The 28 Golden Rules of Being a Good Teacher.

By: Salha Salim Jeizan, Al Faisaliah Girls’ Schools

Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia

E-mail: drjeizan@sahara.com.sa

Having worked as a teacher and now the supervisor of the Kindergarten and Elementary Sections of the Al Faisaliah Girls Schools, in my opinion there are 28 golden rules for being a good teacher.

I work as the supervisor of English teachers at Al Faisaliah Girls' Schools. I am currently the President of The Eastern Province Reading Council. I have presented at The Arabian Reading Association (TARA)conferences in Bahrain. I give workshops to teachers in government schools.

3-Call on students regularly. 

Students will be forced to pay attention and engage with lessons if they're called on regularly. This also has the effect of encouraging students to contribute and talk when they have something to say, rather than waiting to be called on when they may not have a good answer

2-Minimize the amount of time that you're talking.

  The less you have to say each day, the better off your classroom will be. Whatever you're teaching, it's better to keep students active, instead of passively sitting and listening to you talk. try to limit this as much as possible and keep the day activity-based.

B:Keeping Students Engaged

1-Try out new things. 

• Aim for at least one new lesson or project per year to try to keep yourself engaged. If it works well, keep it. If not, never speak of it again.
• Avoid convoluted point-based behavior systems. Token systems that involve a complicated set of rules for behavior and other methods tend to confuse students more than excite them. Keep it simple

Classroom Basics 

1Simplify your rules. 

• 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.)

• 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.

• Consider gestures to be a mirror of your voice. 
• Adjust your gestures to the size of the room.

• 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 metaphors, analogies, and similes.

• Try out in your own class techniques you admire in others.
• Like any skill, delivery is not innate, but must be learned

• 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. 

• 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?

• It takes some time to get going.
• Questions always take up more time than you expect.

• 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.

• 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

The First Day

• 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

• 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

• 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. . ."

• demographics (age, ethnicity, gender mix, etc.).
• predispositions (hopes, fears, positives/negatives, level of interest).
• knowledge of/experience with subject/me.

• large lecture hall, small seminar room or classroom.
• lighting and sound issues.
• time of day.

• 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.  

• What do I want my students to know?
• What do I want my students to do with what they know? Analyze, synthesize, apply, evaluate?