All teachers can use some improvement on their teaching skills no matter how long they have been teaching. In the article, "Tactical and Structural Recommendation," it gives many tips and advice to better a teachers skill.
Some points that really stuck out to me is one of the tips that says "speak less, so that they think more." This really stuck out to me because I know that I can only sit through so much of a teacher only talking. When a teacher continues to talk and ramble is when a students starts to get distracted or either start doing other things such as doodling or talking. When or even if I ever become a teacher, I really hope to make my students think, because I know when I figure something out before my teacher actually taught me it, I had more understanding of it and I would think thats how other people work as well.
Another pointer that stuck out to me was "think aloud in front of your students." I would think that most students would better understand what a teacher is trying to teach if they know exactly what the teacher is thinking. As a teacher is trying to explain something a student should know everything that is involved, so if a teacher is keeping ideas to himself or herself, it could confuse some students. They would have no idea where an idea or thought came from.
This article had many good tips that could help any teacher in any subject and a lot of the tips I read I would definitely consider using as a teacher in the future. Any teacher could use some improvement, so looking up articles like this on a regular basis could help them keep updated with their teaching techniques and be the best teacher for his or her students.
Source: http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/tactical-and-structural-recommendations/467
These couple of tips that you talked about in your post are completely true! My english teacher from high school did both of these things, and everyone learned so much from her. She would talk about current events going on in the world, and ask our opinions on it, or she would tell us about some goofy thing her dog did the night before. She kept all of us engaged in her lectures because she didn't sugar-coat topics either. If we were reading about teenage kids experimenting with drugs, then she didn't try to say, "Oh, now all of you know how bad these are" like we're completely oblivious to drugs. We didn't even have a problem with kids secretly texting during class! Yep, a whole class and not one person would text. Having all of these skills and knowing what makes a teacher a good one makes all the difference.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great article also, and i really agree with you on the quote that says "speak less so that they think more". My psychology teacher often did that to my class in order to generate questions and conversation. I want to be a teacher also and I can really relate to all of your posts!
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