Don’t smile before Christmas was the mantra
given to me as a trainee teacher. (I'm presuming don't smile before Easter in the southern hemisphere...)The idea being that you will not gain the
students’ respect unless you are a serious and austere individual. This is
outdated advice and will not serve you well with an emotionally intelligent,
world savvy student body.
Eye contact and a smile are the best way to
gain the confidence of your students. They need to know you are serious about
your subject, not serious about the world at large. A classroom without
smiling, laughter and joy is one that will suck the life from the subject.
Remembering names is a skill that some can
master without thinking but others suffer with constantly. By remembering their
names you are making a connection with them and their identity. They will be
more responsive to a teacher that doesn’t resort to an impersonal ‘oi’ or ‘you’
when asking their students for answers to questions.
The easiest way to do it is to get the
students to wear name badges. However this is no substitute for the master of
techniques. Having a student say their name before they ask a question and then
saying it back when you answer, force yourself to use their names every time
you converse and smile when you don’t remember and ask politely. It is
important that the students have their identity just as you have yours.
Do
not back down from the challenge of learning the names of your students. By
respecting their identity you gain more from them in the classroom.
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