Tips & Tricks for Effective Teaching

As a teacher you may be putting in your best effort in preparing your material and giving your 100% to teaching, still you may be disappointed to find that the students are not showing as much interest in your class as you expect. They are sitting there and listening silently, but you can feel that the learning is not taking place, and it all seems to be a waste of effort to you. This problem gets multiplied when due to lockdown you need to take virtual class over internet. 

What is going wrong here and what can you do to remedy it? Here are some tips that you may find helpful to overcome this situation and make your teaching session more effective.

First of all, you need to examine your beliefs and attitude about teaching. What do you think is your task as a teacher? To educate your students? That is only a part of your role. Your role as a teacher includes positively engaging the students so that participate actively in the learning process. Once you see it in this light, you will take the necessary steps to engage the class during your teaching, which will transform your class completely.

How do you ensure student engagement? You should think carefully about the students' emotional needs and put them ahead of your own.  At the emotional level, the student has a number of needs that you need to keep in mind. If these needs go unfulfilled, the students get disengaged. When you address these needs while teaching in your class, you make an strong emotional connect with the students, which creates a smooth flow of information from you to them. From that point onwards, learning and teaching becomes an engaging activity in the class. 

Here are some of the emotional needs of the student I am talking about:

To Learn Something Interesting and Useful
Make sure to tell your students about the things they can do when they have learnt the subject you are teaching. Inspire them by telling them how interesting and useful the subject is and how much they are going to enjoy learning it. One of the sure shot way to create enthusiasm in students is to be enthusiastic about it yourself, that way it it easily transferred to the class. 

To Enjoy the Process of Learning
Try to make learning an enjoyable process for the students. Excite them with possibilities and do not dampen their spitits with excessive rules. Have fun while teaching and encourage the students to have fun too. This does not mean that there is no discipline in the class. You can still maintain decorum and discipline while enjoying the process of learning.

To be Noticed and Acknowledged
Generally you get the name of all the students right in the first class. Try your best to remember their names, and use a few names in every class to make a connect. This may be difficult to do, but it is a must for you as a teacher. Even after several sessions if you tell an student that you do not know his name, it makes him feel that he is not noticed at all. 

To Feel Needed, Appreciated, and Valued
Make your session as much interactive as you can and avoid making it a one-way lecture. Each student wants to feel as important as anyone else in the class. Don't just pay all attention to the extrovert students who are eager to answer your question, but involve everyone. The natural tendency of some students may be to stay quiet until you specifically nudge them. Spot such students and make sure to encourage them to participate. 

To Feel Safe, Empowered, at Ease 
Create a healthy and supportive environment in the class. It is okay to make mistakes and have wrong answers as they are learning. Don't be judgmental or critical when you correct them.

To Have a Role Model 
A teacher serves as a role model for the students. It does not imply that the teacher has to be perfect in every aspect, but it means that the students watch the teacher carefully and learn as much from his behavior as they learn from what he says. If you want the students to be there on time, make sure you reach on time too. If you want them to be respectful, show them the way by being respectful yourself. 

To summarize, if you make sure to have a bit of empathy with the students while teaching, it will go a long way to transform you into a teacher who is loved by his students.