الاثنين، 29 فبراير 2016
Whether you're an experienced teacher looking to shake it up or a new teacher looking forward to the first day of school, learning to manage a classroom is one of the most important parts of your job. Just as important as the lessons you'll be teaching is the environment you'll be creating. You can learn to create a simple, effective, and welcoming environment for your students to learn, whatever grade, subject, or type of class you teach
Classroom Basics
Only use specific and important rules that you'll be able to enforce.
It's important to avoid including vague rules in your classroom rules,
or to try to enforce silly things you'll be unable to control. It may
annoy you to clean gum off the bottom of the desks at the end of each
semester, but trying to police students for gum is a waste of your time.
Focus on what's most important.
- You don't need to make your students go through a whole list of "Banned" items, like gum, phones, or other devices. Simply put "no distractions" on your list and confiscate serious things as they come up.
الأحد، 28 فبراير 2016
Whether you're an experienced teacher looking to shake it up or a new
teacher looking forward to the first day of school, learning to manage a
classroom is one of the most important parts of your job. Just as
important as the lessons you'll be teaching is the environment you'll be
creating. You can learn to create a simple, effective, and welcoming
environment for your students to learn, whatever grade, subject, or type
of class you teach
Classroom Basics
1Simplify your rules.
Every classroom needs to have
simple, clear expectations for the students in terms of behavior and
your rules. Younger students will typically benefit from having the
class rules simply worded and posted visibly, while older students
benefit from getting them in writing.
- Aim for having no more than five big rules, or categories of rules to go over, or you'll lose them.[1]
الخميس، 25 فبراير 2016
الأربعاء، 24 فبراير 2016
The "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" Rule. Practice, Practice, Practice.
Be conversational; speak naturally; be yourself (or your best self).
- That self may be formal, "laid back," understated, or hyper. Use those traits; don't fight against them.
- Talk about the material; don't lecture about it. (Talking is easier if you don't read verbatim.)
Vary your pacing and voice.
- Gauge audience reaction, and
- Repeat critical points immediately if you sense the necessity.
- Use your voice to underline and italicize the important points.
- Pause before new points.
- Use transitional statements to move to the next idea.
Use gestures to emphasize points.
- Consider gestures to be a mirror of your voice.
- Adjust your gestures to the size of the room.
Look at the audience.
- Try to cover all parts of the room by dividing it into four quadrants.
- If direct eye contact makes you forget your place, try looking just over a student's head, or between two students (They won't see the difference).
Use language to create pictures.
- Use metaphors, analogies, and similes.
Observe the techniques of others.
- Try out in your own class techniques you admire in others.
- Like any skill, delivery is not innate, but must be learned
الاثنين، 22 فبراير 2016
You probably can't cover everything you want to in a lecture.
Decide what is essential, what is important, and what is helpful (what would be nice).
- Cover the first; try to cover the second; forget about the third.
- Release a little control over the material and rely on the textbook or a list of supplementary readings for the nonessentials.
Set objectives.
- What do you want to have accomplished at the end of the lecture?
- What do you want the students to know and be able to do at the end of the lecture?
Plan a lecture to cover less than the entire period.
- It takes some time to get going.
- Questions always take up more time than you expect.
Divide the lecture into discrete segments and follow the standard speech structure.
- Divide it both in terms of time and in terms of material.
- Try for ten or fifteen minute blocks, each one of a topic.
- Briefly summarize the previous lecture; introduce the topic(s) for the day; present the material; summarize briefly; preview any homework and the next lecture.
Lecture from notes or an outline, rather than a complete text.
- It's too tempting to simply read, rather than lecture, from a complete text.
- Reading also creates a barrier between teaching and students.
- Writing up an entire lecture is very time consuming.
- A written lecture often becomes a fossil that never gets updated
الأحد، 21 فبراير 2016
Don't waste key "windows" of time on housekeeping alone.
The First Day
Most teachers use the first day to get housekeeping out of the
way--office hours, expectations, administrative details. Instead,
summarize most of that need-to-have information on paper or online and
distribute it. Then use the time to:
- Introduce content--and relate why it's important to you and your students
- Clarify your objectives for students (cognitive and behavioral).
- Establish tone and expectations--yours of them, theirs of you.
Openings
Stay away from the predictable (Good morning. On Monday, we talked about . . ., Today, I'd like to move onto . . .). Instead:
- Begin with a provocative question, anecdote, or current event--and how it relates to the content.
- Ask someone in the class to summarize what happened in the last session.
- Use a question box--select the most interesting/difficult questions and address those.
- Set up a problem--and promise that they'll have all the tools for a solution by the end of the class.
Closings
Many teachers simply talk until the end of the class--and say, "See you next time." Instead:
- Plan a rhythm for your class—plan to end with content 5 minutes early, so you can summarize, raise questions, preview the next topic.
- Set aside a time for questions—and structure that time.
- Frame/suggest an approach for assigned reading, etc.--"As you read the assigned text, please keep in mind these three key questions we'll be discussing next time. . ."
السبت، 20 فبراير 2016
Who are my students?
- demographics (age, ethnicity, gender mix, etc.).
- predispositions (hopes, fears, positives/negatives, level of interest).
- knowledge of/experience with subject/me.
In what context will my students engage with course information?
- large lecture hall, small seminar room or classroom.
- lighting and sound issues.
- time of day.
Take into account the "me, here, now."
- Picture yourself as a member of the audience and ask "How does this message affect me, here, now?"
- Me, here, now translates into what you as a sender have to offer your students/receivers—what they will be able to understand, accept, support, consider important—because it matters to them.
Establish cognitive / behavioral objectives for student learning:
- What do I want my students to know?
- What do I want my students to do with what they know? Analyze, synthesize, apply, evaluate?