Education
Ideal Classroom Mantras for the Recent Times
Keeping students excited about the school can be a challenge. Small things can go a long way in increasing your students’ interest in school. To help keep things fresh, we have rounded up some teacher-tested tips for rebooting the classroom of the best schools in Riyadh:
1. Talk less and question more: Break monologues with active learning opportunities. Turn lectures into conversations and make sure your students are actively participating in those conversations. Rephrase what you heard the student say. It tells the student that you are paying attention.
2. There is no effective learning without engagement: Teachers must create interest in the subject matter in the mind of the students. It is up to the instructor to appeal to students’ curiosity and demonstrate that the material is relevant and applicable to solving future problems. Class engagement is crucial if you want your teaching to become an effective experience for your students.
3. Teaching is not only about creating and delivering content: Learning requires the students to practise skills, engage in inquiry, process information and solve problems, and apply knowledge. Therefore, teaching is not only about you delivering lectures but also about how much your students absorb from those lectures.
4. Make your classroom a caring community: Do what you can to foster a sense of connection between you, your students, and the whole class. Encourage cooperation and always show compassion.
5. Make sure you understand your students: Understanding the students’ mindset is also crucial. It includes understanding the depth of their knowledge, interests, confusions, misunderstandings, and concerns they bring to your classroom. Monitor their learning and continually adapt to their learning needs.
6. Remember that grading can be demeaning: Signs can serve many positive functions. They define levels of success, and they can motivate. They can push the limits of students to do their best and serve as a reward for good performance. They can provide feedback to students on how well they have mastered the material.
However, grades can also cause stress and anxiety. They may encourage students to achieve good grades at the expense of meaningful learning and can make students cheat. They can damage students’ self-esteem. They can turn learning into a competition.
It makes sense to change the meaning and purpose of marks. Grades don’t have to be subjective. Part of the rubric’s value is that it helps instructors specify the competencies students need to demonstrate and the expectations students should meet.
Also, avoid using grades to rank or sort. Grades should tell students how they are doing. We can think of grades as indicators of progress, as measures of where students are on their academic journey, and as an assessment of the quality of a particular task at a particular time. Don’t forget to combine grades with feedback and practical advice to help students perform better.
7. Feedbacks are always the most important thing: To be useful, feedback must be timely, appropriate, honest, supportive, enabling, reflective, and empowering.
8. Asking students to demonstrate their learning: This should be done through tests and creative projects. Interesting examples include a policy brief, environmental assessment, exhibition, editorial, podcast, or video story.
9. Mix up routines: Think about your routines and how they could change a little. Students of the best schools in Riyadh are getting a new format for their independent reading record sheets in January, switching from paper to postcards. The change will keep them interested and spark a new sense of purpose in the activity.
10. Offer brain breaks: Incorporate a yoga-style stretch, jogging in place, or jumping jacks when you have a minute to spare. Use a brain-break video whenever you have time.
11. Introduce new books: Take time to read and introduce new books to students. Every January, The American Library Association announces its Newbery, Caldecott, Siebert, and other literary awards. Teachers must consider how to incorporate such quality literature into their core lessons to keep things fresh.
12. Redecorate and organise: Teachers should think about flipping the layout of two parts of the classroom, such as the classroom library and the guided reading area, or introducing some new design elements, such as a plant or a new lamp. Students will notice the change. And involve students in design decisions. Allow them to help you with the changes you make. If there is often a crowding at the faculty cubicles, ask the children to help come up with ideas to alleviate the problem.