TheApple

From elementary to high school, managing behavior is by far the most difficult part of being a teacher. Problem behaviors come in a variety of forms, from a young child hitting to a teenager disrupting your lesson. Children also come to school with a variety of emotional and life challenges, which may make their problem behaviors seem complex and difficult to ...

Being a first year teacher can be overwhelming to say the least. There is new curriculum to learn, unfamiliar school policies, classroom management challenges, and new teammates. Technology can help to ease some of these first year growing pains. 1. Develop a Personal Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter. Twitter is an excellent place for new teachers to connect, collaborate, share ideas, ...

The single most important element of a successful classroom is a teacher who designs assignments that keep the students engaged in learning. It helps if these assignments are also fun to complete. Disciplines issues including acting out, tardiness to class, and even failing students can be minimized and maybe even eliminated IF you, the teacher, think innovatively and make a focused ...

You've completed your lessons for the day, but you still have some time left and a group of eager students with nothing productive to do. What can you do in this time to keep your class under control until the bell rings? Here is a list of 10 things to do when you only have 5 minutes left in class. h4. ...

We all know the type of kid; he or she may be your biggest headache. They are hostile to you and their peers, they don’t seem to listen, and don’t do what they are told. Its almost like they want to upset you. It seems like the more you try to manage them the more they resist…. Sound Familiar? Students with ...

No matter how many years of experience you have under your belt, there are certain things that teachers should never do. Not only are the things on this list pushing the ethical envelope, they could also be damaging to your career. I'm sure TheApple readers could help make this list longer, but I've narrowed it to ten things I feel are ...

The most dreaded word in school reading for students: book reports. Teachers assign them, viewing them as a necessary component of assessing reading comprehension. Book reports can be a contributing factor to 'readicide'. "Read-i-cide n: The systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools." http://stenhouse.com/html/readicide.htm. So, how can we as teachers continue ...

Quote #1:If kids come to us from strong, healthy functioning families, it makes our job easier. If they do not come to us from strong, healthy, functioning families, it makes our job more important. -Barbara Colorose Continue to Quote #2 → [page] Quote #2:Teachers affect eternity; no one can tell where their influence stops. Henry Brooks Adams Continue to Quote ...

How do I handle students who always test the rules? I basically give the kids a free pass to misbehave once before getting in trouble. I give a warning at the beginning of the year and from then on, any misbehavior is fair game to punishment. When I first was learning how to do it, I would have the kids call ...

“Relax and quietly sit in your seat.” There is nothing more challenging for a teacher than starting class off on the right track. It often feels like trying to change the course of a steam ship with a wooden paddle. But it’s not impossible to start off right and stay on-task for the entire class period or school day even with ...

Seriously. This really isn't a joke...it sounds funny, but really, it is somewhat tragic. Every single time I attempt a science experiment, without fail, the science experiment will either fail or yield some bizarre results that end up reinforcing the exact opposite idea in my students. Last year, because of an experiment gone wrong, I may have inadvertently taught an entire ...

This past Tuesday, I took a day off of school. This is not normal for me, and I even had to fight my urge to go up to school and make sure things were running smoothly. I even drove up to the school and chose not to get out of the car. Why? Because I had a chance where I knew ...

One of the major benefits of using technology in the classroom is the ability to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of every student in every lesson. Just as every student grows and develops at different rates, they learn in different ways and at different speeds. Technology makes it possible to pace lessons appropriately for each student's learning level and can ...

Millions of school-age students in America live in poverty. You don’t have to teach in a blighted urban area or a depressed rural region to teach students who are from a poor family. The lives of poor students are often very different from those of their more affluent peers. They cannot look forward to an abundance of presents on their birthday. ...

Some days it feels like the sharks are circling. Teaching is a challenge, especially the first few years. But for some, the dangers are more daunting than for others. Here are some colleagues whose first years were truly extreme, but they survived—and they're still at it. h3. Stage Fright During her first few weeks of teaching, Connye Lacombe struggled to be ...

This week's question for Julia is from a member who has just begun a teacher certification program and isn't sure what happens when you first become a teacher. *_Dear Julia,_* I have just begun a teacher certification program. What I want to know is what happens after you are hired and before the school year starts? Are you shown to your ...

Congratulations! First of all, I want to congratulate you on taking the first step of this journey toward becoming a great teacher! I can’t even begin to describe for you the exciting possibilities that await you as you move through these lessons and begin to come over to the other side. If your experiences are anything like mine as I ...

I teach my students the importance of collaboration to their further studies. I teach them this because I know how much collaboration has aided me in continuing my education, but I also know how much collaboration is involved when working in the “real world.” But I also stress to them the differences between cheating and collaboration. Let me start with a ...

Award-winning veteran teachers have supplied a set of tips to pass on to their first-year colleagues. Some recurring suggestions: contact parents in the beginning of the school year, fostering a friendly rapport before problems arise; be well prepared for class; and model and enforce rules of courtesy and respect. Here are a few samples of veteran teachers' tips: Consistency—do what you ...

As a school psychologist, I get many little notes in my mailbox when I enter my school building. They are usually cryptic and anonymous: Check in with Darius. He’s sad Susana wrote in her journal that she wanted to hurt herself. Can you see her? Not signed. No last names. Detective Branstetter is on the case. One I got the a ...