You Are Not a Bad Teacher If Your Lessons Look Like This
Guest Writer: Isabell Gaylord
As a teacher, you have a responsibility to inspire your students. If your students are bored, it makes your job that much harder. For decades, educators have been trying new techniques to get students excited about learning. Explore the following ways to keep your lessons interesting and your students engaged.
Relate the material to your students’ lives
Relate your teaching topics to their lives and give them concrete examples to show how they are relevant. When they understand the relevance to their own lives, they will naturally be more engaged. If they’re always asking you why they need to learn something and you just say “because,” it is not a good enough answer.
Students will always respond more if it is something they can relate to. For example, read them a dilemma and have them write a short response about what they’d do in a certain situation.
One Sticky Situation, for example, is about a young girl who receives a group text with mean photos of her friend. Your students will probably have a lot to say because they are exposed to similar situations in real life.
Aim for interactivity
The traditional style of teaching where you stand in front of a class and present a lesson has its limitations. It is much better if you can interact with students and there are some free tools you can use to collaborate on projects and assignments.
