TeachOrTutor.com Presents: The Buzz

If you want to be a good teacher, then you are going to have to have control of your classroom, mastery over your material and respect from your students. Of course, this is not easy to do. It takes hard work, perseverance and determination. Here are 7 tips to help you get started:

1.ÂYou need to know why you want to be a teacher. This reason has to be bigger than life if you are going to stay motivated.

2.You are going to need to have a list of predetermined priorities for when you need to make decisions. This will help you to stay focused and do those things that are either important or urgent first. Therefore, you really need to decide what is most important to you and then prepare your priorities from there.

3.You need to determine your destination so that if you plan to lead your students to an understanding of the subject matter you know where you are going. This is why you should take the time to plan out your year and then prepare an outline for your students, which will serve as a road map for the upcoming year.

4.You must learn to choose your battles. Not everything is worth fighting over. There are some situations that you should simply ignore so that you have the energy to win those battles that you do choose to take on. This is important because if you lose a battle, you will also lose your students’ respect.

5. Take the time to get to know your students. Ask questions about their families, pets, hobbies, likes and dislikes. The more you know about your students the better you can prepare lessons that are pertinent to their lives.

6.Make sure that you work harder on yourself than on your job. Your plan for personal growth should includes books, CDs, DVDs, seminars and classes. You should try to read at least 1 professional book a month, attend at least 2 seminars per year and take 1 class each year.

7.It is very important that you have a passion for teaching, otherwise you should not even be teaching. Of course, you will have to work at keeping that flame burning. One of the best ways to do this is by watching uplifting movies such as Mr. Holland’s Opus, Stand By Me, Man Without a Face and Stand and Deliver. Another way of doing this is by creating a victory file wherein you keep notes, cards and letters from your students.

Today there are many teachers who are underpaid, underestimated and unappreciated. Nevertheless, they still continue to be teachers because this is a fulfillment of their destiny. For this reason, teaching really is a lot more than just a piece of paper or a position. It is a need that must first develop in your heart. Teaching is a gift. It is not a learned action. For these reasons, only a true teacher can understand the feelings and needs that come from teaching.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 12:23 am and is filed under Teaching Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.