NOTE: The article below is mirrored from the JALT Teacher Education SIG website.
Explorations in Teacher
Education: Vol. VI, No. 4, Dec. 1998, (p. 3).
To be a Teacher
Value time.
View teaching as a way of discovering.
Ask people how and what they want to learn - capitalize on their interests.
Discover what others already know before starting to teach.
Teach lessons as you would cook steak - with adequate heat and minimum fat or bull.
Work for simplicity - strive to boil down each lesson into a few key points.
Don't be afraid of mistakes - do take the time to reflect and learn from them.
Consider learning activities as building blocks which can be arranged in many ways.
Regularly ask yourself, "what is really being taught?"
If you can't come up with a clear answer, probably most students can't either.
Respect your students.
Be disciplined by love.
Experiment.
Keep your classes creative.
Focus on your top priorities; don't try to micromanage.
Believe in yourself and your students.
Teach with passion.
Regard teaching as something you love to do, not merely get paid to do.
If you don't feel excited about what you teach - teach it differently.
Encourage students to participate in ways that allow them to teach others.
Be alert to unexpected opportunities.
Encourage excellence - don't force it; be a teacher rather than a police officer.
Have a life.
Get outside of the classroom regularly.
Stay fresh.
If your energy is low, do things differently.
Let your students do the talking most of the time.
In your zeal to teach "the lesson" don't forget to teach your students.
Covering the material is important - but so is discovering it, too.
(Ver. 2.0 - Nov. 2, 1998)
www.tnewfields.info/Articles/2BATeacher.htm
Copyright (c) 1998 by Tim Newfields
