10 Best Teaching Tips for a Great School Year

By Jennifer Dobson

Teachers arguably have one of the most challenging and rewarding jobs, all at once. The following list should help you to keep your career in perspective, as well as infuse your students with an openness and desire to learn.

Prepared But Flexible

The most effective teachers create lesson plans in advance, know their subject well and have all of their teaching supplies on hand. However, these teachers are also flexible.

Never sacrifice true learning for time lines, even if it throws your schedule slightly awry. If your students are genuinely interested in delving deeper into a topic or if they need extra help understanding a new concept, be flexible enough to realize that your lesson is a guideline rather than a rigid structure.

Project Kindness

Especially for young children, a little warmth and nurturing go a long way. Keep in mind the emotional and mental maturity of your students. Little things like a smile, eye contact or a handshake at the start of the day may be all it takes to shake off a grumpy early morning and open them up to learning.

Establish Class Rules

To ensure that children know exactly what is expected of them in your class, use the first week of school to establish class rules. Post them where they can be seen and review them often. Especially during the first week of school, encourage your students to discuss the rules and gauge their understanding.

Plan for Disciplinary Problems

Be clear that not every student will act how you want them to all of the time. To maintain an environment conducive to learning, have a clear plan for how you will deal with disciplinary problems. This will be somewhat dictated by school protocol, but once you get to know the individuals in your classroom, you will be better able to assess what types of discipline tactics you will need to employ.

Enthusiasm is Contagious

Find ways to breathe life into each lesson and convey your sense of enthusiasm and passion for the subject to your students. Like the cliche about finding the silver lining, even with subjects you're genuinely less interested in, find some angle that excites you and run with it. Your students will reflect your emotion and enthusiasm.

Develop a Sense of Humor

Pull out your sense of humor at any difficult moment: when your students are running wild, when the class is chaotic, when you're stressed, overworked and uninspired. When things don't go as planned, keeping a sense of humor will not only rub off on your students, but it may teach them something more valuable than the lesson material.

Interact with Your Students

Students who feel that you're interested in who they are and what is going on in their personal lives are usually more open to learning from you. By interacting with your students and getting to know them, you invite them to embark on an educational adventure, instead of just sitting in a chair listening to you talk each day.

Listening Skills

Speaking of listening, you should model good listening skills for your students. Because you spend so much time talking, it is sometimes easy to forget that your job is also to listen.

Constant Improvement

Whether you read trade magazines, teaching blogs or take enrichment classes, never stop looking for ways to improve your craft.

Keeping a healthy perspective will make you a better teacher. These tips, used wisely, will make the job of teaching more rewarding for you and for those you teach.

Balance

As with any job it's extremely important to have a good balance between your work and personal life. If you spend all of your free time working on grading papers and coming up with new lesson plans then you need to make an effort to set aside free time to spend with family and friends. It's too easy to get bogged down with work and be completely consumed by it. Next time you are feeling stressed or overwhelmed take a look at how you're spending your time and see if you have a good balance between your work and personal life.

Jennifer Dobson invites you to take a look at MPM School Supplies where you will find all kinds of teacher supplies, resource books, classroom decorations, school furniture, classroom carpets, educational toys, and much more. The best part is by shopping at MPM School Supplies you are helping children in need all around the world because 50% of the gross profits are donated to children's charities!

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