Teaching Tips from Novels

Here are a few tips I learned from reading a couple education and teaching novels today... 

The Excellent 11 by Ron Clark

The more specific teachers are with students about expectations the more likely they are to live up to those expectations. One cannot simply tell a student to be more organized without telling them specifically how to improve because they may not have that common sense or drive, specifically with younger students.

One thing teachers can do to positively affect students’ lives is to be more aware of how they speak to them. Students see themselves reflected through their teachers eyes, and if we are constantly saying negative connotations about them they will believe that about themselves. 

Teaching Hope by Erin Gruwell

In this section of the book I read, an anonymous teacher shares a story of a time when she was able to help calm a crying student. The student was crying and she wasn’t able to reach him through all her “professional training”. She shares how eventually the only way she was able to help the student was through connecting with them on an personal level and relating to them, not just spitting out phrases and sympathies she had learned in a training class.