How many of you follow-through with parent phone calls, emails, student-teacher tutorials, collaborative meetings, etc. Follow-through is an important part of all kinds of work, not just teaching. When it comes to dealing with more in-depth issues, follow-through is the next stage of teaching development. It shows a teacher’s professionality, responsibility and a willingness to work collaboratively.
Follow-throughs do not necessarily relate to meetings. They can also relate to lesson planning and classroom management.Here are a few examples:
Classroom management
During one of your first lessons, you teach group work. Your students aren’t engaged in the task. After talking about how your students responded to the material, you decide that your next follow-through entails discussing with the entire class: what are the qualities of a good group leader?
Lesson planning
You teach a small group of struggling readers a comprehension text by reading the text aloud. They stop you after every fifth word however and ask: “what does this mean?” You decide that your next follow-through is to teach a RC text by preteaching targeted vocabulary first.
If you don’t follow-through, the issue/job just won’t get done. 90% of all teacher’s tasks involve some kind of follow-through or another.
Every day Teacher’s duties
You discuss a student’s behavior with the psychologist in the teacher’s room. Apparently, there is a need to speak with both the parents and the child. The school psychologist says: “Let’s talk next week. Give me a call.”
New Teacher Tips for Following-Through
1. Write down the follow-through quickly. Soon, something else will take over your brain and you’ll have forgotten.
2. Keep track of each follow-through by crossing it off the list. Some planners have room to write detailed responses. Example: when you speak with parents, you might want to write fp=follow-through with a phone call fe= follow-through with an email, so forth. Be specific as you can regarding the follow-through.
3. If your follow-through involves interpersonal communication, start with a gentle reminder. If the second party does not react to the degree that is needed for the situation, express how important the meeting is for student X and what you believe it can do for the situation at hand.
4. Don’t throw out important follow-through ESPECIALLY with parents.
5. Prioritize your follow-throughs using time management strategies.
6. The key is to do follow-throughs consistently.
Do you use follow-throughs on a regular basis? Do they help? What have been your experiences with follow-throughs? Do you have any other new teacher tips to add to the list?