Keeping your students engaged in learning is one of the core objectives of the educator. An engaged student is a student that is learning. This goal should be first and foremost when you are preparing to teach a unit. Planning is essential in teaching. Discovering what works and what doesn’t can be a trial and error process, but of course because curriculum is so tight knit and concentrated – a lot of trial and error cannot take place. You as an educator need to be able to plan effectively. Below are some rough guidelines that will help you to use your planning time effectively and to make the most of each unit that you are teaching.

1. GET TO THE CORE of the unit. Understanding the content and uses of the unit are very important parts of meeting the learning objectives. Each unit will have many activity opportunities, take advantage of those opportunities that are going to engage the students and enhance learning. Avoid using activities that just take up time with busy work but do not lend any support to the unit.

2. REVIEW YOUR CONTENT OUTLINES so that you can use the content outlines to brain storm ideas that will result in coming up with activities that will motivate the students to learn. Challenging the students will motivate them and stir their curiosity about the subject.

3. PUT BRAINSTORMING INTO ACTION. Once you have decided where you want the lesson to go and have some ideas to entice your students into learning, put your ideas into action. You have to give consideration to the types or learners you have in the class and try to plan to accommodate all of them. Try to plan the unit so that you can engage all the different type of learners.

4. BE SURE TO USE VARIETY, it is the spice of life and of learning! Taking several different approaches to the same unit and using several different learning tools can really pump up the learning. Quantity and quality combined will make a huge difference in the learning outcomes. The key is to use variety and to make sure that the variety is all geared toward the same learning goal. There are plenty of materials that can be used in the classroom to facilitate learning, take advantage of what is available and switch things up once in a while. Standing in front of a board and reading out loud or having students copy stuff over and over will certainly work but it is forced learning, which may or may not be stored for the long term.

5. ALWAYS HAVE FUN with what you are teaching. The best teachers know that their enthusiasm is contagious. Students will immediately pick up whether you are enjoying what you do or not. Students will feed off positive involvement from their teacher. Think of it this way, when you feel like you are doing a great job it encourages you to do a better job, and it is the same with students and learning. Motivation takes all shapes and forms, but it is far quicker to catch flies with honey than it is to catch them with vinegar. If you want your students to enjoy learning and put on a positive face then give them a positive face to look at.

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Category: Education
Keywords: teaching, teacher, teacher tips, classroom management, motivation, motivating children