5 Teaching Techniques That Work
Teaching is my passion. But it is not what I got when I went to college. Instead, I completed my Commerce course and got a job at the local bank in our place. I worked in the bank for 5 years.
Since I love teaching, I pursued. I went to College after my work in the afternoon. Until I completed the Education subjects. I graduated and right away took the Teacher’s Exams and passed.
I resigned from the Bank and applied to the Division where I lived and I was hired. I taught for 7 years in the elementary grades. Due to my efficiency in teaching and management skills, I was promoted to School Principal. My experience as a school principal had reached 18 years until I retire.
STAIR to Success
I applied these 5 teaching techniques when I was a classroom teacher. These could also be effective management approaches. I used them in handling the teachers who were under my supervision in my stint as a school principal.
These sound so simple especially when you are going to use them. I may call these techniques the S.T.A.I.R. way to success.
Show
The first technique is Show. As a teacher before, when I start teaching a new lesson to my students. I show them something to get their attention. These visual materials ease learning. You ought to prepare them with a trivial value or important bearing to your lesson to be taught.
Tell
You may say something about those visual aids or you ask for ideas from your students. That is to determine whether they have already the background or knowledge about the objects presented. Then, it is easy for you where to begin. But if it is not familiar with them, then it is time to tell them its significance, value, or purpose why you are presenting them in connection with your lesson presentation.
Ask
This is where a question-and-answer should take place. It should be an intelligent way of discussion. You as a teacher would just facilitate the discussion and let the students do the asking, do the questioning. In short, the teacher moderates the flow of the discussion, leading to the attainment of the lesson or skill.
Integrate
What has been learned, what has been studied, what has been discussed should be applied. The values should be integrated into their way of life and it should be in the form of an assignment or a project and when they come back to school, it should be reported.
Recollect/Reteach/Recognize
After integration, through a test or evaluation when the majority of the students don’t assimilate to themselves what is the lesson all about, it should be retaught. It should go in a different approach but yet follow the STAIR technique. Once they master the subject matter or the skill for them to get, recognize them by giving good grades or accolades for them to be proud of.
Basically, these are only guides or processes of making things done. Teachers may adapt these or they may change them, depending on their style or way of teaching. They have to remember that teaching is an art.
A Teacher’s Guide to Learning: How to Become a Better Student and Excel in School
You can learn from parents, from elders, from society, from animals, from the environment. In fact, you can learn from everything around you. However, it is the teacher who has more important things to teach you than anyone else. You learn more from classroom study than from other sources.
If you want to become a good student and excel well in school as well as exams, here are some tips to consider.
Study: In order to learn, you have to study. Studying does not only mean virtual/real classroom studying, studying also refers to learning by self-study and learning from other people and the environment.
Learning by listening: A baby learns a word by listening. Listening is the basic method of learning. You must listen to what is being said.
Learn the basic things: Without knowing the alphabet, you cannot learn a word. Therefore, start with the basic concept and gradually reinforce your knowledge.
Create a study schedule: For effective learning, you need to create a study schedule. Creating a study schedule means you are developing a routine to learn various subjects.
Change your focus: Studying the same subject again and again will only create monotony. In order to break that monotony, you need to change your subject quite often, for instance, you can alternate between science and arts.
Take a break to learn better: Taking a break from your everyday life boosts your creativity and mental capacity. Long study hours will not help you in learning.
Self-directed learning: By evaluating your own performance, you can learn so many things, for example, you can learn about your weakness, you can learn about your strength, you will know about your efficiency, you will know about your capacity.
Practice makes you perfect: If you don’t practice, you will never learn. Practice means you do it again and again.
Learning by memorizing: Memorizing means repeating something in your mind again and again, and recording in your mind so that you can recall it when you need it.
Welcome new ideas: In order to lean, your mind must be open to new ideas. A closed mind is just like closed doors. When the doors are closed, no one can enter, when your mind is closed, new ideas cannot enter, you cannot learn when your mind is closed.
Immerse yourself in learning: When you are learning, immerse yourself fully. Watching a TV and reading a lesson cannot go hand in hand.
Lose yourself: If you are uptight, you will never have a better understanding of the subject matter. Don’t take learning as a burden.
Recall to understand better: In order to grasp the lesson, you must be able to recall it. You can unable to recall means you did not understand properly.
Get inspiration: Inspiration invokes your creativity. Inspiration invokes your efficiency. You need inspiration to become better at learning something.
Develop optimism: Optimism matters in life, even more in learning. Optimism will help you get involved in learning. You are a better learner if you are an optimist.
State of happiness helps in learning: If you are a happy person, you excel in learning. Happiness will make optimists, happiness will help you see the brighter, happiness will soothe your mind, therefore, when you are happy, you can easily learn. If you are gripped by sadness, you cannot learn.
Stimulate ideas: In order to make yourself more receptive to learning, you need to stimulate ideas. You can stimulate ideas by playing rhyming games, using word association, or stream-of-consciousness.