Are you a teacher who needs help on how to be a better teacher? Well, I have just made it easy for you. Read on to know more on how to be a better teacher.
Teaching as a profession demands continuous evaluation, research and improvements. Great teachers don’t rely on what they know, but every day they are constantly upgrading their knowledge, skill and experience on how to be a better teacher.
If you want to become great at teaching, it’s important to stay informed and always look for ways to get better in your skills, knowledge and expertise. Therefore, whether you are a teacher in training, a new teacher, or a seasoned professional, these 10 tips we give in this post will definitely be helpful to you.
10 tips on how to be a better teacher
1. Know Your Students
Before you can teach a student or a class of students, you have to identify their learning methods, patterns, favorites (book, food, friends etc), as well as their interests and personality traits.
Knowing more about your students does not only make it more simple for you but also makes it easier to relate to them and comprehend their difficulties. Understanding your students will enable you to provide solutions to particular problems and include families in such situations. Also, it will let your students know they are valued by you and that they are always welcomed.
Similar to this, it is advised that you become familiar with the environment in which they function, be aware of the tools and resources at their disposal, and understand what socio-cultural aspects can be used to your advantage to encourage learning. Doing all of this will increase the likelihood that you’re able to plan your teaching activities and they go as planned.
2. Use Pedagogical Approaches
You will be better able to organize and arrange the activities for the different subjects when you are aware of the right pedagogical approach to use.
Pedagogical approaches refers to the teaching styles and communication language teachers use to effectively communicate their lessons.
Students can achieve their maximum potential and have a solid learning foundation when effective pedagogical approaches are used in the classroom.
Additionally, this encourages children to recognize their own strengths, which raises their self-esteem and confidence.
As a result, there is a higher chance that pupils will succeed since they will be more inclined to take part in various activities.
For instance, the Mother Language approach recommends planning activities in which students engage in speaking activities with specific purposes and specific debaters, Whereas the Mathematics approach recommends posing contextualized problem situations.
When you’re trying to teach students how to speak English more fluently, use the mother language approach. By engaging the students in speaking activities, debates, English spellings and dictations.
The mathematics approach works best when dealing with Word Problems. For easy comprehension for the students, you relate the word problems to real life issues. This way a solution is created from a real life experience
These differences play an important role when designing and organizing activities in each approach. Other pedagogical approaches are constructivism, social constructivism, behaviorism, liberationism etc.
3. Always Plan Your Classes Ahead
Before you begin your teaching activities, It is crucial to be aware about the learning outcomes you want your students to achieve, the goals of the class, and how you plan to include the students’ interests and requirements as well as the materials accessible in the environment and the subject’s pedagogical approach.
Arrange these activities in a preferential order that includes an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Also include methods of evaluation as well (types of evaluation and materials).
4. Practice a Variety of Techniques and Strategies for Teaching
To become better at teaching, it is now necessary for teachers to incorporate a variety of techniques in the classroom, including dramatizations, debates, forums, role plays, and round tables. Teaching strategies you should include are; project-based learning, problem-based learning, flipped classrooms, situated learning, challenge-based learning, and others.
5. Incorporate ICT
In addition to the fact that students are engaged and more interested in the subjects, (ICTs) are a great tool to increase learning when used properly.
ICT makes it possible to use cutting-edge educational materials and modernize teaching techniques, fostering greater student engagement and the continuous learning of technology skills.
6. Be Empathic and Friendly
When you are empathic and friendliness is encouraged, a nice classroom environment is created, indiscipline issues are reduced, pupils’ self-esteem rises, and academic outcomes improve.
By being friendly with the students, you can offer prizes to the best student or to others who need a little motivation.
You can also decide to spend time with the students on the playground. This will make the students feel more relaxed and comfortable discussing issues with you.
Some suggestions for becoming an empathic teacher include getting to know the students, their preferences, and interests; setting high standards for them; showing an interest in their feelings and thoughts; looking beyond grades; and learning to listen to and decipher non-verbal cues from students.
7. Use Various Kinds and Forms of Evaluation
Another helpful tip on how to be a better teacher is to use different ways to evaluate your students and progress. Self-assessment, co-assessment, and hetero-assessment must be used, and we must not forget that assessments must be conducted using a formative approach.
Which means it must be an ongoing process (rather than just an evaluation at the end), in which a variety of information is gathered to help us make decisions that will support student learning and enhance our teaching practice.
In the same way, it is advised to employ a variety of tools and resources for evaluating rather than only relying on written exams, including checklists, grading rubric, class diaries, portfolios of evidence, essays, oral presentations, visual organizers, models, debates, and time lines, among others.
8. Give Students Feedback
The evaluation results must be organized, examined, and shared with the students through feedback because this helps them see their strengths and challenges. In a similar manner, this enables the establishment of specific activities that enable enhancing learning.
Create a trusting environment, start by highlighting positive qualities, give students opportunities to recognize their strengths and areas for improvement (this can be done through questions), and make clear the steps to take in order to move forward.
9. Involve Their Parents
The teaching – learning process and academic performance of the students is a shared responsibility, so parents must be involved. It is proven that when people collaborate closely and clearly, academic performance of the students significantly increases.
As a result, it’s critical to be in constant communication with the families of the students and to inform them of the precise steps they can take to assist their children’s education both at home and at school.
10. Personalize Learning
Personalized learning can also be referred to as Individual learning. This is a kind of teaching method that is directed at one child at a go. Although, this teaching method is strenuous and time consuming especially when you have a lot of pupils to attend to, but it really helps on how to be a better teacher. This is why an online learning platform like ClickGrowth was created. ClickGrowth has an excellent approach to enable this personalization learning.
With ClickGrowth, you’re able to assign assignments and resources specifically for each student. This way you are able to include more meaningful speaking and listening into their everyday classes and also address the exact needs of each student.
Conclusion
As teachers, you should always be ready to learn new things everyday. While you can’t (or shouldn’t) work on everything at once, pick one area you believe you can make improvements in and start there.
With these Top 10 helpful tips, you’re prepared to improve and on how to be a better teacher.