|
For avoiding making mistakes on your day-one at school, you must get ready with some preparations and knowledge. Prepare yourself with these tips:
1. Talk when your students are ready and in silent mode.
Some teachers might have difficulty to stop when talking in front of their students. Try not to push yourself into storytelling without break. You should wait and get ready until everyone is silent. Slowly but surely, your student will give a cue among themselves and prepare for the lesson. “Silent, teacher is going to say something important!” might be one of the scripts.
2. Use hand signals and nonverbal communication.
Using hand signals and nonverbal communication is very effective in the classroom. Raise one of your hands if you want attention from your students. Make eye contact with your students, tell them that you are serious and ready to teach. At first, they might question your actions. This strategy will probably take time, but slowly it will be their new routine. With younger students, try clapping your hands three times and ask the students to quickly clap back twice. This will get their attention with all eyes on you, plus it is fun too.
3. Always plan lessons neatly and engagingly.
Students are very observant of their teacher’s behavior in the classroom. If you are not ready to teach, then students will get ready to ‘teach’ you. They will become incoherent because they do not know what to do and continue to make chaos. Always plan your lessons in detail. If the lesson is poorly planned, there is often way too much talking and telling from the teacher and not enough hands-on learning and discovery by the students. We all know engaging lessons take both a serious mind and time to plan. And they are certainly worth it for many reasons.
4. Prepare mentally and physically.
To learn effectively, students need teachers with healthy mental and physical. You may have planned the lesson as best you can, but if your energy is drained because you are too tired or stressed, it is difficult for you to carry out the lesson. So get enough sleep, eat healthy food and take steps to attend to your own well-being. As Muslims, do not miss the prayers and do good deeds. Once in a while, do leisure activities such as jogging or go to gym 3 times a week. And do not forget to eat healthy food!
5. Play tug of war.
Do not make an angry face every time you enter the class. Instead, try to play tug of war with your students. Try to make a joke and understand students’ perceptions. If you are angry, go near and speak nicely to them. Avoid getting stressed, because if you did your students will also stress. So try playing tug of war with you students.
Reference:
|