Tips & Trics

By Hafedh Sellami 

1. The first three rules of effective teaching are (1) Praise; (2) Praise; and (3) Praise! But praise students only for honest effort and authentic accomplishment. Phoney praise can lead to false pride and failed dreams later.
2. Don’t let a single textbook define your curriculum. Teach students to use a variety of materials (resource-based instruction) in order to get a well-grounded learning experience. Learning shouldn’t be one-dimensional.
3. Give students more practice in planning, thinking, and deciding and less practice in memorising, copying, and repeating.
4. Make a big deal over discouraging plagiarism. Copying from the Internet is easy, but it robs students of the joy of original work. 
5. Praise students in public. Criticize them in private. Never subject a child to public humiliation. That’s the number one complaint of students everywhere.
6. Never tease students unless you know they enjoy it. What seems funny to an adult may be intimidating or embarrassing to a child.
7. Treat all students alike – fairly. There are no favourites in a master teacher’s classroom.
8. Recognize and reward all students. All children deserve some time in the sun.
9. Be honest with students. If you always tell the truth, you don’t have to try to remember your lies.
10. Don’t expect students to look up to you if you talk down to them.
11. Don’t be conned by kids. Never believe everything students tell you about what other teachers do or allow in their classrooms.
12. Anticipate that students will search out and try to exploit your weaknesses. It’s what they do best. Don’t worry. You can handle it. You’re the grown-up in the crowd.
13. Think like a child. Act like an adult.  
14. Never try to shout over a noisy classroom. Talk “under the noise” instead. Factory workers first learned this trick on the assembly line in World War II.
15. Learn the difference between a fair warning and an idle threat.
16. Don’t bad mouth other teachers or the school administration in public. You’re supposed to be on the same team.
17. Don’t take on other teacher’s problems. You’ll have enough of your own.
18. Be sensitive about how much homework you assign. Remember that your students and their families have a life beyond school work.
19. Don’t expect your principal or your union to bail you out when you do something illegal, unethical, unprofessional, or harmful to kids. If you cross that line, you’re on your own.
20. Don’t be afraid to show off what your students have learned. The media never hesitate to exploit school failures. Schools should publicize their successes.
21. Don’t blame last year’s teacher for this year’s problems. There’s no reward for finger-pointing. Work with what you have and do your best. Good teachers don’t need excuses.
22. Don’t blame your problems on the state legislature. Nothing the government does (or doesn’t do) will make you a better teacher.
23. If you don’t want parents telling you how to teach, don’t tell them how to raise their children.
24. Keep up with the latest technologies. Learn from the kids if you have to. If you’re not up-to-date, you quickly become irrelevant in today’s classroom.
25. Learn something new everyday. Good teachers are good students first.
26. Teaching can be easy. Good teaching never is. Work hard at what you do. Earn the title of “Teacher”.
27. If teaching is just a job to you, you’re merely a technician, not a real teacher. The difference is passion!
28. Good schools don’t happen by accident. Teachers make them that way. Are you doing your share to make the whole school better?
29. The good thing about teaching is that students are always watching you. The bad thing about teaching is that students are always watching you. If you don’t like scrutiny, get out of teaching.
30. Pay attention to attendance. Yours. There will be days when you don’t feel