Newgrounds.com — Everything, By Everyone.

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English

Because she's sixty something and goes to Slipknot and Foo Fighters concerts and is really bitchy and opinionated about EVERYTHING just like me (:

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Okay, I don't really have a favorite teacher because they're all pretty great, but here's my suggestions.

In high school, you get slackers, especially when teaching a mandatory class. They'll want nothing to do with working hard and learning, just getting a barely passing grade. I see far too many teachers fall into the trap of trying to help them, to make them do their homework and study. EVERY teacher always says "Do your homework and you'll do fine! You shouldn't be failing this class!" The student proceeds to continue failing. If they don't learn to work hard by high school, you're not going to make a difference. My suggestion: If they don't do their homework, IGNORE THEM. Give out notes and study guides and tests like you normally would; they'll fail if they want to.

This being said, if THEY come to YOU asking for help, then help them! When they have the will, it's your time to strike. Make sure you do everything in your power to help them in the class (without giving them an unfair advantage in any way, however).

Also, extra credit. I love extra credit, and others do too. If you don't really believe in extra credit, that's fine, but if you decide to give some to students make it very HARD extra credit. Ask students to right a freakin' essay on whatever subject you're teaching and give them a small amount of points for it. If a student really wants to help out their grade, they'll spend the hour or two just to get those points. Giving extra credit is also important because it makes a student feel really great that they've accomplished something not asked of them. It encourages them to excel, to do more than what's expected of them.

Also, discipline is good, but only when it needs to be there. Only, ONLY exercise discipline when a student is disrupting the class. Talking loudly during a lecture or doing something stupid should put them into the hallway temporarily (or something other non-disruptive punishment). If they're whispering to their friend during a lecture or something like that, though, do not, I repeat, DO NOT call them out on it. A common mistake a lot of teachers make is to stop a disruptive student, they disrupt the class themselves by stopping a train of thought and switching a student's focus to something else. You have to make sure that the trade-off is more in your favor, and you're helping more than you're hindering.

If you hadn't guessed in some way, I'm a straight A student and my opinions on teaching are probably a lot different than the average student's. These are my suggestions, and you should know that I know nothing about teaching other than the observations I have made after being in school for over 11 years.

Good luck!

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Favorite teachers :

Mr Lozano - an amazing english teacher. Gets you to do the work on time, gets us all high marks, and his wit is sharper than a diamond edged razor blade. Normaly does a countdown, and if someone is still talking he will make a witty attack

Mr Adekunle - an amazing ICT teacher. Funny, laughs alot, teaches you well, and is rater lenient.

Least favorite - Madame Miles - my old latin teacher. Only ever shouted, never went back to help you if you got something wrong, and generaly cruel and evil. And she is french.

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My 6th grade music teacher. He was awesome. He was a sports fan, and loved classic rock. Nothing like studying and AC/DC being the same thing.

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At 3/13/09 04:42 PM, Pyrotek7x7 wrote: Okay, I don't really have a favorite teacher because they're all pretty great, but here's my suggestions.

And suggestions are more than welcome, so here's my response!

In high school, you get slackers, especially when teaching a mandatory class. They'll want nothing to do with working hard and learning, just getting a barely passing grade. I see far too many teachers fall into the trap of trying to help them, to make them do their homework and study. EVERY teacher always says "Do your homework and you'll do fine! You shouldn't be failing this class!" The student proceeds to continue failing. If they don't learn to work hard by high school, you're not going to make a difference. My suggestion: If they don't do their homework, IGNORE THEM. Give out notes and study guides and tests like you normally would; they'll fail if they want to.

The problem is it is the job of the teacher to help all of their students, and that includes those that don't want to learn. Granted it is wrong to put an inordinate amount of effort into those students that really don't want to be there, but I'm determined to grab the attention of everyone in the classroom if at all possible. Simply giving up on them wouldn't be the professional response, no matter how tempting that might be or how much it might help the rest of the class. The trick is to find a way to grab their attention by relating the subject with what they are interested in. Certainly biology is very easy to relate to sport for example, which might grab their attention a bit more.

But you are right that you can't focus on these students so much that the rest of the class suffers- its a careful balance, and something that will hopefully come with experience.

Also, extra credit. I love extra credit, and others do too. If you don't really believe in extra credit, that's fine, but if you decide to give some to students make it very HARD extra credit. Ask students to right a freakin' essay on whatever subject you're teaching and give them a small amount of points for it. If a student really wants to help out their grade, they'll spend the hour or two just to get those points. Giving extra credit is also important because it makes a student feel really great that they've accomplished something not asked of them. It encourages them to excel, to do more than what's expected of them.

More of an American system there, so not really relevant over here I'm afraid. All marks come from coursework or exams, extra credit is not an option. But it is good to have more open ended pieces of work, so those students that enjoy the subject can really go to town and show me what they can do. I remember an old maths teacher of mine would set one extra hard (optional) challenge at the end of every piece of homework for those that wanted a challenge, and I enjoyed that question far more than anything else we ever did.

Also, discipline is good, but only when it needs to be there. Only, ONLY exercise discipline when a student is disrupting the class. Talking loudly during a lecture or doing something stupid should put them into the hallway temporarily (or something other non-disruptive punishment). If they're whispering to their friend during a lecture or something like that, though, do not, I repeat, DO NOT call them out on it. A common mistake a lot of teachers make is to stop a disruptive student, they disrupt the class themselves by stopping a train of thought and switching a student's focus to something else. You have to make sure that the trade-off is more in your favor, and you're helping more than you're hindering.

My favourite technique is keeping them behind after class for a private chat about their behaviour. WIthout their classmates around they are less prone to goofing around and might actually listen to what you have to say, plus there is no danger of disrupting the class. Of course you need to deal with a disruptive student during the lesson as well, but there are a lot of ways to approach that.

If you hadn't guessed in some way, I'm a straight A student and my opinions on teaching are probably a lot different than the average student's. These are my suggestions, and you should know that I know nothing about teaching other than the observations I have made after being in school for over 11 years.

They are all important opinions though, and its as important to prevent disruption in class for students like yourself as it is to help those less able of less willing to work hard and learn. Most of what I know is from observation when I was in school too, and like you I was a straight A student (I get the impression that this website attracts a lot of the smarter teenage population). Now I need experience and training to go with my past observations and hopefully I'll become a good teacher.

Good luck!

Thanks! And thanks to everyone else that has made useful comments, this thread is becoming a goldmine for me when it comes to interview preparation. And I also hope it is helping you think about how hard it actually is to be a teacher and what a good job they do educating you!

(more responses to come in a few days, but I'm staying at my girlfriends at the moment as its her birthday on Monday, so not got much spare time).

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At 3/11/09 10:38 AM, KevinHR wrote: but she still teached us

I'm hoping that she was at least better than your English teacher.