Strategies and Nuances of the Teaching Job

Vinod Kakumanu
Aug. 21, 2018, 5:19 p.m.

Teachers are said to be the life of the classroom and their teaching methods are somewhat more important than any other thing in a student’s life because a teacher can make a student or break a student. Most of the teachers have different styles of teaching and with changes coming through with time, teachers are also trying to evolve their teaching styles to make it more interactive and student-friendly such that learning is, well, fun! The classroom is a vibrant setting where students and teachers from varied backgrounds come together to study, create and learn. Being an effective teacher needs you to be constantly updating your teaching techniques, no matter how long you have been teaching, the best teachers are those who have evolved with time and hence easily withstood time to remain one of the best.

Being a teacher, you should know that one method will not suit all the students, there need to be different methods of teaching for different people. Here are some strategies that we have found be beneficial in teaching different types of students:

Visuals – Visualization is one of the methods to give students a break from what you can call as monotonous teaching. Dull and boring teaching methods might take a back seat with visuals gaining prominence in pedagogical practice. Visuals give students a practical and more enhanced view on the topic and make learning much easier and fun. It also helps the student how to actually apply the learning they imbibe in school. Visualization can be effected through many forms viz. drawing diagrams, sticking or showing pictures, projecting pictures on smart boards, making models; basically, anything that makes the ongoing topic more interactive.
Behavior Management – Behavior management is also a very important aspect of learning in the classroom. A proper and well-behaved environment is very important in the classroom for all the students to get their chances to interact with the class or speak their mind or pose questions without hesitating and whenever they want to. Noisy misbehaved and disruptive class does not compose a good environment for learning or teaching. Thus to create an atmosphere of shared respect will be both beneficial for the students and the teachers.
Collaborative Learning – Values of collaborative learning are instilled in the students by organizing small activities in the classroom in which different students of various abilities or mixed abilities would work together towards a common goal. When the students verbally connect with other students and respond to them, they develop self-confidence and also enhance their communication skills which is one of the most important lessons of their lives. To this end, some activities that can be taken into consideration are projects related to current topics, some physical activities, group worksheets etc.
Inquiry-Based Learning – Inquiry-based learning refers to posing such questions that actually make the students think. It inspires them to think. Usually, the scenario is that the students are the ones asking the questions to the teachers but, for once, the scenario must be turned around and the teachers must ask some questions to the students might as well to just check their understanding of the chapter being taught currently. However, the questioning must be done to make the students pay attention to what is being taught. To encourage students to look deeper into their own ideas increases their problem-solving skills as well as helps them to gain a better understanding of the topic.
Personalized Teaching: Differentiating between your teaching abilities for different students by giving them different types of tasks according to their potential and abilities to make sure no one gets left behind. Assigning each student various tasks would mean that the ones who are good get stretched and the ones not doing good get the support they need. This can include making group worksheets and let the good ones work with relatively slower ones or various other measures can be taken.
Use of Technology: Coming to technology, installing various technologies in your classrooms is a unique and great way to make classroom learning more fun and interactive. The brownie points are given because in this century everyone is already surrounded by technology so incorporating them in the classroom is a great idea. Interactive whiteboards or laptops etc can be used to show images and videos which help students to visualize the concepts and apply it in the real world.

Teaching as a job brings a whole lot of pressure provided you take the role seriously because you are the one who can make or mar so many futures. To become an effective and good teacher is a difficult task but not the one that cannot be accomplished, we wish you luck for that and remember – evolving is the key!