New Teacher Mid Year NERVOUS, WORRIED, STRESSED!

girl hs kids are testy as hell! here's my advice from what i saw in teachers that got respect and didnt get respect
-unorganized teachers. makes you look like a scatter brain. We have to know what we are doing today, tomorrow, and even at the end of the week. what helps is sort of having up a chart that you can fill in what the homework is for the rest of the week, chapters to read, test dates, etc.

- weak teachers. Dont threaten to take my phone or kick me out the room the next time you see my phone if you really dont intend to do it. be firm. Follow through with your warnings, make sure parents are contacted for reoccurring offenders.

- not enough work. dont let them lounge about for the majority of the period, or giving measly work. also dont give work thats a tad too hard. the work should be challenging but doable.

- screaming- screaming teachers never win, the kids think its funny. One way to avoid screaming is again always follow through with your warning. you dont have to scream at the kid repeatedly to stop or they're getting kicked out. A teacher with respect looks them in the eye, says if they do it again their out, and keeps it moving. the kid already knows your not joking about kicking them out.

-dont neglect the kids in the back- they sit in the back on purpose. pay special attention to them, make sure they know just cause your in the back doesnt mean your not gonna call on them or your not watching.

-incentives- incentives work no matter the age. Dont give them no damn sticker or pencil though, dont no body want that. i remember i had a teacher that would walk around the class and check if we were doing our work. if we were, she would let us choose out of a bag full of candy, this was in senior year! they're still kids and will work for immediate rewards. this same teacher also gave those with 90+ grade on our weekly tests cupcakes or cookies. we all worked hard in that class.

-exciting work and exciting teacher- reading from the text book or filling out questions on a work sheet is dull. exciting work example- i had a world history teacher in 10th-11th grade that would play history jeopardy. He would split the class into groups of 4-5 and give us small dry erase boards and a marker. he then stuck up all over the board flipped over questions separated by category and arranged by increasing points and increasing difficulty (it was also an incentive game- winning group got a bag of candy each or cupcakes.). then he would go group by group and make us pick a question. we all wrote the answer down. when time was up we dropped are markers and held up our boards, each team with the correct answer got a point. This made all the student go as far as asking to play jeopardy the next class. everyone was competing, challenging other teams for cheating, laughing and best of all LEARNING. also an exciting teacher makes learning fun. Dont be so stiff. My worse subject is math, but i remember one teacher that was so damn funny and interactive that i got the highest score in the class at the end of the semester! Make sure you are always available after school for help and even during lunch time. dont be a stranger, some of my fav teachers would let me and my friends sit in the class room with her when we had lunch and we would talk to her and really get to know her and she got to know us too. this even works with the trouble maker kids. once they hang out with you a bit they wouldnt want to act up as much with you.

-please dont ignore quiet students- some kids are quiet and dont participate in class. Dont put them on blast and force them to answer questions, that'll make them dread going to your class. but make sure that they are doing their work, go kneel next to them and give them one-on-one time (while keeping your eye on the rascals). this makes sure that ALL kids are progressing and not at a stand still because they had a question but were too afraid to raise their hand and ask.

thats all i can think of for now.if i have more ill add on

Edited by HaitianLuv - Jan 12 2013 at 4:51pm