What separates a good teacher from a great teacher? There are a number of answers to that question, but one of the most important is a commitment to self-improvement. There are several ways for teachers to breathe new life into their classrooms and enhance their capabilities. Here are three simple tips that will help you to reshape your classroom and your outlook.
Know Your Specialist Subject
Depending on where and who you are teaching, you may be required to have a particular specialty and even show that you are keeping up with it outside of work. However, even if you are a general teacher who doesn’t have a particular specialist subject, it is worth choosing one for yourself.
Having a specialist subject will give you an easy way to spice up your resume when you are applying for jobs in the future. It will also enable you to focus your mind and resources on improving one specific area. Schools and colleges love to hire people who show initiative and a willingness to further themselves. Enrolling yourself on a course like this World’s Oceans Course for Teachers is a great way of expanding your skillset and demonstrating to current and future employers that you care about your job.
Have Clear and Consistent Rules
This is an important component of any well-oiled classroom, regardless of the ages of the students. You don’t need a long list of rules to be able to run a classroom effectively and provide all of your students with the best level of education that you are able to give. However, there are a few rules that you will want to have in place, and it is important that you are consistent in enforcing them with your students.
A lack of consistency will ultimately make it much more difficult for both you and your students – they will find it hard to maintain discipline and remain within the bounds that you set. At the same time, you will find it frustrating when your students’ adherence to the rules is haphazard.
Get Creative With Your Resources
There are plenty of teaching resources freely available online and many of these are of fantastic quality, especially for free resources. There’s nothing wrong with using these and most teachers struggle to find the time to produce their own customized classroom resources. However, when possible, it is worth customizing the resources you do have to make them more relevant to your classroom and teaching style.
Visual aids make it easier for us to remember things, regardless of our age. You don’t need to produce anything extravagant but providing some visual aids to your students will help students to absorb all the most important information that you teach them.
One of the most important aspects of being a good teacher is being adaptable. Teachers who aren’t able to think on their feet and improvise aren’t as effective as those that are always looking for ways to improve their skills. Educational institutions at all levels value independence and initiative, so anything you are willing to do to demonstrate your commitment has value.