Marmara Elt Resources

Teaching Tips for Teachers-Controlling Time
It can feel unsatisfactory to suddenly rush an activity at the end of a lesson, cramming stuff in, leaving out important stages or even letting the whole lesson overrun (with restless students trying to secretly pack their bags). Following last month’s ideas for extending short stages, here are some strategies for taking control of time and shortening over-long stages.
Be pre-emptive
Try to spot timing problems early on. This allows you to make realistic decisions early on in a task rather then suddenly being forced to make drastic alterations at the last minute.
Extend old tasks rather than start new ones
Think very carefully before starting a new activity, especially if it is late in the lesson. Isn’t it better to extend the previous activity till the end of the lesson rather than doing a ludicrously rushed version of the next activity?
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Top 10 Tips for Teaching Basic Reading Skills

Reading is an important skill for all students to learn. It is essentially the basis of nearly all learning, and a basic requirement to progress in life. However, for students just beginning to explore reading, it can be an intimidating process. By building a strong foundation of reading, teachers will be able to help students to succeed in the classroom and beyond.
1. Teach an appreciation of words

Sharing stories is the easiest way to get students interested in reading. Whether it is the magic of a fiction story or interesting new facts, reading opens the door to information.
2. Create language awareness.

Before students can even begin to read, they have to understand how books work. Show them the proper way to hold a book, how the story is read from left to right and top to bottom, and use books with large print to get children accustomed to seeing words. You can also use worksheets or label objects around the classroom and the home.
3. Building blocks of ABCs.
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Tips on Lesson Planning for the New Teacher (By Sonya Wilson)
Depending on the school you work for, you may be required to turn in lesson plans weekly or biweekly. Some schools may require a scope and sequence that covers the majority of the year. However you are required to turn in lesson plans, make sure that you have clear objectives, goals, and a way of evaluating the students and assessment.

For me, the difference between objectives and goals was a little confusing. Think of it like a road map. An objective is your final destination and the goal is how you are going to get there. For example, in my English classroom my objective for a lesson may be for students to be able to write a report on Maya Angelou and my goal would be for the students to research the poet and memorize one of her poems. Objectives are general and goals are specific.
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Some Tips For Classroom Management
● Take control of where the kids sit. Even if you don’t allocate the exact seats, get each student simply to sit in a different seat from the one they had in the last class.
● Keep desktop clutter to a minimum – provide pencils/paper, etc yourself.
● If you want the kids to move around, give clear instructions, including a quick diagram on the board even, before they start moving.
● Divide the lesson into ‘circle time’ for presentations, games, recycling, etc, and ‘table time’ for book-based work.
● A non-verbal signal to be quiet is better than a loud noise or raising your voice – don’t get into a competition with them!
● The fewer and simpler the rules, the better.
● Positive reinforcement is better than negative commands: try asking noisy students to do something specific or answer a question rather than saying Stop …!
● Remove misbehaving students from their audience (the rest of the class). Put them just outside the door, in the back of a colleague’s classroom, in the corner out of the sight line of the other students, etc.