Teaching Tips for New Middle School Teachers
Holly
Hargraves, English Teacher,
Recognize that middle school students’ biggest fears are:
- Getting lost
- Failing a class
- Having a mean teacher
- Not being able to go to the bathroom!
Consider what your students are feeling as they go down the hall towards your class.
- Your general manner towards them
- A warm and comfortable classroom – clean, tidy, decorated, and always changing
- Display their work!
- A managed, controlled classroom
- Your classroom should be a safe oasis for kids- a place where they
will be treated with dignity no matter what their grades are like
INFO on Cooperative Learning and Effective Instruction
Deal with discipline
- Use a quiet voice – save yelling for emergencies.
- Take a student in the hall for quiet discussions.
- Describe the behavior and its impact on your teaching and learning
- Never confront a student in the hall during passing times when he or she is surrounded by other students
- Never lose control – paste a smile on your face and move on.
- Avoid sending kids to the office as a form of discipline
Encourage good listening
- Wait until the students are quiet before beginning to speak, always!
- “May I have your attention please?” Then WAIT quietly. (And avoid that coaching style phrase, “LISTEN UP!”)
- Train kids to hold their questions until after the instructions are given. (Have a sign Hold Your Questions and don’t call on them.)
- Insist that other students are quiet when other students are asking questions.
- If chattering starts up during a lecture or Q & A, stop talking and wait quietly until they get the hint
- Watch “off track” or personal questions designed to get you going in another direction.
Teachers’ Most Difficult Problems
Parents
- Contact them if there is a problem, and document it by noting date and time of call, or by making a copy of something sent home.
- Don’t respond to nasty notes – but show them to your supervisor.
- Remember that 98% of the parents are wonderful and supportive.
Make up work – Absenteeism
- “Three Then Me” Have kids check with a buddy, read someone’s assignment book, and check the board for missed work; then they should verify it with you.
- Put the assignments on the board and keep them there for the week – along with classwork.
- Keep a bin for extra copies of handouts, etc. for students who ask about makeup work.
Miscellaneous Tips
- Don’t leave students alone by themselves in the classroom.
- Vary your speech in tempo and moderation. Use pauses. Practice this.
- Joke around with your students, but don’t tell lame jokes!
- Dress “older” than you are (if you are young.)
- Be confident! (Kids are like dogs; they can smell your fear.)
- Honor the custodians and secretaries
- Open your plan book at the end of every day and quickly assess how your lessons went - jot down notes for next year
- Know your state standards: Keep a notebook, a chart, or a within-reach "cheat sheet" near your planbook.
- If you are male, don’t be alone in the room with a female student unless you can be seen from the hallway, and leave the door open.
- Learn the "secrets" of the school - eg. There are sometimes restricted, but unmarked parking spots reserved for the secretary; the principal hates it when teachers have coffee cups on their desks...
- Stay away from the wizened, hardened, negative angry types, and
- Find, and latch onto the eager, brilliant, creative, and happy types - and try to observe them and the way they handle kids, parents, etc.
- RE. Faculty Meetings: Listen and learn. Severely limit your questions
and comments at faculty meetings. Write your questions down to ask
someone later - and hold your comments. Why? It's complicated, and
I don't think you will be happy with this answer, and I am sorry about
that. You will make a lot of quick enemies if you do anything to prolong
a faculty meeting with what will be perceived as "rookie"
comments or naive questions. Trust me.
Keep your job!
- Get involved, go to games, plays, concerts, and volunteer…
- Don’t use your sick days unless you need them
- Avoid taking off Mondays and Fridays
- Arrive early, leave late
- Dress up – look professional, even if others dress down
- Take care of your own discipline problems, unless extreme
holly@hollyhargraves.com