As a teacher, you might love teaching, but do your students love learning? To make learning engaging for students you can integrate the following five tactics and instantly improve your teaching’s impact.
Tech-Driven Learning is More Fun
If you’re teaching new vocabulary, for instance, use vocabulary improvement software that will help your students learn through fun games and interactive activities. Young people by definition are more adept with technological skills, so by integrating software and social media into your teaching routine you will instantly get your students’ attention – a prerequisite for advanced learning.
Use classroom management software and apps to get your students and their parents engaged with learning, and you’ll reduce the number of “I forgot there’s an assignment” excuses, and get students used to taking responsibility.
Give Responsibilities
Students love being thought of as reliable, knowledgeable human beings. Boost this assertive self-image of your students by asking them to take up projects and initiatives of their own, in ways that illustrate what they learn in the classroom.
Being confident in your own capacities and knowledge is a valuable skill to teach to your students.
Make Teaching Interesting
Social media, intuitive educational apps, empirical learning. Need we say more? There are so many resources online and offline to spice up learning. Stop thinking of technology as something that will only distract students, and don’t be tempted to and exclude it from your classroom. Its power to promote learning is beyond imagination!
Students get bored easily, so your goal is to be unexpectedly interesting. Surprise your students with a vocabulary lesson on vocabulary software, initiate a Twitter Q&A session to discuss a history test, or have online-based assignments that teach the topic – and how to use technology responsibly.
Don’t Forget About Yourself
No matter how passionate you are about education, you need to set aside ample time to yourself. If you cannot seem to find time for your hobbies and friends, schedule time for them. If it’s in your schedule it will be done.
Cultivate new skills, engage and be exposed to different kinds of social circles and experiences, and play with technology yourself in your free time. All of this will spruce up your own teaching methods and multiply what you can give to your students.
Don’t Forget the Parents
Parents are your most loyal allies when it comes to boosting your students’ performance and counteracting their weaknesses. Start cultivating a nurturing, trustworthy relationship with the parents of your students, and take advantage of modern communication to make this relationship easy and enjoyable.
Although it might not be easy to keep in touch and keep up with all your students’ parents in person, technology is now making it a bit easier to do so on line. A weekly newsletter or an online teacher’s conference with them gives you a more accurate context as to the best way to approach each parent, and how to discuss any issues related to the student. Don’t forget to include well-deserved praise for the student!
Running volunteering programs, or getting parents involved in school performances and events, can be another way to recruit parents in your mission to offer knowledge. Let parents know that their child is important to you, and you’ll get the behind-the-scenes support you need with the students.
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