Top 10 Things Teachers should Not Neglect in the Classroom
Do you know the top 10 things teachers should not neglect in the classroom?
As a teacher, you have many responsibilities and duties. You not only need to teach your students specific subjects, but also must help them learn how to be responsible adults. It can be a difficult balancing act at times; however, that does not mean you should neglect any efforts towards making your students responsible adults.
As you probably know from your own experiences as a student, there are many things teachers should never neglect in the classroom. However, it is still common for teachers to ignore some of these things in the classroom and place too much emphasis on other things instead.
10 things teachers should neglect in the classroom
To get you started on thinking about what things you shouldn’t neglect in the classroom, here is a list of the top 10 things teachers should not neglect in the classroom.
1. Don’t neglect being on time and being consistent
This should go without saying, but an important thing teachers should never neglect in the classroom is being on time and consistent with your schedule. This means that you should arrive at the agreed-upon time every day, with no exceptions.
It also means that when your students have specific times to be in certain places, you should expect them to be there when they’re supposed to be there. If you show up late or are consistently late, your students will take the example and do the same.
If you are consistently early, it will annoy them. If you are consistently on time, it will help them learn punctuality.
2. Don’t neglect to celebrate student success
As a teacher, you should never neglect to celebrate student success, no matter how small. When you are grading papers or giving tests, you should always be sure to mark the things your students did right, not just the things they did wrong.
This will make them feel good about themselves and will help them build confidence as they progress through their education. However, you should also make sure to celebrate major milestones as well. Students have many competing important events in their lives (sports games, concerts, performances, etc.) that they need to prioritize above school.
You should never neglect to acknowledge their successes when they are in the classroom.
3. Don’t ignore behaviour problems
Some teachers neglect to pay attention to their students’ behaviour problems, wrongly assuming that it is not their responsibility. Controlling your class’s behaviour should be among your top priorities. You might have a bad class if you ignore behaviour problems and let your class run amok.
You might not have a class at all if you don’t know how to deal with the problems your students are causing. There are a few things you should never neglect when it comes to controlling your class
First, you need to know how to deal with disruptive students. Second, you need to know how to get your students’ attention and make them behave. Third, you need to know how to deal with bullying in your class.
4. Don’t pressure students to learn above all else
Teachers often pressure their students to take on too many extra-curricular activities, or they put too much pressure on students to learn above all else. While it is important for students to learn, and they should be spending a large portion of their day actually in the classroom, they still need time to relax, play, and have fun.
You should never neglect to balance your students’ learning with time for recreational activities. However, you should also not pressure students to take on too many extracurricular activities.
It is important for students to spend time on their own, enjoying their own hobbies and interests, as well as time with their families.
5. Don’t ignore vocabulary and grammar
When you’re teaching your students specific subjects, you might think it is important to ignore grammar and vocabulary. You might think that grammar and vocabulary are unrelated to what you are teaching, so you need to ignore them.
However, this is not true at all. When you are teaching your students specific subjects, you should never neglect to teach vocabulary and grammar. This is because students need to understand the vocabulary you are using in specific subjects.
They need to understand the specific words you are using so they can understand what you are teaching them. They also need to understand grammar so they can correctly and clearly communicate what they are trying to say.
6. Don’t neglect collaboration and teamwork skills
Many teachers neglect to teach their students collaboration and teamwork skills, wrongly assuming that these skills are innate. In fact, there are many skills associated with collaboration and teamwork that you need to teach your students.
You might think that students will just know how to collaborate and work together as they get older, but this is not often the case. When you are teaching your students specific subjects, you should never neglect to teach collaboration and teamwork skills.
7. Lose Your Temper:
Losing your temper in any classroom can be really devastating. This particularly applies in Nigeria, where showing powerful negative emotion will make students label you as ‘wicked’, and you don’t want that.
All teachers have bad days, get annoyed with students, and attempt to maintain calmness later on. Trust me you certainly do not want to lose your temper, because you might end up shouting, yelling or even crying. If you ever feel yourself getting angry, just step out of the classroom.
8. Lose Control:
If there’s one thing you will never gain back if you lose it, its control. Don’t allow students in your class walk all over you, take control of your lesson and don’t get imprudent in any way. Sometimes student might get annoyingly loud during a lesson, and you need to be able to take charge of the moment.
One great teaching strategy that works with kids is to make a signal that immediately they see it, they know they are supposed to do the same thing or get quiet.
Some familiar options are: raising your hand, clapping if the class is noisy already, or waving. It is very effective that when you show a few students, the rest will follow and you will regain total control of the classroom.
9. Get Overly Involved:
Depending on the situation, it can be very easy to become immensely emotionally involved with your students. You will learn a lot about students during the class, and you may be required to provide some help to them outside the classroom.
But be very careful and set barriers for yourself and don’t get too associated or involved in students’ problems. Also be wary of developing personal relationships outside of the class. This can regularly happen when teaching adults, just make sure it doesn’t intervene with the classroom dynamic.
10. Make Fun of Students:
It may seem quite apparent that you should never mock or make fun of students, because sometimes what suppose to be a harmless joke or comment can affect a student’s confidence and self-esteem. You should learn how to use humor in the classroom, without making fun of any student. Just be careful and make sure that your jokes or sarcasm aren’t directed at a particular student in a specially harmful way.
Bottom line
This list of the top 10 things teachers should neglect in the classroom is not a list of things teachers should neglect in general. In fact, these are all important skills that students need to develop and progress in their education. You should never neglect to teach these skills, but you should also never neglect to keep your students’ attention and make sure they’re learning. If you have trouble keeping your students’ attention, check out our article on how to keep students engaged.
