondary skills to make life better
Once you have established the first skill, consider the second skill that can improve students' lives and provide a happy and productive life. For example, creative skills that can make them problem solvers and provide them with the right channel of emotion.
Step 3. Recognize emotional and social skills
Not only academic ability is needed to become a functional human being. Your students will need to be able to build self-confidence, as well as a healthy ability to cope with stress and disappointment and know how to interact productively with others. Imagine what techniques you could apply in the classroom to help students develop these things.
Part 2 of 11: Targeting
Step 1. Create an overall goal
Once you've identified some of the basic skills students need to have in order to be successful in life, try setting some goals based on those abilities. If you're dealing with kindergarten students who eventually have to learn to read, for example, you'll want them to recognize the alphabet and recognize easy words.
Step 2. Set specific targets
Once you have established general goals for the class, try to think of specific goals that can indicate that the general goals have been achieved. For example, make the goal that the kindergarten student is able to read the alphabet from front to back and vice versa, and read three-letter words, for example.
Step 3. Outline how this goal can be achieved
Now that you know what you want from your students, try to incorporate the small skills they will need to achieve the big goals. These will be small targets and can help as a map. With kindergartners, for example, your small goal could be to teach individual letters, learn to recognize letter sounds or how to string sounds in words.
Part 3 of 11: Making a Teaching Plan
Step 1. Create a teaching framework to achieve the objectives
Now that you have a teaching map, create a lesson plan that specifically lists how they stepped on the right path. Each skill that must be mastered among these small goals must be planned and written down.
Step 2. Consider teaching styles
When creating a teaching plan, think about teaching styles. Each student learns in a different way and if you want the whole class to have the same opportunity to succeed you have to accommodate this. Consider using sound, physical, visual and written activities in your lessons whenever you can.
Step 3. Mix multiple subjects to build multiple skills at once
If you're in an environment where you can combine several subjects like science and English or math and history, then give it a try. This can make students understand how information should be applied and how to do it in real situations in the real world. After all, life is not divided into several classroom subjects. Try to find ways to work with other teachers in providing complex, participatory lessons.
Part 4 of 11: Engaging Students
Step 1. Use visual aids
Try to use as many visual aids as possible in your lessons. This will give students more concrete examples of what you are talking about. Complex concepts are sometimes difficult to imagine and if you have pictures it will be able to attract students to stay focused on the material rather than daydreaming because they can't follow the discussion that is taking place.
Step 2. Do Activities
Generally, don't give a lecture longer than 15 minutes. You should always make students active in the learning process. You can do this by providing active learning opportunities such as using games, student-to-student discussions, or questions and answers (you can or they can answer).
If you're doing a Q&A, set up a system where everyone knows they have a role to play. This helps each student to be active. One way is to keep a jar with the student's name written on the ice cream stick or handle. Pull the ice cream stick at random to get the name of the student who must answer the question. Add open-ended questions that other people can answer or ask
Step 3. Relate the subject matter to the real world
Since the goal of learning is to acquire real-world skills, you will always want to relate the skills and information in the classroom to the real world of students and the things that will impact them in the future. Students don't have to wonder why they should learn things. what they learn and if you can't relate it to the real world, you probably shouldn't teach it.
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Math skills should be returned to things like paying bills, getting loans and future assignments. Language skills can be used to write letters or apply for funds. Natural science skills can be augmented by repairing damaged pipelines or evaluating disease. Historical skills can be used to determine political values and voting decisions in elections. Sociology skills can be used to hypothetically help their future children, friends or strangers
Part 5 of 11: Allow Self-Exploration
Step 1. Let your students outside
It's not just about keeping them active or in the sun (although these are important things). The point of going to school is not only to build the ability to pass a test, but to help face the real world. Try letting them out of class to use the skills they have.
Take your natural science class to the beach to identify animal, plant life or geological objects. Take language classes to theater rehearsals so they can see how dialogue choices and perceptions change in events and roles. Try taking your history class to interview residents of a nursing home or your sociology class to interview prison residents
Step 2. Let them experiment
Give your assignment room for creative interpretation. Let students ask questions and follow another path. Letting them guide their own lessons can help them learn better and stay interested in what they are doing.
For example, in a laboratory experiment about putting mice in a maze, if your students ask what will happen if they use a mirror in the maze, let them
Step 3. Support innovation
Let your students create new things. Give them broad assignments with specific goals and let them have their own methods of achieving those goals. This allows them to develop a teaching method that suits their style and interests, will focus their attention on the task and support success.
For example, suppose you have a language class assignment where students have to write a number of words on, say, a certain broad topic. However, say that it is up to them how the words are arranged. They can make comics, write songs, do speeches, essays whatever they want
Part 6 of 11: Reinforce Teaching
Step 1. Interact in the lesson
When students are working on an assignment in class or are part of a class, you can walk around the room and ask what they are doing. Ask how things are going. Don't just ask what went wrong, but also ask if they understand well. Dig deeper than simply, “I'm fine” or “Everything is okay.” You can even explain what they are doing or what their understanding of the task is.
Step 2. Discuss the weak points
After the assignment, try to see the general performance of the class. Try to identify common, or common problems and discuss them. Talk about why this error is easy to make and identify the problem. Discuss a better approach or solution.
Step 3. Review old material occasionally
Don't talk about something really old from the start of the year and never talk about it again. Try to always associate it with new material on past material. This will reinforce what has been learned, just as learning a language requires daily practice.
For example, learning English about writing a paper can discuss more about narrative writing about how argumentative writing can create emotional effects and how tonality can give different perceptions
Part 7 of 11: Tracking Progress
Step 1. Create a balanced test
Have you ever taken a test that was too easy to take or an exam that contained only material from the last three days of class, rather than all the material from the semester? This experience can help you understand the importance of balancing test content. Make the material according to the importance of the test and make a balanced assessment of the test that is not too easy or difficult for students.
Step 2. Consider alternatives to standardized tests
Standardized tests are sometimes inaccurate in assessing students' ability in the subject matter. Smart students can also have great difficulty doing tests and students who are not good at absorbing knowledge can make great test takers. Try to find alternative methods that don't put too much pressure on students to always succeed in a specific way.
Consider educational evaluations, rather than being auditive. Ask your students to see the real world how they would use the knowledge they learned and ask them to write a paper or presentation on how they would handle the situation. This will strengthen their abilities and provide an opportunity to not only understand the material but also understand its function
Step 3. Twist your presentation a little, General speaking is an important skill for sure
However, not everyone learns this by force. Try to practice your students' presentation skills not only so that you know their knowledge of the material given but also their public speaking skills. Once they have made an easier presentation, you can ask them to make a presentation in class and see what they are capable of.
- You can have students make presentations individually, only to you. This should be done more like an interview. This will put them at ease and help them build presentation skills more efficiently. It also gives you the opportunity to ask questions and assess your students' abilities.
- You can always ask them to give presentations to fellow students. They can do it in half as they did with you before, or you can ask them to speak in front of a panel (another group of students). Ask the evaluating student to bring a list of previous questions, which will then become a teaching experience and a way for them to show they understand the material presented.
Part 8 of 11: Rewarding Success, Using Failure
Step 1. Let your students choose their award
Make a list of acceptable awards for great performance, both individually and for the whole class, letting your students decide for themselves how they want to be rewarded. It helps them to know that this award is a real incentive, rather than something you give that doesn't help motivate them to work harder.
Step 2. Don't look at failure, look at opportunities
When a student makes a mistake, don't look at it as such. Don't see it as a failure, and don't let them see it as a failure. Help them to try and gently point out the right path. Remember, don't say "wrong". Instead say, “almost” or “good effort”. Remember that skills learned through trial and error will be more powerful than from just trying and being right or in ways they don't really understand.
Step 3. Try providing general rewards
Traditional teaching environments have a tendency to create systems in which underachieving students will envy those who don't appear to have tried hard. You want to create an atmosphere where students want to work together and not stigmatize success. This will help your students become more functional as adults and prepare them for the world of work. Do this by introducing group rewards where individual success will be shared by the whole class.
For example, set up a system where if any student gets a perfect score in the class, everyone else will be rewarded. You'll give everyone a few extra points or ask students if they expected a different award. This will support them to work together for better results and pass on the success of successful students to their classmates
Part 9 of 11: Meeting emotional needs
Step 1. Make them feel unique and needed
Value each student individually, for the qualities that make them unique human beings. Push their quality. You need to be able to make students feel that they have something to offer and contribute. This can boost their confidence and find a suitable path in their lives.
Step 2. Acknowledge their efforts
Even if students only make occasional small efforts, these efforts should be seen and appreciated. Don't judge but be more appreciative. If they work hard, try to appreciate it. If a student manages to raise a grade from D to B+, for example, it could be given an extra boost by giving an A because of their great effort to successfully raise a grade that high.
Step 3. Pay respects
It is very important to respect students. It doesn't matter whether they are high school students working on a dissertation or kindergartners, treat them like intelligent capable human beings. Give them self-respect and they will do the same to you.
Part 10 of 11: Asking for Feedback
Step 1. Ask your students for input
Ask for input to get their perception of what's going on and what's wrong in the classroom. You can ask them privately or with anonymous surveys to find out what they think about what is happening in the classroom.
Step 2. Ask family members for input
Ask the parents of your students for input. They may notice improvements in their child's abilities, increased self-confidence or social skills. Maybe they saw something. Gaining an outside perspective helps you to be sure that the changes you see in the classroom continue outside the classroom, as well as helps catch problems you may not see in the classroom.
Step 3. Ask your boss for input
If you are the teacher in the classroom, ask the principal or another more experienced teacher to come into the classroom and observe you at work. Getting outside input will help you but remember to be open to criticism.
Part 11 of 11: Keep Learning
Step 1. Keep developing yourself
Read the latest journals or papers from conferences to stay up-to-date with the latest innovative methods and the latest engineering ideas. This will help you not to fall behind in your methods.
Step 2. Take a class to refresh your knowledge
Take a class at your local University to refresh your knowledge. This helps you remember a technique you've forgotten or a strategy you forgot to use.
Step 3. Observe other teachers
Observe not only those who are good at their job but also those who are not so good. See the good things and the bad things that happen. Take notes and try to use what you learn in the classroom.
Step 4. Reflection
At the end of the day/lesson/quarterly/semester try to reflect on what you did in class. What do you do well. What is not good enough and what can be improved. What you can't do anymore.
