Avoiding Student-Teacher Battles

One aspect of teaching that several teachers, especially new teachers, struggle with is discipline. Beginning teachers often fear that they will not have control of their classroom. They fear that they will not be able to gain the respect from their students. This is a very legitimate concern. Some teachers do have great struggles when it comes to gaining respect from students and taking charge of the classroom. Successful classroom management skills are essential to being a successful teacher. One important rule to remember when it comes to discipline in the classroom is to avoid teacher and student battles. In … Continue reading

What Makes a Teacher Good?

I have been discussing some characteristics of different degrees of teachers. In my first article I gave my description of a super teacher. I then went on to describe an excellent teacher in my next article. In this article I will focus on good teachers. There is nothing wrong with being a good teacher. There are many students who are successful in their future and have good teachers in their educational career. Most of us only have one or two super or excellent teachers throughout school. Good teachers do their job and do it well. However they have stricter limits … Continue reading

What Makes a Teacher Excellent?

Previously I discussed how in often cases teachers are labeled as being bad or great and all in between. I also gave some characteristics that are typically found in super teachers. While there are few super teachers to be found, there are many teachers that are considered to be excellent or good. Being an excellent teacher may not be super but it is considered to be an honor. Excellent teachers love to teach. They enjoy their job but it is not their life. While super teaches usually sacrifice their own personal lives for their job, excellent teachers are more balanced. … Continue reading

What Makes a Teacher Super?

When describing your childhood teachers you typically use words such as bad, good, or great. We have all had teachers from each of the categories. So what characteristics is it that put a teacher into one of these categories? When thinking about teaching we all want to be or have the super teacher. But what is it that makes a teacher super? Not all teachers are or can be super. There are perfectly acceptable and sufficient teachers that do not deserve this title. Being an excellent or a good teacher is perfectly fine. However if you are ever labeled as … Continue reading

More about Students who Refuse to Work

Previously I began a discussion about students who refuse to do work and how teachers in essence cannot make them. The article listed some typical actions that teachers take to try to get a student to do work. Some teachers try punishment for the students and others do not allow students to play until the work is completed. The best thing that teachers and parents can do to get children to complete their work is to give them motivation. While this sounds easy, the hard part is discovering what exactly it is that motivates the child. Not all children are … Continue reading

When a Student Refuses to Work…

Teachers can have great influence over students. In many cases students wish to please their teacher, especially younger students. Some students fear their teacher and the outcomes that will happen if they misbehave. Other students fear the punishment from their parents if they get into trouble or make bad grades at school. However there are a few students that are not affected by their parents or by their teacher. They have a mindset that things will be their way and nothing seems to have much effect on changing their minds. I have come across a few of these students in … Continue reading

“Do You Have to be a Teacher…”

While gazing over a few headlines from some web articles, I recently ran across one that caught my eye. I suppose the title question was not intriguing enough for me to read the article but definitely enough for me to ponder for a while and give a response to you. The title was in the form of a question and it read, “Do you have to be a teacher to do a teacher’s job?” After thinking about this question for a little while I realized that in fact it was questioning the qualifications of teachers. This question is insinuating that … Continue reading

Virtual Teacher Education Program

Many future teachers complain that they do not get enough hands-on or real classroom experience. They often claim that professors cannot prepare students for true classroom experiences. Future teachers are seldom faced with student conflicts and issues that may arise while teaching a class. However, the University of Central Florida’s College of Education is now trying to change the amount of real classroom experience that future teachers receive. The university has created a virtual classroom that allows soon to be teachers the opportunity to get a feel of a real classroom without having to experiment with real students. The program … Continue reading

What Type of Teachers Do Students Like?

Most of us can remember at least a few teachers from our academic career. Some of those teachers have fond memories in our minds and others are the dreaded teachers that we frown upon thoughts of being in their classes. Throughout a school there are teachers who are well known and liked by the students and there are teachers that are not liked so much by the students. So what is about a teacher that gains good comments and gets good scores from a child? Students like teachers for different reasons. The traits that students like about teachers all depends … Continue reading

End of Year Behavior Trouble

At the beginning of the school year, the new classmates, new teacher, and new environment are exciting. The students are usually geared up and ready to start the year. They are typically very cooperative and get along fairly well. However things change as time passes by. The Christmas holiday break is a good refreshing separation for the students. Yet when school resumes in January, the students have a long stretch together until summer vacation. The students begin to get very comfortable with the teacher, the classmates, and the environment. They begin to treat these things more like home and like … Continue reading