Teaching Tips

Here is a list of teaching tips that I have gathered from various middle school teachers while at my internship. I hope to be able to incorporate these ideas in my classroom. 

The day before Thanksgiving break I read "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" aloud to the class. Then the students used their knowledge of summaries to create hand print summaries that they then turned into turkeys. I incorporated the teaching tip, "Do something fun for holidays."

• "The best form of classroom management is good lesson planning."

• "It should not be necessary for the sake of your ego that the kids should like you, but there are some practical reasons why you should want the kids to like you. Students are more likely to behave well for and listen to teachers that they like."

• "Be firm but fair with all students. Enforce your rules in the same way with all students."

• "Don't try to yell over the students to get their attention."

• Create visual cues and signals to get the students' attention."

• Don't become a hoarder. Students will be less focused in a cluttered classroom."

• "Don't rely too much on homework for instruction, because there are a lot of kids who simply won't do it or who have after school commitments."