Some advice from experienced teachers - please!

[Areeda526]

Hello!

I am a college student conducting an exstensive research project on various teaching methods. I am putting together beginning teaching manuals about The Lecture Method, The Socratic Method and Collaborative Study.

In my manuals I have a section called the "Ten-Yeared Faculty Corner" that I will put helpful hints in for successfully implementing each teaching method.

I would be greatly obliged if any one could provide a couple of quotable tips that I may incorporate into my manuals. Maybe some hints that you wish you would have known before you started teaching or some advice that will really help a begninning teacher succeed with the particular method.

Thank you all very much!

[kingrichie]

It's better to start the year off being a bit tough on your kids. It's a lot easier to lighten up, than to get tougher as the year progresses.

[Sock Puppet]

Create a classroom environment where the right thing to do is the path of least resistance.

[busbus]

A great starting place would be to read The First Days of School by Harry and Rosemary Wong. Unit C of the book discusses classroom management through establishing and practicing routines and procedures. With poor classroom management, the best lesson can be tossed!

Plan with the end in mind! What are the objectives of the lesson? How will you teach the lesson? What are your expected outcomes of the lesson? How will you evaluate whether the objectives were met?

Through some kind of "Getting to Know You" activity, get to know the students and share some facts about yourself so that they can get to know you.

Introduce yourself to the parents. Many teachers send home or mail a letter of introduction.

Do whatever you can to establish a learning community with all of the stakeholders (this includes the students and their parents/guardians).

[Harriett]

I would like to recommend a book that is very practical and extremely useful to teachers who are new as well as those that are veterans. The book is titled "Our Classroom" is written by Chick Moorman. It gives great ideas for building community in the classroom.
Harriett

[IcanTeach2]

:) I'm a prospective future teacher. The best thing a teacher can do is to:

Teach from the heart and the brain, not just from the brain.

You don't need to showoff your knowledge to the students. The students already know you are smart. Or else you wouldn't be a teacher.

[Spectre]

Consistency is key. :)

Set expectations high and stress procedures from the very beginning. There are certain ways that you need things to be done in your classroom and you need to insist they be done in that way.

I agree, you need to be firm, particularly at the outset, but I have seen too many new teachers try to come on like a drill instructor. I have never agreed with the adage about not even smiling until Christmas, but a teacher, particularly a new one and especially a younger one, needs to let students know what is expected from the start.