One of the many things I learned from teaching primary kids was that lessons usually don’t go as planned. When things don’t go as planned or according to the lesson plan, things could possibly get out of control very quickly. I often have the problem of underestimating m student’s knowledge of a subject. This relates perfectly to what Jess Carter talked about when he came as a guest speak for seminar this month. There were some invaluable things shared during that hour.
One of them being what to do when a student is way behind or when a student is way ahead; Make sure you have supplemental materials for them to work on if the student knows they are going to be gone for a certain amount of time give them things to work on while they are gone. If a student is way ahead have them help the other students or reward them in someway for being so productive. This also can tie into thinking ahead about what possible problems could arise and making plans for those problems. For example if a lesson is sinking and its going nowhere fast – have a contingency plan.
Along those same lines as well; its good to be honest with your students and admit mistakes. There are no perfect teachers, and in those moments of public failure we should own up to it and move on.
I like the idea of putting up on the board the flow of the lesson – this helps the student see what has and will be covered and helps the teacher stay and track and make sure everything gets covered.
There was something that Jess mentioned that I got an idea from and its called Teach the teacher. If there are students that can teach you or the class something new – great! - reward them for it. Make this known so that if some students want to strive for that then they know that can be rewarded for it.
This is great; teachers making future teachers better teachers.
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