1. When teaching in blocks of one and a half hours, take frequent pauses. Students are not machines, they need frequent periods of rest. Know when to stop. There is no point in going on teaching even when the students are zoned out!
2. Vary your teaching strategy, make it more interactive. Students are not single-track, rote-learning machines.
3. Encourage students to get up from their seats, move around, encourage gallery walks, or tell them to jump up high (their brains need a strong flow of fresh blood.
4. Encourage students to come up to the Green Board and take up the mantle of a teacher. They need to feel partners in the teaching and learning process!
5. Show them an interesting video, it could be related to what is being taught, or even something funny.
6. Become a student, connect to them and make teaching a joyful adventure! Remember, you learn as much from your students as they do from you. Learning new perspectives, creative alternative possibilities are all part of the adventure of learning as a two-way process!
8. In times when giving exams is merely about marks, back off from your demands of a magical 95/100, it is OK to let them know that you will respect them irrespective of the marks they get.
9. It is OK to have fun in class! Talk to students about other things such as interests and hobbies.
11. It is very important to "touch base" with students before really launching into the lesson.
12. Often the teacher's anxiety to complete the syllabus gets transmitted to the students. Remember, you can only get the content across to the students if they are relaxed and eager to learn, so just relax, gauge the mood and then move into the lesson remembering not to rush up.
13. Student success is to a great extent dependent on how happy they are in class. Happiness and joy in learning come from happy teachers. The best way to increase engagement in class is to be approachable, non-threatening and vulnerable yourself as a teacher. Be Human!
14. Never ever confront or challenge a student who doesn't agree with your point of view. It is better to fix some time out of class so that the others might not be exposed to unpleasantness. Use a parking ticket, tell the student that you will do some research, postpone the flashpoint.
15. In many cases, what might seem a rather confrontationist attitude might just be the unthinking honesty of a curious student who wants to explore out of the box options. Appreciate the workings of a curious mind of a student and offer the student opportunities to explore research on the topic. Do this even if you know the student is wrong. This is a learning opportunity that a teacher must never let go. Let the student learn by himself that he or she might be off the track.
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