Becoming discouraged with teaching is understandable, giving the nature of the today’s education system. Sometimes there seems to be no clear goal to close the achievement gap. Countless strategies and theories have failed to make a difference. However, all things are possible to teachers who believe that the educational system can be revitalized to effectively reach all students, regardless of conditions. However, teachers must eliminate the top three erroneous beliefs.
Many No Longer think Students Can Learn with Joy
Because of the stress of teaching, many new educators have giving up on inspiring students to learn with joy. In fact, many don’t believe that it can be done anymore. Instead of seeing the joy of learning on the students face, teachers meet with frowns and groans of resistance and boredom on the part of students. They are becoming less and less interested in setting at a desk and listening to the teacher lecture them.
However, the right thing to do is to keep hope alive. You must believe that students can learn with joy if the right school environment and atmosphere exist. Administrators and teachers must come up with new, innovative ways to teach students. Some schools are experimenting with holding outdoor classes and other creative strategies for getting students outside the classroom.
Frequent science projects, fieldtrips or community engagement are a few of the strategies designed get student’s back interested in learning. The more the teacher can design wonderful experiences for their students the more students will desire to be part of a joyful learning experience.
Many No Longer Think Students can Achieve beyond Expectations
Due to a number of outside temptations competing for student’s attention, many teachers feel that it is impossible to get students motivated to achieve beyond expectations. Facebook, Twitter, You tube and other social media sites such as Instagram have captivated the minds of today’s students. You can hardly go into a high school classroom without seeing 90% of the students with smartphones.
These social media outlets do pose a high degree of competition. Nevertheless, with the right tools educators can compete for the minds of the students. Virtue schools and learning software can be improved to make the school day magical.
Giving students the virtual learning experience is the hallmark of the future. The lure of new technology and the obsession with it cannot be ignored among school administrator and teachers. The classroom must catch up and do it quickly an order to motivate students to achieve beyond expectation.
Many No Longer Think that Parents Want to be Involved
Many new teachers give up due to not getting enough parents involved in student learning. We can all agree that parent participation in a child’s education is highly significant. Children value the inspiration of their parent more than the encouragement of a hundred teachers.
However, as an avid educator, I witness, on a constant basis that parents are a no show 80% of the times when it comes to parent/teacher conferences. So what can a teacher do to get parents more involved in their child’s education?
The simplest answer is to keep trying to reach the parents in one way or another.
Teachers who have been successful in connecting with parents have used a number of strategies. For, example, some teachers develop a personal relationship with parents by interacting with them outside of school hours. Speeding extra weekend time with students or inviting the parent for a coffee outing can do wonders toward building strong relationships between teachers and parents.
However, this will take venturing outside of your comfort zone in order to make an attempt at winning the hearts of the parents. But the risk is well worth the effort, if it means getting parents on your team.
Teaching in America can become very discouraging at times. Students are becoming more and more challenging. Many classrooms have become social clubs where students like to talk 80% of the time while giving only 20% of focus. However, the willingness not to give up on teaching will help reach the life of a child who needs your love and care.
