Archive for August, 2011
Posted by teacher on
August 28, 2011
An ideal teacher is the one we respect from our heart. He/she acts as a guide to the students, while not pushing them too much. Such a perfect motivates them and boosts their morale. He/she tries to encourage the students and refrains from criticizing them. The perfect teacher prefers to give positive motivation to his/her students. His/her comments are always constructive in nature. He/she serves as our friend, guide, educator, confidante, and a blend of all the good qualities one can posses. Such a teacher shapes the entire life of the students. If everyone in this world gets an ideal teacher, he/she won’t have to look back in his/her life ever.
Qualities Of A Perfect Teacher
Problem Solver
Students have a tendency to assume that their teacher will come up with a solution for all their problems. This is the toughest test of a teacher-student relationship. Teachers are largely responsible to solve the problems of their pupils, without expecting anything in return. It is the main yardstick of being an ideal teacher.
Understands Student Psychology
It is very important for a teacher to understand the psychology of his/her pupils. Every student is different from the other and will react differently to situations. All students cannot be equated and therefore, need individual attention. An ideal teacher knows where the students lack and what their requirements are. He/she never fails to comprehend the needs of students and tries his/her level best to fulfill them.
An Idol For Students
An ideal teacher leaves a life-long impression on his/her students and impacts their mind in a positive way. She is a much valued asset, without whom one can’t imagine a life. In fact, perfect teachers are as important as our parents. Not even a single day of our life will seem to be complete without them. They are the ones, whom the students can idolize and look up to.
A Good Guide
Children of a certain age trust their teachers, even more than their parents. Therefore, it is the responsibility of an ideal teacher to guide the pupil like his/her own child. Such a teacher shows students the right path under all circumstances and never shies away from his/her duties. In fact, he/she is always there by the student’s side, at the time of need.
Posted by teacher on
August 26, 2011
Angry parents are in touch with emotions but may have temporarily lost focus on children’s behavior or grades. Learning to defuse situations by acknowledging their frustrations but keeping the focus on facts rather than personalities is a valuable skill for teachers and school administrative staff. Here are three guidelines to quickly defuse anger and allow all parties to respond rather than react.
1. Use time outs to allow emotions to dissipate. Acknowledge concern, but ask for the opportunity to research the situation and get the facts. Set a time for a conference to show the parent good faith about intentions to resolve the conflict.
2. Ask parents to put the concerns into writing. This focuses them on facts rather than emotions, and makes them accountable to do fact finding with their children. Teachers or other staff members with involvement should also prepare a written version. Finally, do your homework and find out who the players are, what event or events triggered the conflict, where and why it happened, and what the expected resolution should include.
3.At conference time, use a recording device or have a secretary take notes and prepare a written transcript of what occurred. Memories can be faulty and the heat of anger can cause distortions, so taking this precautionary step may save further disputes or conflicts.
Posted by teacher on
August 23, 2011
In a formal sense, the main difference between teacher and student is the amout of education.To be a teacher, one must attend school for a certain number of years; take varied courses relating to one’s discipline, as well as general courses; and earn either one, or two degrees, depending on the level at which one plans to teach. Some go on to that third level, the Doctorate, which allows them to teach at the graduate level.
All good teachers are always students in a very broad sense of the word, and sometimes teachers take classes where they are actually students of other teachers once more. All students are teachers in a broad sense as well, in that they offer new and fresh perspectives to the materials that their teachers are using in class.
The more we learn, the more we realize that there is too much for one person to learn in a lifetime.
Posted by teacher on
August 20, 2011
The teacher of students with visual impairments is the central figure on the educational team for your child with a visual impairment. This is the professional who has expertise in how visual impairment affect your child’s development and learning, as well as the strategies and tools that can help your child learn about the world, perform everyday activities, and participate in the general curriculum and other activities in school. Therefore, your child is likely to be working with the teacher of students with visual impairments on a day-to-day basis. He or she will probably serve as the coordinator of the educational team and as a resource for the other team members, including you. You may sometimes hear this teacher referred to as a “vision teacher” or by the abbreviation “TVI.”
The specific responsibilities of the teacher of students with visual impairments with your child may vary, depending on your child’s age and needs, the goals his educational team sets for him, the type of educational program your child participates in, and the policies of your particular school district. The role of the teacher of students with visual impairment may include some or all the following:
teaching the specific skills that your child needs to learn because of his visual impairment. Generally these are adapted ways of doing everyday activities and methods of participating in the school curriculum, such as reading and writing in braille, using a low vision device, or independent living skills. These skills are often known as the expanded core curriculum.
conducting various assessments of your child to determine his abilities and needs
working with you and other family members in various ways, such as helping you to learn skills you need to teach your child or suggesting ways to arrange your home or do household chores that will make it easier for your child to participate in family life
making referrals for additional services your child may need, such as for orientation and mobility (O&M) instruction or a clinical low vision evaluation from a low vision specialist
meeting with family members, your child’s regular education teacher, and other members of the educational team to discuss his progress and make suggestions for strategies to make his school work accessible and to include him to the greatest extent possible in all school, classroom, and extracurricular activities
preparing or obtaining learning materials, textbooks, and examinations in the appropriate accessible format for your child (such as braille, large print, audio, or electronic format)
analyzing the classroom and other environments for access and safety related to a student’s visual impairment or blindness, and advising other members of the team about how best to organize the classroom and materials
providing consultation and training for teachers, paraeducators, and other school personnel on effective strategies for teaching students with visual impairments
directing the paraeducator, if one has been assigned to your child or his class, in providing support to your child
Posted by teacher on
August 17, 2011
1. Teachers show their pleasure and enjoyment of students.
2. Teachers interact in a responsive and respectful manner.
3. Teachers offer students help (e.g., answering questions in timely manner, offering support that matches the children’s needs) in achieving academic and social objectives.
4. Teachers help students reflect on their thinking and learning skills.
5. Teachers know and demonstrate knowledge about individual students’ backgrounds, interests, emotional strengths and academic levels.
6. Teachers seldom show irritability or aggravation toward students.
Posted by teacher on
August 14, 2011
Positive teacher-student relationships — evidenced by teachers’ reports of low conflict, a high degree of closeness and support, and little dependency — have been shown to support students’ adjustment to school, contribute to their social skills, promote academic performance, and foster students’ resiliency in academic performance (Battistich, Schaps, & Wilson, 2004; Birch & Ladd, 1997; Hamre & Pianta, 2001). Teachers who experience close relationships with students reported that their students were less likely to avoid school, appeared more self-directed, more cooperative, and more engaged in learning (Birch & Ladd, 1997; Klem & Connell, 2004). Students reported liking school more and experiencing less loneliness if they had a close relationship with their teachers. Students with better teacher-student relationships also showed better performance on measures of academic performance and school readiness (Birch & Ladd, 1997). Teachers who use more learner-centered practices (i.e., practices that show sensitivity to individual differences among students, include students in the decision-making, and acknowledge students’ developmental, personal and relational needs) produced greater motivation in their students than those who used fewer of such practices (Daniels & Perry, 2003; Perry & Weinstein, 1998).
Posted by teacher on
August 11, 2011
Teachers who foster positive relationships with their students create classroom environments more conducive to learning and meet students’ developmental, emotional and academic needs. Here are some concrete examples of closeness between a teacher and a student:
1) A seven-year-old girl who is experiencing divorce at home goes to her former first grade teacher in the mornings for a hug of encouragement, even though she is now in the second grade;
2) A fourth grade boy who is struggling in math shows comfort in admitting to his teacher that he needs help with multiplying and dividing fractions;
3) A middle school girl experiences bullying from other students and approaches her social studies teacher to discuss it because she trusts that the teacher will listen and help without making her feel socially inept.
Posted by teacher on
August 8, 2011
So many students believe that they should be in charge of the classroom and that they know more than the teacher. It can be tough to teach hard-to-manage students who think they should be in charge. Since few schools have a written game plan to formally train their kids to be students, you may see a lot of younger and older youth who do not look, act or sound like students.
Until trained to be students, some youngsters may continue to be unmanageable. Here is a small sampling from our arsenal of strategies to effectively teach kids to be successful students. The strategies offered here will focus on just one of the many skill areas you need to cover: how to interact properly with teachers. Don’t forget to cover those other areas too– how often to talk in class, what to say or not say, how to be on task, how to arrive on time, how to interact with other students and so on. Our books and classes cover all these areas in depth, but here’s a peek at some of our best!
** Who Is Qualified to Be in Charge?
For students who believe that they should run the class, have your kids list out all the qualifications that teachers must have. Write their responses on the board and elicit answers like “have a college degree” and “have a license to teach.”
Next, ask the class to determine who has these qualifications, the teacher or students? This intervention can very effectively squelch your “know-it-all” students’ attempts to be the boss of the class.
** Just Say “Yes”
So often, “NO!” is the first word from a student’s mouth in response to a teacher’s direction. Understandably, that response can become a problem quite quickly. Teach the students that a “trick” to more often get your teacher to do what you want is to say “Yes.” Drill the students to use sentences such as “Yes, I will do the math but can you show me how” and “Yes, but I don’t really want to do it.” Teach students that “Yes” is the magic word to use with teachers to have a better chance to get what they want. Also, discuss what bad things can happen to employees who say “NO” to bosses, and note that school is the place to prepare for employment to avoid “practicing on the job.”
** Help Me Faster When the teacher doesn’t immediately respond to a request for help, some students become upset or misbehave, sometimes believing that the teacher hates them– that’s why they don’t respond faster.
To quickly show students why the teacher doesn’t always immediately provide aid every time, have a student assume the role of teacher then have all the other students request help at once. The role-play teacher will quickly understand why the teacher is unable to always provide instant aid. Ask the students to recommend how the teacher should allocate aid.
The class will suggest that the teacher respond to the person who requests help first, which should prove to be an easy-to-do answer for the teacher to follow.
** Teachers Are Lousy Mind Readers To show students that teachers are unable to decipher what that their tantrum or sulking means, teach students that teachers are lousy mind readers. Have students think of numbers, and have the teacher attempt to guess the numbers. Keep score on the board. Assess the score and discuss that teachers can’t read minds very well.
Discuss when students sometimes expect teachers to read minds, and what students could do that would work much better.
Posted by teacher on
August 6, 2011
1. Grammar speaks; dialectics teach us truth; rhetoric gives colouring to our speech; music sings; arithmetic numbers; geometry weighs and measures;
astronomy teaches us to know the stars.
2. To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching.
3. Natural ability is by far the best, but many men have succeeded in winning high renown by skill that is the fruit of teaching.
4. It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken
joy in creative expression and knowledge.
5. The most effective teacher will always be biased,
for the chief force in teaching is confidence and enthusiasm.
Posted by teacher on
August 3, 2011
1. By learning you will teach;
by teaching you will understand.
2. Education is the mother of leadership.
3. Seldom was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment.
4. If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others.
5. We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own.
