Today we writeabout additional teaching guides, with a focus on Teacher Toolkit. Successful teachers bring fun into the classroom: Don’t be too serious. Some days, “fun” should be the goal. When students feel and see your humanness, it builds a foundation of trust and respect. Fun and educational aren’t mutually exclusive either. Using humor can make even the most mundane topic more interesting. Successful teachers teach holistically: Learning does not happen in a vacuum. Depression, anxiety, and mental stress have a severe impact on the educational process. It’s crucial that educators (and the educational model) take the whole person into account. You can have the funniest and most innovative lesson on algebra, but if your student has just been told his parents are getting a divorce, you will not reach him. Successful teachers never stop learning: Good teachers find time in their schedule to learn themselves. Not only does it help bolster your knowledge in a certain subject matter, it also puts you in the position of student. This gives you a perspective about the learning process that you can easily forget when you’re always in teaching mode.
Model expectations for your students. Interactively model how to complete an activity or task. We often offer multiple, repeated opportunities when teaching “academic” skills (e.g., letter sounds, math computations), but typically neglect to offer multiple, repeated opportunities for practicing behavioral routines (e.g., lining up at the door, pushing in their chairs). Say what you mean and mean what you say. If you make a request of a student, follow through with that request. If you cannot follow through, avoid placing the demand or providing the instruction. Know yourself and adjust expectations (for yourself and your students) accordingly. See more details at http://rookieteacher.org/.
Learning is not only for young people. Seniors in a digital world can be easily overwhelmed by all the new technology around us. We are surrounded by an array of digital devices, whether its smartphones, social media, tablets, banking machines, or laptops. There’s no avoiding it, so we should learn how to use all these technological advances to make life easier. It’s easy to become tech savvy seniors when you begin to learn more about the technology around you.
It’s always best to start small and have multiple sessions so you don’t give them information overload. The last thing you want to do is get them feeling too overwhelmed and then they give up because you gave them too many tasks to try by themselves. A good website for senior learning is http://seniortechtutorials.com/.
Music teaching is hot this days, many people try to learn music, for various reasons. There are a few podcasts that focuses on teaching people about music and one of them is The Music Educator by Bill Stevens. While individual practice can be an important part of learning to play an instrument, the music classroom is a great time for interaction. Academics have described the clear benefits of collaborative learning. ResourceEd explains that collaboration is a significant element of the world of work. It is important to introduce this as part of school-based education. Collaborative learning teaches skills such as decision-making and problem-solving in a group or team context. Employers value these skills, which can be learnt beginning in early childhood.
Tip of the day for music teachers : Use a Seating Chart (At Least at First!): While some teachers may not be interested in the idea of having a seating chart, they are extremely helpful for learning students’ names. Seating charts are also great for gaining insight to classroom dynamics, as well as helping students interact with new people. Document! Young teachers will be trying a variety of different teaching styles and activities, so it’ll be essential for teachers to document their efforts so they can know what works and what doesn’t. Feel free to think of this documenting process as a personal teaching journal. When documenting, be sure to clearly note why something does or doesn’t work, as well as ideas on how you would do things different in the future.
You can listen to the The Music Educator podcast by using the app from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.themusiceducatorpodcast.android.music. You can learn more about Bill Steven by visiting his website at https://www.4themusiceducator.com/.