Timesavers: Lesson Planning Made Easy for Teachers
February 27, 2009 by admin
Filed under Classroom Management and Organization
If you’re a new classroom teacher, the best way to be a well organized and better prepared teacher is by using a wide variety of lesson planning resources designed to save you valuable time.
Timesavers are a great lesson planning resource and include just about everything a new teacher needs to start the year off right. With the right kinds of timesavers, you can organize your lesson in a variety of ways. When you know what areas of your lesson you need to spend more time on, you also know how to plan it. This is why these templates, downloadable teaching materials and worksheets, checklists, writing prompts, spelling worksheets and many others are lifesavers for teachers. Click here to find out all about these resources.
You also have peace of mind knowing that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel or how can I plan this better. Timesavers are designed to save you valuable time so you can have a more balanced life doing something else!
The nicest part about these lesson templates and worksheets is that they fit right in with the curriculum of the subjects you are teaching. They are also visual and interactive, which is great for thinking along the lines of today’s digital generation.
For more great timesavers to help you save valuable time, Click Here!
Authentic Instruction – The FUN Way to Help Students Learn!
February 23, 2009 by admin
Filed under Teaching Tips, Teaching and Learning Styles
by Suzanne Lieurance
Whether you're a classroom teacher or a home schooling parent, the best way to motivate your students is through some sort of authentic instruction.
What is authentic instruction?
Well, it's simply instruction that is based on real world tasks. As students complete these tasks they can immediately see HOW what they are learning applies to their real lives - both inside and OUTSIDE the classroom. A good way to provide authentic instruction is through games. When students need to learn certain skills in order to play enjoyable games, they will become engaged in the principles and concepts you teach because they will want to be able to use their new skills to play the games.
The nicest part of this type of authentic instruction is that kids tend to pick up the skills needed to play games rather quickly, simply because they are self-motivated. Plus, they will tend to help each other acquire the skills needed to play the games because they are anxious to have some fun together. You can use popular games to teach a variety of skills in various content areas. Try such favorites as Monopoly, The Game of Life, Jeopardy, and Password.
But you can also create your own original games to enhance the quality of instruction in your classroom. You probably already have many materials that can be used to create fun learning games for your students. Items like playing cards, dominoes, toothpicks, coins, construction paper, cardboard, etc. can all be used to make learning games that can be played over and over again.
So start thinking of ways to add games to your instruction and you'll find that teaching is easier for you and learning is much easier, and more fun, for your students.
Find out how you can easily MAKE MATH MORE FUN with printable board games, card games, and printable game sheets.
For weekly teaching tips for classroom teachers and home schooling parents, visit the National Writing for Children Center at http://www.writingforchildrencenter.com
Article Source: Suzanne Lieurance
Your Classroom Management Plan Begins with Setting Expectations for Success
February 2, 2009 by admin
Filed under Classroom Management and Organization
Communicating expectations for success goes hand in hand with communicating rules and procedures. In fact, communicating expectations for success represents the necessary groundwork for modeling relevant behavior. Plus, the best way to build a positive relationship with a new class is to constantly communicate and reinforce success in a variety of ways.
Often new teachers find it hard to personalize something like rules and procedures. But it can make a difference in terms of having students listen to you more.
There are many ways to communicate this success. New teachers usually start out by imitating other teachers. Eventually, though, we become successful once we develop our own teaching style.
Communicating success is empowering and incredibly motivating. It has the power to send a message to a student that a teacher is there for them because s/he communicated already that success is a priority for the class. Even more personalized are those messages that reinforce the message, "I'm here for you" and "You can do this."
Back in the Israeli classroom, I learned that by saying "we are in this learning process together" showed I was on my students' side and cared for their well-being because I expressed a willingness and a desire to work together.
For new teachers, this can be a difficult approach to adopt because it means thinking and performing in a completely different way - perhaps one that they weren't trained to do. But at the same time, they are less concerned about trying to save face and work to model expectations for good work and learning behavior.
Simply communicating expectations for success will take you a few steps closer to BEING that successful teacher right now.
So what are you waiting for? Take control of the classroom - try it!
