
Praise your students – Nothing beats it when it comes to encouraging students. Praise them verbally and in written modes. Praise them whenever appropriate – Do not shy away or let your ego come in the way of praising kids. Send notes to their parents through the students giving them an avenue to celebrate their success at home. Arrange for a mini awards ceremony within the class when you feel peer recognition will make a difference
2. Set Realistic Expectations and Celebrate when they are met
Set long term goals for the students and short term goals towards achieving the long term goals. Reveal only the short term goals to the students till they are able to grasp the concept of long term goals. Work towards helping them achieve the short term goals and celebrate when they meet these milestones.
3. Let the students feel your passion and excitement
Excitement is contagious and it needs to stem from the teacher. A teacher brimming with excitement has won half the battle in ensuring that the content he/she teaches is absorbed by the students.
4. Vary your teaching methods
Monotonous teachers are boring and can even become the butt of jokes. Vary your style. Start your class with a small game at times. End your class with a surprise quiz. Vary your styles of teaching and it is sure to reap you rewards.
5. Facilitate, Don't dominate
Today’s students get a lot of exposure via media, internet and other avenues that were not existent a decade or two back. Most of the times students need to connect the dots and they grasp the message. A teacher’s role in facilitating and ensuring that this happens is a lot more appreciated by students and parents alike rather than a dominating teacher who feels that she or he is right always.
6. Make Topics Practical
Topics taught need to resonate with the students inherent curiosity of why something is worth learning. Even a drab subject needs to be spiced up and portrayed in the context of everyday things to ensure the practicality aspect is well understood.
7. Point Success milestones to your students
Students often tend to miss their personal milestones while trying to catch up with the rest of the students in the class. A teach has to keep tabs on individual milestones and ensure the students realize that they have reached specific milestones and that development is a continuous journey.
8. Get out of the Textbook
Textbook teaching is pretty boring. A good teacher needs to grasp the essence of the lesson and distil it for her / his students. They have to get down to real life examples that allow the students to gasp “Aahaa…We never thought of this!!!”.