Every school wants to be a place that creates intelligent and happy students who are hopeful for the future. You want to be a great stepping stone in their lives that propels them on to greater things. The better the students, the better you will feel, and that means a lot. It is your career, after all, and knowing that you have done your part in securing a brighter future for the country is extremely meaningful. A good school which turns out great students may even have the benefit of being able to ask for greater funding, too; you never know. The thing is, it is not all about state-of-the-art equipment and facilities; it is also about the methods you employ to teach and how much attention you pay to certain areas of the school that are conducive to learning. To help you out, here are a few ideas:
The Basics
When it comes to learning, if you have not taken care of the basics, then the children are not going to be in the best place to learn. This means you need a decent school heating system and an air con system in the summer. Being too hot can mean that the children feel sleepy, and too cold, they will be shivering and using too much energy just to stay warm. You need the temperate to be between 18°C and 23°C. Basically, it needs to be at a temperature that no one notices the temperature. Also, consider the seating and the tables. Are the seats comfortable enough to stop the children fidgeting, and are the desk at the right height to allow for good work?
Declutter
If your school rooms are filled with clutter, this can cause a lot of visual stimuli that can overload your pupil’s senses and distract them from the lesson. They may start concentrating on the objects rather than the lesson, and some children may start to feel stressed and anxious as a result. If the classroom is very cluttered, you can even cause injuries by creating trip hazards. It may also make it very difficult to find anything in the classroom. This will also be affecting the tach too, maybe even more so. Meaning that they are not teaching to the best of their ability. So it would be best if you operated a zero-clutter policy. Get filing cabinets to place anything you need to keep and do away with anything that is cluttered. Do you have a store room you can place a lot of the things you do not need? Can you sell anything on?
Cleanliness
You need your schools to be clean and tidy. The cleanliness of your school shows how much you are and can either lift up a student or bring them down. So, it would help if you had the school cleaned every day and in the holidays have deep cleans. You don’t want graffiti anywhere or old chewing gum, etc. All this can bring down the appeal of the school and may even turn some parents away. Another thing to consider is that you need the school cleaned regularly to ensure that it is a healthy environment for your pupils and your teachers. There is going to be a wide variety of health ailments, from asthma to diabetes. If you allow mould to grow, for example, this can affect the health of the students, especially those with respiratory problems. You do not want to get sued for damaging the children’s health.
Use a Lot of Strategies
You cannot use one block method of teaching and expect it to work for every pupil. Everyone learns differently, and that means you may need to be a little creative in your approach. So, you should try and employ a lot of different resources. You can allow children to work in pairs, in groups or on their own. Perhaps you can experiment with movement and music to help solidify concepts in the mind of your students. Don’t underestimate how effective this can be. Think about teaching groups and individuals as well as full classes. Perhaps the teacher can relay a concept to the class, then go around the tables with the teaching assistant on separate tables to embed the knowledge further and answer questions. Why not video yourself teaching a concept and add this to a student portal where they can access this at any point? You could use methods like getting the students to teach something to the teacher, or many they can run activities that the teacher and teaching assistant must be involved with. If you get a little creative with your teaching methods, you may find it a lot more effective and a lot more interesting and fun for all concerned, including the teachers.
Make Learning Meaningful
Sometimes your students will become disinterested in a subject merely because they feel that it holds no relevance to their lives. You need to get to know your students better in order to teach them more effectively. That means you need to understand what motivates them. If you can align your lessons with their interests, dreams, desires, and goals in life, then you are going to be able to connect with them better. Use a range of ways to do this, including metaphors, similies, and stories to make the lesson come alive in their minds. If you can be passionate about a subject using things within the realm of their experience, you are going to have more engaged students.
Have Faith in Your Students
Believing in your students and letting them know this is a great way to get them to try harder. It is important that you communicate your faith to every single one of your students. Praise them and show them their positives and how you value their work. All this will help them develop a mindset of positivity, that they can do something worthwhile and succeed. Remember, you may be the only person in their lives doing this. So, your role in building their confidence is very important.