“A Teacher’s Primer”
Advice for the Ambitious
Observations
from experiences as a teacher—and a student!
Shira Karp
9.1.2002
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An Effective Environment for Student Learning… … encourages learning and thought
through diverse activities. Classroom Policies: v
Respect punctuality.
If you want kids to be on time, let them go on time. v
Don’t spring assignments on students. Give them at least two days’ notice. v
Give students tasks, not instructions. Make sure they know what they’re supposed
to be accomplishing, and let them judge how. v
Explain written directions orally. v
Maintain a policy regarding extensions and make-up work under
which you would enjoy working as a student. v
Require assignments turned in with the same punctuality
with which you grade them. v
Don’t punish students for not doing things that you can’t
do. Staying awake in class during
crunch season comes to mind. v
Take full and complete responsibility for the
equipment. It’s the law. v
Don’t post signs near the trash can or pencil
sharpener. Kids will stop to read them
and forget to sit down again. v
When someone asks a comprehension question during a test,
share the answer with the entire class.
Chances are five other people have the same question. v
If you have at least one student who is still learning
English, phrase all test questions in the simplest manner possible. (Also try including pictures.) At the Front of the
Room: v
Don’t stand in the front of the room all the time. Pace through the rows of desks and make eye
contact with everybody. v
Watch the clock.
Don’t ask too many questions at once. v
Standardize wait time for oral questions. Give the deliberate speakers a chance to
think. v
As you encourage kids to answer your questions, don’t let
them get sidetracked into thoughtless guessing. v
When you say, “Good,” explain why it’s good. v
Incorporate students’ answers into your next comment. Intellectually and verbally acknowledge
that they’ve spoken. v
Be an authority.
Let the kids know who’s in charge. v
Don’t make eye contact with a kid who’s looking for
trouble. v
Do make eye contact with a kid who’s giving an answer or
asking a question. v
Learn to recognize on-topic sass and off-topic sass. Then
ignore the off-topic sass. v
Set guidelines for behavior early and always enforce them. v
Enforce your expectations for language in the
classroom. Give extra etymology
assignments if necessary. v
Enforce a zero-tolerance policy regarding insults,
hate-speech, and violence. v
Do your best to catch kids who make fun of others. Students may hate your class for reasons
other than your lovely self and your fascinating content. v
Warn kids about consistent behavior expectations before they leave the classroom. The library excursion is not a day away
from school. v
If you can’t follow through, don’t threaten. v
Don’t humiliate kids in front of the class. v
Don’t make kids choose between their pride and your evaluation.
v
Pick your battles.
Enforce the important rules with an iron hand, and let the rest slide. v
Play the game better than the kids do. If they purposefully screw around in order
to waste time, make them make up that time. v
Watch your temper!
Be aware of your “buttons” and don’t let kids push them. v
Cater to the bleeding-heart liberals and refrain from
calling your students loving names. v
As soon as possible after disciplining a student, find an
excuse to give that student positive feedback about their work. v
When someone asks a question, especially a comprehension
question, don’t get overexcited.
Sometimes a three-word answer is all they need. v
Practice saying, “You’re right, I should have explained
it like…” v
Practice saying, “I don’t know. I will look it up tonight and get back to
you tomorrow.” v
Practice saying, “Does anyone have anything to add to
***’s answer?” Lessons: v
Keep it real.
Don’t lose yourself in the abstractions. v
Don’t get stuck in a lecture funk. Vary the activities and incorporate mixed learning
methods. v
Give the kids as many chances as possible to get up and
move around. Release that bottled-up
energy constructively. v
Balance the need to go over the exercises and the need
not to bore the class, especially when one exercise is exactly the same as
the next. v
Make sure you’ve covered all necessary instructions
before you pass out the cool toys.
Then cut to the chase immediately. v
Leave room in the syllabus for extensions of topics. Not all of the students will meet your
learning goals the first time through. v
Debunk myths and faulty processes early on. Pseudologic is an
easy trap to fall into. v
Don’t require in-depth analysis of a process before the
key concepts have been covered. In
science, this translates to, “Open your unit with a demonstration, not a
lab.” Preparation: v
Don’t pick activities because you find them relaxing. v
Always overplan. Make sure there’s something for everybody
to do in every moment of the class. v
Overprepare your subject. You have a college degree for a reason. v
If an activity involves manual tasks, practice them
beforehand yourself. v
Check in all equipment a week in advance, so that if
something is missing, you have time to requisition it. v
Get a desk filing system to keep papers from different
periods straight. Strategies: v
Use literacy strategies all year long, not as a one-time
game. v
Consider the wisdom of lecturing to students about
experiments they can’t observe or replicate. v
In group discussions, consider dividing students into
“deliberate” and “spontaneous” groups and letting each talk at its own speed. v
Consider saving the discussion until after they’re
engaged. v
Make a checklist of the most important ideas for each
unit. Make sure everybody learns every
concept on that list, and don’t sweat the rest. Methods: v
Make sure everybody understands before going on to the
next concept. Eschew the “ruptured firehose” model of teaching. v
Be scrupulously organized. v
Be incredibly structured. v
Be an expert.
Balance the need for the kids to find the answers themselves and the
need for them to have the right answers in order to complete the assigned
tasks. v
Be empathetic.
Exhaustion, overwork, and frustration are emotions you are very familiar with. v
Be enthusiastic—but don’t be a cheerleader. Kids have incredible eyes for phoniness. v
Approach the curriculum from multiple perspectives. v
Encourage open dialogue. v
Research local culture.
Ask lots of questions and don’t assume anything. v
Try not to impose your values on others, explicitly or
implicitly. v
Resist the temptation to hate kids who hate you. It solves nothing. v
Love your students and want them to succeed. Don’t be the enemy. |