Tips for communicating with parents

1. Be certain that anything you distribute to parents in writing is accurately and professionally done.
2. Keep your own record of everything you put on paper to parents or school personnel. The easiest thing is to keep a copy.
3. For notes, permission slips, reports, requests, and explanations of school activities, use a form of reproduction that is easy to read (watch out for worn out originals and bad copy equipment!).
4. Avoid grammar or spelling errors.
5. Write clearly and concisely so parents will understand your message. Be accurate on times, dates, and locations.
6. Avoid education jargon.
7. Type your message neatly or write it clearly in longhand.
8. Send your communication home far enough in advance so that parents can act if you expect a response.
9. Ask a colleague to read your communication before it goes home to see if it can be improved.
10. Give a copy to your administrator.
11. Set up a system for getting responses back on items like field trip permission slips.

Source: www.vtnea.org

“Word Game” for Students

“Select a word. Ask for words that can be made from the selected word, using the letters only as often as they are in the word, no capital letters, and at least three letters to the word. The spelling and meaning of each word shown should also be a requirement. Example: sacrifices—rice-a food, face-front of head, ice-frozen water, etc.”

by Linda Herrmann, Recreation Worker

Keys to Teaching: Explained

Patience and respect are the keys to teaching anyone. Patience first. Understanding that we are all flawed, and no one is perfect helps. We all can learn, in our own way, at our own pace. It is the job of the teacher to both learn how to reach the students, and recognize their individual abilities.

A patient man or woman is a powerful person. Being quick to listen, and slow to speak is not only divine wisdom, but also practical strategy. Too often teachers are more interested in what they are teaching, then in how best to teach it. Enthusiasm is important, but not at the cost of losing the audience. Taking time to get to know the student, or students is key. Discovering how they will be most successful is both an Art and a science. The more time a teacher has spent getting to know their students, the more successful they can be at delivering a lesson. But just knowing students well is not enough. Patiently learning what works best in the classroom, whether it be a teaching strategy, or beneficial example that makes a specific point, separates the ineffective teacher from those who are considered “great.”

The teacher must recognize their own shortcomings and inabilities. Students always do, and usually right away. The failing teacher is the one who fails to identify their own weaknesses before stepping up to the lectern. True, I cannot help you pull the toothpick out of your own eye while I have a fence post blinding mine, but knowing that the fence post is sticking blatantly out of my face, and using it to help humanize myself in front of my students, helps me connect with them, and consequently, capture their attention, and steel their will to learn from just another human being, and not some holier-than-thou monk of instruction.

If we teachers are to successfully communicate anything to our kids we must first respect them. Combine the unaware with the disrespectful, and you have a classroom nightmare with little chance of daybreak. Students do no respect teachers who do not respect themselves, or their students. And today’s students will refuse to perform, or even attend the class of an individual who treats them with anything less than complete respect. Times have changed.

I believe that we were all created as equal individuals with a purpose for our lives. Being older or smarter does not make one better; It only makes one older and smarter. But how wise is it to serve disingenuously those who we are committed to help improve? Many teachers hold their students in complete disdain. They loath the classroom and everything about it. Some are simply, “putting in their time towards retirement.” What a shame. How foolish it is to lose sight of the potential of all people. However, its difficult to see the light in others, when our own lights shine so dimly.

If we are to be successful with our students, and make no mistake about it, our future depends on this success, then we must be patient stewards of the trust put into our hands when parents lovingly send their children into our domains. We must be patient, even with the least of them. We must patiently seek the best way to help them help themselves, and teach them to survive without our assistance. We must respect their individuality, and their potential. We must treat our jobs and our selves with respect, even when the world around us does not.

http://calteacherblog.blogspot.com

Whiteboard Mistakes in Classroom

Often a marker is grabbed to write on the whiteboard and invariably, it turns out to be a permanent marker. A quick solution is to use the correct type of dry-erase marker to write over the permanent ink. This solves the problem by breaking down the permanent ink.

CD play in class

You can have a CD player in class, and play music during class time once in a while (usually during free time.)  as special activity. Your students will get too excited about the music, and they can get a little out of hand.