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The First Year Teaching: Resolving classroom conflict

By Matthew Lynch There is bound to be some tension at some point in your classroom, no matter how organized or even how well-behaved your students. Conflict can easily arise between you and your students, or among them. It is part of the job of contemporary teachers to ensure that their students resolve conflict without verbal or physical attacks. You will need to teach the students that open discussion and empathy are the right ways to go about resolving conflicts. Instead of punishing students, you should try to share the power with students so that they learn to work on a …

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A Metric for the Big Picture: The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

Obtaining a National Board Certification is every teacher’s professional dream. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching created the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBTS) in 1987. The aim was to create a set of high standards for teachers and to certify teachers who meet those standards. The Carnegie Foundation has also established four steps in the career ladder of a teacher. These include the licensed teacher, the national board-certified teacher, the advanced teacher, and the lead teacher, based on several parameters. The following are the requirements for applying for a national board certification: 1. Met all degree …

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Designer Learning Experiences: Bridging the Gap for Low-Income and Minority Students

The number of minority students outweighs the number of white students—yet underrepresented minorities still often face a worse quality education than their white counterparts. It’s prime time to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population, and fortunately, as a society, we are actively looking for ways to do just that. As of 2014, minorities have been projected to be over 50 percent of the K-12 student population, according to the U.S. Education Department’s Nation Center for Education Statistics. In the fall of 2014, about 49.8 million students attended public elementary and secondary schools. Of these students, 35.1 million were …

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Hope for High School Dropouts: How Increasing Graduation Rates Will Transform Our Country

Are math and science killing our high school graduation rates? More rigorous math and science requirements for high school graduation are in place. At the same time, dropout rates in this country are up. Is this a coincidence? Research back to 1990 showed that the US dropout rate rose to a high of 11.4 percent when students were required to take six math and science courses, compared with 8.6 percent for students who needed less math and science courses to graduate. The dropout rate is up to 5 percentage points higher when gender, race, and ethnicity are considered. Andrew Plunk, …

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15 Tips To Take The Stress Out Of Teacher Evaluations

Across the United States, teacher education programs do the hard work of training tomorrow’s educators for the classroom. But with only so many hours in the day, it’s hard for professors to cover all the intricacies of the teaching profession. This survival tip will cover the often overlooked but very important subject of teacher evaluations. For many new teachers, the fear of being evaluated is a clear and present danger; not because they lack confidence, but because of the fear of the unknown. Each school system has a process for measuring and evaluating its teachers. In most districts, all teachers …

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The First Year Teaching: The desist approach to classroom discipline

By Matthew Lynch As you look for your own way of operating your classroom efficiently, there are several styles of teaching discipline to consider. One that is often used because of its easy-to-implement practices is the “desist” approach. Unlike the self-discipline approach where students are responsible, the desist approach places teachers as the responsible ones. This approach can be viewed as a power system, as teachers have the power and they set the specific rules to give students discipline and correct students’ behaviors. Here is how this method is put into practice: Assertive Discipline This approach bases itself on the …

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The First Year Teaching: Getting to know your students

By Matthew Lynch During the early days of your teaching career, it can be easy to get overwhelmed by the all the tasks associated with your occupation, and to forget the real reason you are in the classroom: your students. Good relationships with students will help you to create and maintain an effective learning environment. If students see that you truly care, they will trust you and want to learn what you are teaching. It is for these reasons that your relationship with your students is crucial for effective classroom management. As every student is different in many ways, from …

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The First Year Teaching: Should I join educational associations?

By Matthew Lynch New teachers will sooner or later consider the option of joining an educational association. The groups not only provide support, but also continuing education for teachers. There are two main associations in America, and several smaller ones that are also worth consideration. NEA With approximately 3 million members, headquartered in Washington D.C., and having affiliates in every state and a total of more than 14,000 local affiliates, The National Education Association’s history datess back to 1857. Historically, one of the NEA’s main goals has been to nationalize the American school system. Its first meeting was held in …

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The First Year Teaching: How do I handle misbehavior?

By Matthew Lynch New teachers will find that one of the most frustrating parts of teaching is classroom misbehavior. This misbehavior is easy to identify, but finding the solution to effectively deal with it by finding the causes may be more difficult. As misbehavior will continue if not successfully dealt with the first few times, teachers need to get to the root of the problems that are the causes of students’ misbehavior as soon as possible (Moore, 2008). Teachers should take close looks into students’ behaviors to find the influential factors that are shaping students’ behavioral patterns. Consider Background Factors …

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The First Year Teaching: How will I motivate my students?

By Matthew Lynch One of the pitfalls of motivating students is that teachers are too fixated on curriculum. Teachers are afraid that when students fall behind the set curriculum, it will be reflected on external examinations. Your goal as the teacher is to prepare students for their later lives, and to educate and guide them for further learning and fulfillment — which means not everything should be about what a test will show. Connecting curriculum with the real world The challenge for teachers to make classroom learning interesting and fit the curriculum has always existed.  Even over a century ago, the reform …

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