As a new teaher, I have not the opportunity to be in a classroom where I am the sole teacher.
I am worrying about my ability to effectively assign interpretive, interpersonal and presentational assignments in my classroom, all the time! I can see how it would be easy to fall into a rut of easy assignments because of lack of planning time and resources. I want to have a fun and interactive classroom where there is a lot of learning going on!
Any sugguestions?!?
New Teacher-What to do?
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Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
It sounds like you have taken some courses so you know some of what you need to do.
As long as you worry, that is a good sign and will help you prepare and repair what you do.
If you have fun in the rest of your life, you will probably be a teacher who has fun in the classroom.
Get a mentor who will sit in on your classes regularly and give you advice.
Have former proffs come to visit.
Tape a class or two and go back to see what you are doing.
Get a partner and exchange visits and suggestions.
Write a journal every day and examine your teaching as you do your life.
Ask the students often about their learning and the ways that they do it and adapt your classes to that.
Get some good software to write your daily plans so it doesn't take you forever but gives you a structure. Don't stick to it though if you see a better way or the students suggest something.
Put some posters at the back of the room so you can see the goals you want to accomplish and keep looking at them during the class.
Have a mirror at face height and check to see if you are smiling enough.
Reward yourself when something goes great and don't beat yourself up when things go wrong. Is something is broke, fix it.
Take pictures of the good times and review them often.
Remind yourself that you didn't learn to walk in a day and you won't be a great teacher in your first year but you can keep on learning.
Keep taking courses and reading papers about teaching in all its aspects.
Go to conferences and meet people who are interested in the same things.
Visit retired teachers and pump them about everything they did and about things and ideas they created to help.
Write papers yourself and submit them to journals, teacher's magazines. The feedback they will give you will help even if they are never published.
Read everything on Dave's about your area.
As long as you worry, that is a good sign and will help you prepare and repair what you do.
If you have fun in the rest of your life, you will probably be a teacher who has fun in the classroom.
Get a mentor who will sit in on your classes regularly and give you advice.
Have former proffs come to visit.
Tape a class or two and go back to see what you are doing.
Get a partner and exchange visits and suggestions.
Write a journal every day and examine your teaching as you do your life.
Ask the students often about their learning and the ways that they do it and adapt your classes to that.
Get some good software to write your daily plans so it doesn't take you forever but gives you a structure. Don't stick to it though if you see a better way or the students suggest something.
Put some posters at the back of the room so you can see the goals you want to accomplish and keep looking at them during the class.
Have a mirror at face height and check to see if you are smiling enough.
Reward yourself when something goes great and don't beat yourself up when things go wrong. Is something is broke, fix it.
Take pictures of the good times and review them often.
Remind yourself that you didn't learn to walk in a day and you won't be a great teacher in your first year but you can keep on learning.
Keep taking courses and reading papers about teaching in all its aspects.
Go to conferences and meet people who are interested in the same things.
Visit retired teachers and pump them about everything they did and about things and ideas they created to help.
Write papers yourself and submit them to journals, teacher's magazines. The feedback they will give you will help even if they are never published.
Read everything on Dave's about your area.