Interacting With Students
Encouraging Participation
Indicator 49 - Learning Environment UETS 7a.
Effective teachers promote a positive learning environment by creating a classroom that is safe, interactive, and positive. Effective teachers create an atmosphere of respect and support, where students feel safe to participate, and a sense of community is promoted. Students are motivated and engaged in productive work.
IDEAS/SUGGESTIONS:
- Call students by name, listen carefully to what they say, accept their statements, praise their success, and involve them in making decisions.
- Model kindness and respect. Never ignore, belittle, harass, shame or exclude your students. To ensure there are no misunderstandings or misinterpreted perceptions, avoid the use of sarcasm.
- Characterize your class by mutual respect, and insist that students treat each other with respect also.
- Spend at least 50 percent of class time in interactive activities:
- Instruction/explanation
- Discussion/questioning/review of assignments
- Problem solving/brainstorming ideas/lab activity
- Practice/drill
- Cooperative learning
- Routinely include strategies and activities that allow students to express their thoughts and ideas, build relationships, and practice collaboration.
- Display student work to give students a sense of ownership.
- Keep your students engaged and on-task.
- Smile
- Make sure to interact with many students and provide opportunities for students to interact with each other.