So You Want To Teach?

Work from Anywhere, And Touch Other Lives by Teaching English Online

aileen — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 03:03:42 +0000

Aileen Pablo is part of the team behind Open Colleges, one of Australia’s leading providers of Open Learning and distance education. When not working, Aileen blogs about education and career.She is often invited as a speaker in Personality Development Seminars in the Philippines.If you are interested in featuring her works in your blog, you can find her on Google+.

People get into teaching for a variety of reasons, but two of the biggest are the ability it gives you to personally connect with students and continue learning and growing yourself.

At first glance, becoming an online ESL teacher might seem like an odd way to do this. How can you connect with people when you’re not even in the same room? Are you really going to learn anything new when you’re teaching your native language?

But people who think this way don’t understand how online teaching works. Unlike 15 or even 10 years ago, lessons aren’t conducted just using email and written tests, or even recorded video where you lecture students using a static script and lesson plan. Online English language teachers today use video chat programs like Skype, integrate social media and other interactive tools, and have more ways and opportunities to connect with their students than many teachers in traditional brick and mortar institutions.

Here are just a few of the ways online learning makes that possible.

One-on-one time
While some teachers conduct virtual “classrooms” with several students at once, many prefer to offer their services one-on-one. This means that they have more of a chance to connect with their pupil because their entire focus is on that
person for the time that they are with them. And students like the online one-on-one model more because it’s convenient and often cheaper than in-person classes.

Personalize the learning
There are a host of tools that you can make use of online to determine how your pupil learns best and tailor your lessons to fit their needs. For them, this likely means better grades and better learning; for you, this means getting to know them better.

Express yourself
It can be hard to go off script and really interact with your students in a personal way in a school setting, but if your “school” is your home office, you can use whatever techniques you want to engage them. If you have an artistic bent, why not draw pictures to use as flashcards? Or use your love of writing to craft a story for them in English and discuss it. And you can use anything the internet has to offer in your lessons – blogs, pictures, and videos are just the tip of the iceberg.

All of that is fine and good, but where does that whole bit about helping you to continue to learn and grow come in? Actually, it’s right in front of your face in a number of different ways.

Master new technologies
If you’re going to be teaching online, you’re going to have to become an expert at using new technologies. This could be as simple as learning how to Skype, but it could also mean you get to play around with things like social media, online language programs, recording video and audio, and any number of things that might find their way into your lessons.

Meet students around the world
Sure, there are things you can learn from the same 30 students in Minnesota, but imagine teaching someone from each continent. With the internet, it is not only possible, but highly likely that you will have students from around the world. While you’re teaching them English, you can also learn a lot about their cultures and backgrounds.

Have more time for hobbies and studies
Take a quick look around online and you’ll see stories from people all over talking about how they make $50 to $80 for each 40 minute online English session with a student. Make that kind of money on a regular basis and you can probably cut back on the hours you work and have more time to devote to learning about and doing the things you want to do.

Gain the freedom to travel
Online English lessons can be conducted from anywhere that you have internet access. That means that you can take that vacation to Europe you’ve always wanted and still be earning money. Or live like a digital nomad and travel the world, stopping only to offer your English lessons.

The best part about teaching English online is that you’ll find tons of people eager and ready to learn. English is still the language of business and media, and everyone is desperate to know it to better their chances in life. By becoming an online ESL teacher, you can become a part of that.

Why Experience Is The Best Teacher

Joel — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 03:01:41 +0000

“You’ll understand when you’re older.”

We tell that to our students, and they don’t like. We hear it when we start out in the teaching world and we don’t like. I remember an experienced band director told me once that he would tell me how to be a better teacher if he knew. He just knew that experience would help me get better. That frustrated me to no end.

I’m a step-by-step guy (if you haven’t noticed by reading other articles on this blog). “Just figure it out” is annoying to me. The way I like to figure things out is to look up the answers and work from there. “Experience is the best teacher” didn’t quite do that for me.

But…he was on to something
As I have progressed through the first decade of my teaching career, I find that I do so many things now that I never specifically learned from anyone other than trial-and-error. Sure, I made efforts to surround myself with mentors and I asked tons of questions, but I also have been in enough situations where I was forced to learn on my own.

And ya know what? I did.

So how does it work?
Well, I think it’s crucial to take a methodical approach to learning how to teach. I think there are certain steps that we can follow that will definitely make that experience-gaining so much more pleasant. At the risk of repeating myself, here is the general outline of how I get better.

Recognize a problem
Whether it be a misbehavior in the students (talking incessantly, getting out of seat without permission), a behavior in myself (repeatedly saying “umm”, checking Facebook on my phone), low understanding of a key concept, or whatever it may be. I see the problem and make steps to root it out, or at the very least drastically reduce the frequency of its occurrence.
Identify the desired outcome
Presumably, this would be something along the lines of “students remain quiet and engaged in the learning process” or “I don’t check Facebook while at work” or whatever. Keep it simple and concise.
Imagine what it would take to get to the desired outcome
What steps must you take to make that happen. Set stricter consequences? Have a heart-to-heart with the students about how much time is wasted when they talk? Delete the Facebook app? Whatever it is, make a list of a few things that might be necessary to get you there.
Formulate a foolproof plan
Okay, so maybe the plan won’t be foolproof, but it should be as thorough as you can make it. I’ll go into more detail later on why I like step-by-step, other people like lists of ideas. Whatever works for you is what you should try.
Reflect
I love the idea of recording classes. Video is not necessary, and a long time is not necessary. Ten minutes should be enough to get all the information you need, but feel free to record more if you feel it necessary. Whether you record or not, reflect on that one specific problem area. Are things better? If so, great! Move on to another area. If not, try another approach and go at it again.

Some specific pointers

The whole cycle should take about a week
When I was really working to get a lot better faster, I worked for a week, let my mind rest on Saturday, and reflected/planned for the upcoming week on Sunday evenings
One thing at a time; avoid multitasking here — the power of single-focus makes this run much smoother
If it’s not better after three cycles, find another problem area and push this one aside to come back to later
Raise your level of absurdity; ask yourself, “if your classroom were the best class in your school, would this behavior be acceptable?”
Work at your own pace
The goal is not perfection; the goal is improvement
Even if things never feel like they are getting better, you need to trust that they are

Before you know it, things that take so much effort now will end up happening without you even noticing them. I used to have to tell kids to throw their gum away. Now, I just look at them and they know. I can’t tell you how, it is just experience!

20 Dead Simple Classroom Management Ideas, Tricks, and Tips

Joel — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 04:24:43 +0000

I have written extensively in the past about classroom management and I admit I have glossed over some things while belaboring other points way beyond the point of exhaustion. Below are a few of the common classroom management pieces of advice and a handful of simple tricks to use in effort to make those things happen. Try one or two and see if things become easier…

Work on your pacing
- Slow down your rate of speech; kids don’t comprehend information as fast as we do
- Be silent more often; silence allows kids to reflect more on what has been said
- Communicate urgency without getting frantic
- Be in control of what you say and how you say it
- Don’t argue with kids; nothing loses power faster than an adult who argues with kids
Set clear expectations
- Check for understanding; don’t assume the kids understand the first time
- Give examples of what is and what is not allowed/expected
- Check for understanding again
- Write important things down
- Check for understanding again
Minimize off-task behavior
- Move around the room
- Redirect off-task behavior as quickly as you can
- Address repeated off-task behavior
- Before given a chance for off-task behavior, students should be reminded of the rules and expectations of them
- Avoid spending too much time working on a particular concept; when I am fixing a problem with my band, I will usually have them play that section no more than three times and move on, even if it’s not better — this avoids the bulk of rehearsal being focused on
Create a safe learning environment
- Encourage the heck out of your students; people thrive on encouragement
- Put a stop to criticism of other students immediately; “We don’t do that in here” works wonders
- Set clear behavioral expectations and consequences, and follow through
- Admit your fears and weaknesses
- Avoid mocking wrong answers or allowing other students to do the same

While many of these may be no-brainers to most people, I’m certain that a number of you can benefit from reading these things laid out like this. I know it would have helped me when I was starting out. So have you heard any classroom management tips from more experienced teachers that simply don’t make sense to you? Post in the comments and hopefully someone will be able to help you out with them.

What To Do When You Hate Teaching

Joel — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 03:02:54 +0000

Disillusionment is common to most of us involved in the teaching profession. We all deal with it at one point or another. Here’s the general path many of us take:

You major in education because you want to change the world
You realize that in order to teach, you need a find a job
You go through disappointing interview after disappointing interview and are told if you had more experience, you would be perfect for the job
You get frustrated that the only way to get experience is to get the job they won’t give you because you don’t have experience
Some school district that was not your first choice offers you a chance…finally
You take the job because it may be the only chance you get
You sign your contract and start to get excited
Then you show up…
Things are not as they were presented to you in the interview
You only have 30 minutes for lunch
That storage closet where you stored all of your new classroom supplies you bought was cleared out last weekend to store outdated textbooks…and your stuff disappeared
You get bus duty from 7-8am and from 3:30 to 5pm twice a week
Oh, and faculty meetings are held in your classroom every week
So are the make-up faculty meetings for those who missed the first one
And the make-up-make-up faculty meetings for those who missed the first two
Your classes are overfilled, but the school has put in a requisition for new desks and money should be available shortly after the new budget is approved September 1st

And while you are dealing with all of this, you are expected to teach children who would rather be home playing video games and eating bon bons. They were texting all summer long, and no dumb teacher is going to tell them no.

Oh wait, I’m sure I’m the only one any of this has ever happened to.

So after all of this, it’s no wonder so many new teachers run to Google searching for “I hate teaching” and “how to control kids in class” and other such terms. I know because these things drive people to my blog every fall. So what do you do? You have a few options:

Quit in the middle of the first month of your teachingcareer – This doesn’t bode well for your future career, even if you leave teaching. You either have to hide that job on your resume or admit that you bailed even before the first grading period was over.
Tough it out exploring other options the rest of the school year – This isn’t fair to you or the kids. No sense prolonging the inevitable and making the students suffer through an entire school year living with one of the most dispassionate people on campus.
Figure out how the great teachers do it – I like this option the best, so we’ll explore it more in-depth.

During my first two years of teaching, I hated teaching. But I stuck with it because I knew that I liked the concept of teaching. You can read more about them here: Why I Hated Teaching During My First Two Years

So what did I do? Here’s a sort of step-by-step procedure of how I saved my teaching career.

I asked questions
I annoyed the oldest teachers in my school and other band directors I had worked with by asking so many questions. Specifically, these seven Questions That Will Save Your Career:

I recorded my classes
I listened to what I said, how I said it, what the reaction was, and how much background noise was going on in the classroom. Using these recordings…

I identified problem areas
I noticed when some things didn’t go the way I expected and sought out corrective solutions. I went back to some of my mentors and had new questions to ask them. And, I also sought out answers on my own…

I researched solutions
Along with asking all sorts of questions from all sorts of people, I found books. Nowadays, many people just run to Google to search for the solutions to these problems. Or Facebook. Or Twitter. In all odds, this is how you came across this site!

Ultimately, it boils down to whether you will be reactive or proactive. Whether you will take charge or play the role of victim. Here’s the takeaway: Millions of people have taught kids and done so exceptionally well. You can too, it’s a matter of whether you will seek out the solutions that are available. My recommendation: Stick with it!

50 Things Every First Year Teacher Should Know

Joel — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 04:26:02 +0000

I am in my 11th year of teaching now. Where did the time go? One of the top search results that sends people to this blog is “First Year Teacher” so I thought that the beginning of a new school year would be a great time for something like this. I’m sure there are tons of other things that first year teachers should know, but here are a handful of tips.

Persevere
Learn from the wisdom of others
Avoid gossip
Work diligently
Leave room for a personal life
Live on less than you earn
Students are a reflection of their parents
Students are a reflection of their teacher
Persistent problems are usually caused by something you are doing/allowing/omitting/forgetting
Find a core group of other young teachers and learn together
Mistakes happen; admit when you are wrong
Parents often know about problems before class is over; students text crazy fast and subtly
If a parent complaint is going to hit an administrator’s desk, make sure they are prepared beforehand
Take “mental health” days off from time-to-time as necessary
Don’t try to understand why kids do what they do, try to planhow you will respond
We’re all making it up as we go
Don’t take anything personally
Love your students
Don’t let anyone walk all over you
Smile more (read You Better Smile Before Christmas!)
Plan your lessons, but don’t tie yourself to your lesson plan
Fire drills happen
Bus tires don’t always stay inflated
Bus wrecks sometimes happen too
Before you yell at kids for not staying focused, think back to how your acted during your last inservice
Don’t argue with anyone in front of anyone else
Choose your battles (I used to have kids call home about chewing gum, now I simply have them spit it out)
Practice THE LOOK (authoritative, but not condescending)
Study your body language
Shut your mouth more often
Strive to eliminate these words: Umm, uh
Minimize the use of these words: Like, cool, well
Ending your directives at a lower pitch level will greatly increase student compliance
Audio record 20-45 minutes of teaching a week (however much you can bear to listen to); find one area to fix and write it down in a journal
Write that same focus area on a post-it note and keep it with you whenever you are teaching
When you listen to the recording the next week, figure out if the problem got better; if not, address it again
If a problem persists for three weeks in a row, move on to another problem and come back to this one later
This same process works with your students too; if they are having a particular problem, address it three times, then move on and come back to it later
Go observe other teachers as much as you can
Find at least one mentor
Create a Culture of Encouragement rather than a Fortress of Fear
Remember that your students are real multidimensional people
Teenage girls are crazy; Teenage boys occasionally have brains and use them even less often
Respect comes when people feel safe
Be as consistent as you possibly can be
If you must be inconsistent, make every effort to at least be fair
Make someone’s day every day
Say “thank you” more
The secretaries run the school/district; treat them accordingly
Don’t seek out special recognition

What are your best First Year Teacher tips? Share them in the comment section below.

Make This School Year Amazing!

Joel — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 00:45:13 +0000

How is this year going to be different from every other year you’ve taught before? Do you have a specific plan to ensure that it will be? Here’s a simple suggestion that I aim to implement in my own teaching this year. Ready?

Plan
Each Sunday, I am going to think about what has happened in recent weeks and identify one weak area that needs to be addressed. It doesn’t have to be the biggest problem area. In fact, sometimes targeting a seemingly insignificant problem that I know I can rectify helps me gain confidence to attack the bigger, more ominous ones later on. Perhaps I can tackle one specific element of a larger problem area. The whole “one bite at a time” philosophy.

News flash. If you don’t work hard to make this year drastically better than the ones in the past, it’s not going to be drastically better.

“Wait a minute here, Mr. Joel Blogger Guy! My classroom management skills and my teaching ability and my paperwork prowess are all good enough as they are.” I ask you, do your students deserve good enough or do they deserve amazing? Do you deserve good enough or do you deserve amazing?

Make this school year amazing!

** Yes, I took that picture at Bowman Lake in Glacier National Park in Montana two weeks ago with my iPhone 4S. Here’s a link to the full size, unfiltered photograph.

10 Years of Teaching: How Do I Keep My Sanity?

Joel — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 20:39:29 +0000

Five years ago, I wrote a series of seven articles called “Questions That Will Save Your Career” that still remain among the most visited articles on this site. When I wrote those, I had successfully completed my 5th year in education. This summer, after 10 years, I am revisiting some of these older concepts. Today, I revisit How Do I Keep My Sanity?

Don’t you ever fear that you’re going to burn out?
Burnout is a real threat to teachers. That’s why there are articles like these on this site:

Clearly burnout is a major factor with teaching. So it’s vital for teachers to take proactive steps toward maintaining (or reclaiming) their own sanity. Five years ago, I suggested the following:

Eliminate clutter
Eliminate distractions
Set office hours
Find something else that you enjoy, and do it
Make friends outside of education
Give
Read 25 Tips For Less Stress
To these, I would like to add:
Take some days off
One band director I worked with told me that her principal had advised everyone on staff to take a “mental health day” once a month. As hard as it is to pull away from the classroom sometimes, it’s vital for your mental health to do that. We all get behind on personal business from time to time. Take a day to pay bills if you need to and get back on target. Or to get the oil changed in your car or just to go get a professional massage. Whatever it is for you, take a day to take care of you.
The kids will be rude to the substitute. The sub won’t follow your lesson plan. Your classroom will be out of order. Your desk will be moved. Nobody knows what happened to the goldfish. Be ready for it. Here’s where the next key comes in…
Don’t take things personally
Kids are kids and kids will act like kids from time to time because kids are kids. No kidding. Even the most mature 12-year-olds occasionally act like 12-year-olds. Go figure! Don’t take their immaturity personally. They are just being who they are. And that’s okay. Your boss didn’t assign you bus duty on Friday afternoon because she doesn’t like you. It’s just how things happened. Deal with it and move on. It’s not personal. And if it is, the only way it works is if you take it personally.
Detox
I realize a lot of teachers cannot leave their work at work or else they would never see their house. But if you must take your work home, at least have one clean room! One place you can go where work doesn’t follow you. Maybe a nearby lake or forest too. Whatever works, but get away and spend some time with your self. Sometimes. Not all the time.
Lighten up
One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was during my sixth year when I was working at a new campus with a much more experienced band director. Very often he would just tell me, “Lighten up, Joel.” I don’t know that there is one specific thing I did, but overall I lightened up. And ya know what happened? The kids started responding better to me. It’s sort of the culmination of many other tips and tricks and you finally just let go and lighten up. And things begin to flow. Try it this year in one area where you struggle. Don’t check email all the time. Don’t answer the phone while you’re teaching. Be more patient with your kids. Something. LIGHTEN UP and see what happens!
Work out
Whatever it is, do some sort of physical activity regularly. Even if it’s just going for a hike or walk. Something is better than nothing. And the endorphins seem to give you much more clarity in your mind.

10 Years of Teaching: How Do I Keep My School Administration Happy?

Joel — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 15:50:35 +0000

How do you keep the administrators happy?
No matter how hard you try and no matter how much the students and parents love you, certain people remain who can make your job more difficult. Principals, superintendents, counselors, and secretaries are key people to have on your side. But how do you get them on your team? I talked about this at great length in a previous post. But we’ll look in-depth at some tactics that I have found to be fruitful.

Five years ago, I suggested the following:

Underpromise, overdeliver
Always present your students in a positive light
Offer solutions
Smile when you talk with them
Over the past few years, I have noted a few more things that really seem to work wonders in making my principals and administrators super happy.
Minimize parental complaints/maximize parental compliments
By far the best comment I heard from my principal this year was that since I came to this campus last year, the parent complaints have dropped almost completely. The year before I moved to that campus, I had a total of three parent conferences. One of them was positive in every sense of the word and the other two were with the same parent of an 8th grader. She had numerous parent conferences the next year with the high school band directors and was no longer in the band program by the end of the football season.
How do you minimize the complaints and maximize the compliments? BE NICE TO PEOPLE!!!! Your students are people. Talk to them like people. Their parents are people too. Talk to them like people too. It’s amazing to me how many teachers get into trouble simply because they seemingly forget this one basic concept.
Smile at them daily
As time permits, seek out an opportunity every day to see as many “important people” as you can and smile at them. The dividends will be huge. It’s simple yet this one change can transform a bad relationship into a good one. The same could be said about students.
Be a team player
Don’t complain. This ties into the previous subject of offering solutions, but it’s vital to work with the other teachers. If you are constantly thinking win-win, you will be a fantastic team player. When a problem arises, come up with an amicable option that will allow everyone to get what they want.
An example: This year my concert was scheduled for a Tuesday. I communicated with the middle school office and they told me that the facility was available for the concert. Everything was going as planned until two weeks later the secretary called and let me know that there actually was a scheduling conflict and so I would have to move it to a different location or a different date. Outside in South Texas in May is not usually a good option, nor is in a gym with no air conditioning that would be overcrowded. So I moved it to the Friday before Memorial Day, knowing that some of our students would be out of town already. I was asked by a handful of students to move the concert because of a conflict with their softball games, but felt that moving the concert again to accommodate less than one half of one percent of the students would be overkill. So I provided an alternate writing assignment for any student who missed the concert to replace their grade. The net result was that over 95% of the students showed up and the concert was fantastic. A side benefit was that it raised awareness of our community’s need for a good concert venue.
Be proactive
If you can foresee a problem, communicate with the people who need to hear it. If I know I messed up and am probably going to have a parent complaining to my boss soon, I let the boss know the situation. If I see a scheduling conflict on the horizon, I go out of my way to find a workaround. Again, it goes back to offering solutions.
Avoid negativity at all costs
Nobody likes negativity. It drags down the workplace. It practically never inspires confidence or encourages personal growth. It’s depressing. How many negative people do you have a positive opinion of? What does that tell you? Doom and gloom doesn’t keep anyone happy!
Handle discipline problems in house as much as possible
Assistant principals have their hands full. There is so much beyond punishment that they need to do in the course of their day. In a campus with 50 teachers, if each one sends one student to the office per month, that’s 450 students going to the office, or more than two per day on average. I think we can all name at least one teacher (please not you, please not you) who sends more than that. The more your students avoid the office, the better. There are numerous articles on this site about classroom management, so I’m not going into that here. But check them out!

10 Years of Teaching: How Do I Keep My Students Away From Me? (3 More Tips For Establishing Boundaries)

Joel — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:06:01 +0000

Why in the world…
As we become more responsible for the behavior in our classroom and are better able to accomplish things and get learning to happen on a regular basis, we seen begin to be “favorite teacher” for some of our students. This is a good thing and can be one of the most amazing feelings in the world when it first begins to happen.

Too much of a good thing is…a bad thing
So it’s a great problem to have, but some of those students can really begin to consume your time. When I wrote an article on this subject five years ago, I listed these four areas of concern:

Set “office hours”
Establish boundaries
Invest in their lives
Always present yourself professionally

These are good, and I want to really zone in to the concept of establishing boundaries. More than anything else you do, this will set the tone for every relationship you have in your life. Some people naturally set boundaries very well. Others allow everyone they meet to dictate how they will live their lives. Most people are somewhere in the middle.

Students will always test your boundaries
Society teaches of the value of individualism and questioning authority. So why is it any wonder when students try to question your authority? They do so in a number of ways, some more obvious than others.

What do you allow them to get away with?
How does a student go about pushing your buttons?
What kind of reaction will they get out of you when they push it?
How can they distract you from the main concept?

If we’re not careful, suddenly we have allowed a 12-year-old to be in control of our classroom!!!

Right now, resolve to never let that happen

Good! One of these days I’ll dig more into that element of classroom management, but for now I will assume you are able to generally maintain order in your class. But there could still be the opposite problem…

It’s not as big of a problem since learning does happen and the students feel safe, but it can be a problem if you can’t figure out how to get away from them. I realize to some this sounds ludicrous but it really can be a real problem. So what do I do when a student won’t seem to go away?

Assign a task
If I have things that need to be done, I will ask a responsible student to do them for me. Copies need to be made, whiteboard need to be cleaned and dusted (please don’t tell me I’m the only one whose custodian doesn’t always get the job done as thoroughly as I’d like…), papers need to be stacked, etc. If she’s not responsible or if I’ve run out of things to be done, I move to the next option.
“Go practice”
A lot of students like to come to the band hall before school to practice. A lot also seem to like to come to talk. “Get your instruments out and practice” seems to work wonders on reminding them why they are there. “Go practice or go away” works for those who don’t get the message.
Just say “no”
When all else fails, relearn the ancient word that so many people in our culture seem to have forgotten. Just say “no”.

Leave a comment or visit SYWTT’s Facebook page and let us know some of the ways you establish boundaries.

10 Years of Teaching: How Do I Keep My Students Learning?

Joel — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 02:48:28 +0000

Just because you have now gotten your students quiet, engaged, and interested still doesn’t mean that they are learning anything meaningful. They could just be regurgitating information that they were previously taught. Sometimes this is exactly why they are so focused on the lesson! For the first time all year, they finally understand what you’re telling them! Unfortunately, it’s because some previous teacher has already paved the way for you. So how do you know that they are learning, and once they do, how do you keep them learning?

How do I know if my students are learning?
The first step to ensuring that your students are learning is quite simply to pay attention to them! In band directing, we have a habit when reading new music with the students to “bury our head in the score.” To focus only on the written notes that the students have and not even be aware of what they are actually playing, which sometimes has no bearing on what is written on their parts! Similarly, younger teachers have a tendency of conducting the band in their mind rather than the one that is on stage with them! If you are in the habit of making it through your lesson plan each day, but losing your students somewhere between “Open your…” and “…books to page…” then you need to get out of your head and get into reality.

How do you ensure that happens? Almost think of your presentation of material as a musical performance. In music, when we want to highlight a particular passage, we can reinforce the melody by adding more people, we can emphasize the passage by increasing volume (or even reducing it), and we can emphasize the passage also by emphasizing the silence.

Ask open-ended questions: Not yes/no questions; check for actual understanding
Ask if there are any questions
Occasionally check for understanding by asking as student to explain what you’ve just covered; I find that a lot of times they may be zoned out but hear what you said and learn it after they say it themselves
Repeat important concepts
Repeat important concepts
Repeat important concepts
Adjust your volume settings especially when you get to a super-important concept

So once I have taught the concept, then what?
Reinforce it like crazy! Most subjects have the luxury of a textbook or worksheets that will help you. But the textbook or worksheets left to their own devices (or the students given the textbook and worksheets and told to learn) often don’t do their job well. You as the professional educator must continually be checking for understanding. If the students are working on a worksheet, for instance, I might be moving around the room and dialoguing with individuals. As a question is raised, I will bring it up to the entire class. If I taught it, most of the kids can help. If most of them don’t know, it’s time for me to reteach that. This is true even for concepts they were supposed to have learned last year or even concepts I taught them earlier in the year. If you are counting on them to remember everything you have ever said, you are setting yourself up for disappointment! Big time.

Reteaching should really become the expected default behavior for you. If a concept is to be reinforced, it must be reinforced regularly. Do you think LeBron James practices free throws? Do you think Josh Hamilton goes to batting practice? OF COURSE! Why? So they don’t stagnate.

The next step
Are you continuing to learn? Are you modeling the thirst for learning that you want your students to develop?

Just some suggestions…

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