Teaching a new class can be difficult. There’s anxiety about how you’ll do and what impression you’ll leave on the students. You will question whether you will reach your goals and if there will be some students that make it hard. How can you manage this? Here are our tips for new teachers and tutors.
Know your students
Prepare, prepare, prepare. Understand the questions of their age, male:female gender ratio, family background, different nationalities/heritage, any learning needs and their expectations as a students.
With your classroom, consider if you can personalise it to make it more comfortable. This is an object that grounds you or equipment that you think is crucial. One student I have they really enjoy dinosaurs. So I place a dinosaur somewhere in the classroom for them to find and enjoy. Occasionally we theme work around dinosaurs such as working with scale and measures.
Engaging lessons
Many schools are now serialising lesson formats into reaching key points however, you can still think of ways to make it more interactive with incorporating a variety of activities that keep the students engaged whilst learning. This can include group/pair work and using props that would just be fun and not solely educational. The key factor here is to ensure the lesson goes smoothly, allow yourself to have time to plan and make it memorable. With small groups exercises such as observations or tasks which can be split by person so everyone has a role is best. One example, would be designing a study and implementing it. One student can design, another student can collate data, one student can give the survey to others. The possibilities are endless.
In terms of content, hopefully you’ll have sufficient notes on how the class is performing although if not, it’s better to underestimate and have those expectations exceeded than overestimate and alienate the class.
Practice by doing
As well having an effective lesson plan, running through the lesson and doing a run, visualising and acting out what you’d do will help build resilience and reduce stress when the real run happens. You can also cope ahead for scenarios that would be difficult such as behavioural issues and how to reduce the ruckus in the class.
There are a few key factors that can help:
Welcome in students as they enter
Name tags to help with calling out students
Work on projection and volume control
Note how long your active teaching is compared to student work – you want the student to work the most, not you!
Get active feedback and check student understanding
Monitor time
Stay hydrated
Have fun
Speak only when students are quiet
Use nonverbal communication such as using eye contact and raising hands
Address behaviour issues quickly
Reframe bad behaviour try to do it in a positive way – instead of “what are you doing” (accusatory and judgmental), say “it looks like you have a question”
Use a normal voice and use a differentiated tone instead of volume to suggest action or invite discussion. Raising your voice can lead you to losing your voice and stresses your voice box.
These tips will leave you in strong stead for your first lesson and beyond. Good luck, you’ve got this!
ZRTutoring 