Whilst this may seem daunting, with teaching comes the responsibility of making the world a better place through educating our children. Teaching qualifications are fantastic for getting new teachers up to scratch in terms of teacher theory & curriculum knowledge, however, nothing can prepare a new teacher for actually crafting an impactful lesson.
What’s trickier is the dynamic age range between Year 7 and Year 11 in UK secondary schools – a differing crowd will change your lessons more so compared to your primary school contemporaries.
Here’s a few tips to get you started!
Confidence is key
Being confident helps with any job, however it is vital to succeeding in teaching a classroom full of rowdy children! Being confident in your abilities to teach will allow you to be confident that our pupils are making real progress. It’s a rich pattern.
Like anything, as a species we find it much easier to listen to a person who is confident compared to someone who is unsure and shy. Older students who will naturally be more adept at sensing any confidence issues, will certainly respond better to a firm, more robust style of teaching akin to a confident professional at the front of the class; whereas any insecurities that you show may leave you vulnerable to not being taken seriously by your students!
Learn what your pupils enjoy
Of course, teaching is a very serious subject, with a large amount of pressure on both the teacher and student to navigate the British educational system successfully. However, on a daily basis, pupils will respond better and are likely to learn more through ‘having fun’ instead of being constantly reminded about their life-changing GCSE exams that they will take in Year 11.
Make your lessons fun to make even the most uncompliant pupil learn without them realising! The trick is to reach the end of your lesson without your students waiting for the bell to go – they should be sad that the lesson is over if anything!
Share with & accept advice from others
If you are dry on the inspiration front, then there’s plenty of resources available online for teachers who are looking for new ideas. Being a teacher means being part of a wider community of other teachers. Collaborate with each other and come up with innovative techniques to make your lessons more impactful. A lot of people & advice can be found through Google – so don’t miss out.
Sharing your own tips with your colleagues as well as online teaching blogs will help establish you more within the teaching community – meaning people will come to you first with and for advice!
