Teaching A Survival Guide for Students and New Teachers Part 6 Starting Preparation

Now that you have your degree or doctorate you are an expert in your subject - NO. You may well know the high level aspects of your subject very well, but you are unlikely to ever need more than a tiny part of that body of knowledge. You are going to need the more simple aspects that you last looked at five to ten years ago. Everyone thinks that they understand their subject at high school or college level, however once you start teaching this material you will find that your understanding of it was always less than 100%. Your understanding will improve over time but make sure that you are not making enormous gaffes through a lack of basic knowledge in the early months. You may well be teaching outside your immediate specialism where it is especially important to be certain of your facts. Here I will quote a few from my own subject area that I have heard in recent years. One chemistry teacher taught her class that the cell nucleus was a “mini-brain”, unforgivable to a biologist. A biology teacher training student was heard talking to a class about “positive electrons” moving around a circuit; electrons are negative. Plan your lessons. If your lesson preparation has been skimpy and you are struggling to ad-lib your way through the lesson, you will find that the class discipline is worse. The children ALWAYS know if you are unsure of what you are talking about. They are expert at reading non-verbal signals, like facial expressions. The best method of familiarising yourself with high school and college level expectations is to attempt the papers. You will not do very well, but the point is to learn, rather than to get 100%. Obtain copies of examiners’ reports and mark schemes. You could cut these up and paste them onto the examination paper. Doing this will help to imprint the questions, required answers and common candidate errors onto your sub-conscious, enabling you to include the key points in your teaching. Ventura writes about a range of topics connected with education and teaching You may reprint this article as you please, as long as all links are left intact and working, and the resource box is included.