#teacher tips

Last week’s winner: Number Talks

🥇 1. The Teacher is a Learner

You may find as a teacher, it can be seen as weakness if you don’t know something. Children feel the exact same most of the time! So show them that it’s okay not to know the answer all the time (even as an adult). It’s inspiring for the pupils to see that becoming a successful adult isn’t so far out of reach. 

🥈 2. Read children’s books!

After reading ‘Wonder’, I now see why the university was so keen to get us reading children’s literature. In Wonder’s case you look through the lens of a student and it is deeply inspiring to read. It also helps you relate to children more by being able to talk about stories children may know.  

🥉 3. Celebrate PROGRESS, not finished work

It may be tempting to judge a pupil’s ability based on the worksheets they are completing, but you shouldn’t do that! Children will often seek challenges (manageable ones) so this is why you be happy to see a child improve from week-to-week even if they are not ticking all the boxes right away.

Some other strategies…

How did “we” get there - as a teacher try not to single out someone by saying, “you”. Instead, when asking or answering a questions encourage the other children by using “we” in the sentence. It builds the relationship you have with your class and takes the pressure off of the person answering. 

Counting by 1s could be the reason a child is falling behind - as you can imagine, the larger the number, the longer it is going to take to count when answering sums. When going through sums, encourage children to find the more effective answer as some methods are slower and this might demotivate the children. 

Creativity outside - On my outdoor learning course, we learned that you can make art and be creative with just about anything. It can be a really freeing experience for children to express themselves. Picking up a pile of leaves and seeing it morph into something you’re proud of is actually very rewarding believe it or not.

Asking questions while reading - a simple, “what’s going to happen next?” will keep children engaged as well as build their skills [in the example’s case, prediction skills]

Make your success criteria with the pupils - if you AND your pupils create the success criteria, you and your pupils will have an element of shared understanding.

Tea Party at Number 10 -  a great activity for counting which shows the term “bridging through ten” in action. Children when given a sum have to jump to each lillypad and pit stop at the multiples of 10. 

Hope this helps!