A new bill proposed in the California State Senate would completely eliminate income tax for teachers who have been in the profession for six years. Senate Bill 807, also known as the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Act, is an attempt to provide incentives for teachers to stay in the profession in a state troubled by a shortage…
Category: Teaching Articles
Teacher Anger: What to do When You’re Reaching the Breaking Point
Do you ever reach a point where you’ve just had it with your students—they still aren’t following directions you’ve repeatedly delivered, they’re still talking not so quietly in the back of the room, and too many of them are still turning in work that has been dashed off at the last minute? So what do…
Dealing with Students Who Test Your Patience
Difficult students are a potential problem for every faculty member. This is why it’s important to learn ways to deal with inappropriate or disruptive student behavior. In an email interview with The Teaching Professor, Brian Van Brunt, director of the Counseling and Testing at Western Kentucky University, and Perry Francis, professor of counseling at Eastern…
Classroom Management Tips for Regaining Control of the Classroom
Losing control of the classroom can be one of the most frustrating and intimidating experiences for both new and experienced teachers. Losing control can happen in several different ways. The most common would be where the class is distracted. This could be from a situation outside the classroom such as noisy conversation in the hall,…
Practical Tips for Minimizing Cheating During Exams
There is nothing more disheartening and stressful than having to formally accuse a student of cheating on an exam. Was the student looking at his neighbor’s exam or just glancing away from his test for a mental break? Did the student ask someone how to fill out the name portion of the instruction page, or…
Reconsidering Silent Reading
The influential 2000 National Reading Panel report Teaching Children to Read examined 14 experimental studies that sought to determine whether encouraging reading had an impact on improving reading achievement. Following their analysis, the panel concluded that the collective results did not provide clear evidence that encouraging students to read more actually led to improved reading…
A Learner-Centered Syllabus Helps Set the Tone for Learning
At its most basic level, the syllabus is used to communicate information about the course, the instructor, learning objectives, assignments, grading policies, due dates, the university’s academic integrity statement, and, in some cases, an increasingly long list of strongly worded admonitions on what is and isn’t acceptable behavior in the college classroom. For some faculty,…
Flipped Classrooms and Flipped Lessons: What Does It Mean for Parents?
What is a flipped classroom? A flipped classroom flips, or reverses, traditional teaching methods. Traditionally, the teacher talks about a topic at school and assigns homework that reinforces that day’s material. In a flipped classroom, the instruction is delivered online, outside of class. Video lectures may be online or may be provided on a DVD…
How Do Our Own Learning Experiences Shape Our Approach To Teaching?
Introduction My learning experiences from childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood have shaped my approach to teaching today. These learning experiences have shown me great examples of what to do, and of what not to do when considering how to conduct assessment of student performance and achievement in my own classroom. As a result of a…
Teacher as a Leader
Special Education has always been a second fiddle in the Educational System. Thus, as a special educator, I have to contribute to show that special educators are equally important staff as well as the general educators and other specialists in contributing to the success of each learner and in building the foundation in the Educational…