A good teacher is like a boy scout… Always prepared!
Teaching is a profession where you have to be very versatile. Through personal experience, I have had to deal with all kinds of situations and adapt accordingly in order the deliver the best possible lessons. I will break my experiences up into short paragraphs that will give you an idea of what I mean and will hopefully help you with you planning in the future.
The Surroundings
Through personal experience, the surroundings in which you teach in can change at the drop of a hat! You think you are going to be teaching in the hall all day, lovely big surroundings in which the children can be as loud as they like with the instruments… and then you are told five minutes before you teach the children that you are now in the classroom with them. A completely different atmosphere, a smaller room which means louder noise, a tighter space to work in which means restrictions, and a trickier behavioural management set up as you have all the instruments set up in close proximity. The solution is simple! Make sure you have at least two lesson plans ready, one for the hall and one for the classroom. These can even be identical plans with minor details such as structural differences. The same results can be achieved in either room with careful planning, just be prepared.
The Equipment
How many times have I had PowerPoint presentations prepared for lessons, or in the past OHPs lined up for lessons, and the technology has let me down!!! Even simple things like a CD not loading properly or the internet not loading up, thus stealing from me the great singing lesson I had planned for the children. The truth is… Technology isn’t 100% reliable. Technical hitches happen, and more often than not, they will happen when you are being observed. Ask yourself how you could conduct the same lesson without the use of technologies, and if you can still continue your lesson, you are on your way to teaching perfection!
The Children
The little bundles of joy have good days and bad days, they have off days and on days, they have noisy days they have quiet days! What’s important is how you as the teacher get them noisy and inspired when they are quiet, or settle them down when you are resorting to paracetamol. The ultimate goal of the teacher is to make the children ‘tick’ and pass on knowledge. Find out what their niche is and use it, adapting as and when needed.
The Teachers and staff
Sulky staff can be the bane of anyone’s day. The children get it in the neck, the other teachers get it in the neck, and usually the other half indoors also gets it in the neck. If a teacher gets a bee in the bonnet, nobody is safe!!! The important thing to remember is that they are human too! Listen to them whine before you take on their class that are completely off on one, where they have been shouted at for most of the day. The class, if a good one, will be thankful of the fresh-faced teacher in the class that has come to teach something exciting, and the moody teacher will be doing cartwheels that not only have you let them confide in you, you are relieving them of their class for an hour or so. Everybody has a bad or off day from time to time, and a good teacher will pick up the slack from off day teachers.
Just a couple of little helping tips by Andy T (why not discuss your experiences on the brand new 1st Note Education Forum)