Teaching Tip #1

Teaching, in many ways, is an art. The most subtlest of things can make or break a class period. It can be the way a teacher greets or not greets students at the door, or the pace a teacher walks around the classroom. These subtle yet powerful tips are not really taught in graduate schools. They can only be learned on the job, on the front lines, often times through many trials and many errors. So, here is the first of many teaching tips that I have picked up along the way that may be of interest to you.  I encourage you to try these out in your classrooms and let me know how it goes. 

My first tip:

After asking a question to the class, walk AWAY from the student who answers it. I have seen teachers going toward the student giving the answer in order to her him/her better. This is a mistake. You want the student to project so the entire class can hear. You never want a classroom discussion to become an A - B conversation because you'll lose everyone else, and that's an open invitation for disengagement and management issues. A classroom discussion should indeed be a whole classroom discussion, so walk away from the ones giving answers to make them project.