The Teaching Tips Machine

With nearly 90% of all teachers experiencing moderate to high levels of stress it is very important that teachers use stress relieving techniques to improve both their career and their health.

While stress is evident in any job, teachers seem to face increased levels of stress due to their unique circumstances. Think about what a teacher must deal with day in and day out…high stakes exams, overcrowded classrooms, grading tests, grading homework, grading classwork, administrative paperwork, meeting with parents, department meetings, faculty meetings, challenging students, angry parents, an unsupportive community, and the list goes on…

Without using stress relieving techniques, teacher stress can manifest itself in many ways including headaches, back pain, frequent illness, heartburn, anger, impatience, depression, eating disorders, and insomnia. If not addressed, these manifestations may likely turn into heart disease and hypertension. Stress can even damage memory and cognitive skills.

What’s worse is that teachers often don’t know how to handle their stress and therefore it comes as no surprise that nearly 50% of all teachers quit within their first five years.

Fortunately, there are many simple stress relieving techniques that teachers can use that will help improve both their health and their career.

Here are five stress relieving techniques:

1. Get exercise! Do NOT use the excuse that you don’t have time. You must make time. Make it part of your routine everyday. While it may be tough at first, you’ll quickly find yourself with more energy and you’ll be much more efficient at work.

2. Learn to say no. This can be quite difficult…especially as a new teacher. New teachers think they must say “yes” to everything in order to keep their job, but this can quickly lead to teacher burnout.

3. Join teacher discussion boards/forums. There are many teacher forums on the internet where teachers can not only vent their frustrations, but get real advice from real teachers who have experienced the same problems.

4. Think positive. In fact, don’t just think positive thoughts, but actually say them out loud. In the morning, or on your way to work, say positive things about your job, about your students, about your colleagues. You’ll be amazed at the impact that saying these things out loud can have on the rest of your day.

5. Cool down and take breaks. Teachers have a tendency to go straight through the day (and night) without taking a break. This is unhealthy and only adds to your stress level. Make sure to NOT work through lunch. Take that time to eat a healthy meal and talk to colleagues about things other than school. In other words let yourself take a mental break from the job during the day. Also, at the end of the school day, make a to-do list for the next day and then take ten minutes to relax and cool down with some other stress relieving techniques such as deep breathing exercises, stretching, or visualization.

There are many stress relieving techniques you can use to improve your health and your career. To get 21 FREE stress relieving techniques and a FREE copy of How to Win Your War Against Stress visit www.1-800-Stop-Stress.com

Is it possible to teach these days and still support a family?

Unfortunately, the answer is no.

These days, especially with the economy the way it is, it is nearly impossible to survive on a teacher’s salary. The cost of everything has gone up (gas, groceries, taxes etc.), yet teacher salaries have not nearly kept up the same pace. In fact, many school districts around the country are either freezing teacher salaries or even cutting teacher salaries.

Sure, if you live on your own and have no kids then yes, maybe, you can survive on a teacher’s salary. However, if you have a family then either you or your spouse has to work a second job.

Most every teacher I know works more than one job. Some teachers work nights in restaurants, some teachers work weekends landscaping, some have started their own online business (like myself), but the most common, and possibly the easiest way for teachers to earn extra money, is by tutoring.

Tutoring is great way for teachers to earn extra money. Most tutors simply put an add in their local paper or advertise at their local school and then go to their client’s house or have their client come to their home.

However, these days, with all the technology available, online tutoring jobs have become quite popular. Online tutoring jobs open up many more possibilities for both the student and the tutor. Online tutoring jobs provide tutors much more flexibility about when and where they can work. The best part is, by using today’s technology, online tutors can really motivate and inspire their students to learn. Not only that, but online tutors have a much greater reach than their local area and therefore can turn their tutoring business from earning a little extra cash into a real income producer.

In the end, online tutoring is a win-win-win situation. Everyone benefits…the parents, the tutor, and most importantly, the student.

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Is your teaching salary too low? Then you should look at online tutoring jobs!

To Download your FREE copy of

How To Start Your Own eTutoring Business

simply visit www.TeachingTipsMachine.com/online_tutoring_jobs.htm

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Lately, much of our professional development has focused on providing feedback…or rather, providing students with “specific” feedback on tests, essays, projects, class discussions etc.

While I agree that specific feedback is important, it is also important to realize that students, like us, can only accept a certain amount of information at one time…especially when it is perceived as negative.

For feedback to be really effective, teachers should focus feedback on what is most important…teachers should focus feedback on the objectives of the lesson, test, essay etc.

For example, if a student receives an essay back that is completely marked up with red pen (spelling, grammar, transitions etc.) there is simply too much for the student to focus on. However, if the objective of the essay was to focus on transitions and that is all that teacher comments on, then the student received not just “specific” feedback, but feedback that was “focused” on the lesson’s objective.

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Are you looking for more teaching strategies?

For more effective teaching strategies that you can start applying to your very next class make sure read eTeach: A Teacher Resource for Learning the Strategies of Master Teachers @ www.TeachingTeacher.com

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This Friday is notoriously the most difficult day to teach all year…

Why?

It’s HALLOWEEN!

And, it’s on a Friday this year!

As always the best approach is to be proactive. If you want to have a good Halloween with your students then you better have something fun planned. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t be educational as well. For example, since I teach U.S. History I usually do something involving the Salem Witch Trials.

If you’re looking for Halloween activities that are both fun AND educational then check out this site: www.Kids-Halloween-Activities.com

Teaching doesn’t necessarily get easier. In fact, I would say that this year is my toughest year teaching.

Why?

It’s not the kids…it’s my working conditions. Over the past four years I have seen my working condition deteriorate…my work hours have increased, my planning time has decreased, the number of students I have has increased, the number of classes I teach has increased, and this year my pay has actually decreased. Yes, you read that right…I am actually making less money this year than I did last year.

I can go on and on, but as you can imagine this “chipping away” of the teacher’s working conditions takes its toll.

Then the other day I got an email from a former student I taught just a couple of years ago. The email was a nice reminder of why I do what I do…why I continue to teach…

I pasted the email below. It’s from a boy named Carlos (I left out his last name for privacy). Carlos was an ESOL student who started my class roughly half way through the first quarter.

I posted his email below not to toot my own horn, but rather as a friendly reminder of how important a teacher’s job really is. I will continue to teach the best way I know how despite the deterioration of our working conditions because the fact of the matter is…I make a difference.

To all the teachers out there who are making a difference in the lives of their students everyday I say Thank You!

Here’s the email from Carlos:

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Start email
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Dear Mr. Waxler,

I recently got a hold on your email. I was looking through some old papers and up came your name. It may be hard to remember, but i was one of your U.S history students. My name is [name removed], but everyone just called me Carlos. I went to Haile middle in 2006 when I was in eighth grade. I just wanted to let you know that I truly enjoyed your class and the best part about it is that I learned more in that class than I have in my current history classes. I can honestly say that I consider you to be THE best teacher that I have had. All the knowledge that I acquired during that class definitely helped me my freshman year. Now I am a sophomore and I am very grateful for your hard dedication to teaching. Thank you and keep up the good work.

Your former student,
[name removed]

P.S: Don’t worry if you don’t remember me.

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end email
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Here’s a great teaching strategy you can use to activate and build upon background knowledge at the beginning of a new unit of study.

It’s called: “List-Group-Label”

The steps are quite simple:

1. At the beginning of a new unit have each student generate a list of words/phrases/names that they would associate with the new topic.

2. Next, put students into groups and have them combine their individual lists.

3. Next, have students group their words/phrases/names into categories.

4. Finally, have students label the categories.

For example, I may tell my students to create a list of everything they can think of related to the topic of the American Revolution. Next, I put students into groups and they start combining lists, grouping words/phrases/names into categories, and then label their categories.

Students usually come up with categories such as Causes of the Revolution, Effects of the Revolution, Major Battles, Important Events, Famous People, and Famous Quotes. Each category has items from their various lists written under it.

This activity works great to not only tap into and build upon prior knowledge, but it also effectively sparks the students’ interest in the new topic.

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Are you looking for more teaching strategies?

For more effective teaching strategies that you can start applying to your very next class make sure read eTeach: A Teacher Resource for Learning the Strategies of Master Teachers @ www.TeachingTeacher.com

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Are you still having trouble getting students to complete their homework?

Personally, I am always looking for new ways to improve the percentage of students who complete their homework.

Here’s something one of my colleagues recently told me about…

When students do not complete the homework they must fill out a “Homework Responsibility Card”.

The card is quite simple and may look something like this:

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Today’s Date:

Student Signature:
**********

Cards are available as soon as students walk into the classroom. Any student who did not complete the homework must fill out a card.

This way every student is handing in something. The teacher is either collecting the homework or is collecting the “homework responsibility card”.

The homework responsibility card works well for several reasons:

1. Students do not want to fill out the card…so to some extent it works as a minor punishment.

2. Students are forced to actually think about why they did not do the homework.

3. By having students sign the card they are accepting responsibility of their actions.

4. The teacher has a copy of student excuses that can be used during parent-teacher conferences.

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Are you still having problems getting your students to complete homework?

For more homework strategies that you can start applying to your very next class make sure read eTeach: A Teacher Resource for Learning the Strategies of Master Teachers @ www.TeachingTeacher.com

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Now that the school year is underway you have probably noticed something about classroom management…

The first few weeks of school are NOT the most difficult when it comes to classroom management. In fact, I call the first 2-3 weeks the honeymoon period. It is after this honeymoon period when students start to feel more comfortable with their peers and with their teacher that classroom management problems really start to show themselves.

Unfortunately, it is at this same time that teachers themselves start to fell bogged down with all the paper work, grading, meetings etc.

The combination can have a terrible effect on your classroom…

Here is an article I came across from Lee McIntyre that provides some simple tips for classroom management that works…

Classroom Management That Works - 3 Tips to Reduce Inappropriate Student Behavior
by Lee McIntyre

Classroom management that works is the holy grail for many tired, and stressed out teachers. So how exactly do you go about finding an effective classroom management plan that actually works to reduce inappropriate student behavior?

Well, there is no one size fits all classroom management solution. All teachers are unique, with differing personalities and teaching styles, and so each teacher needs a different classroom management plan. However, even though each teacher needs a different solution to help reduce inappropriate student behavior, there are some core ideas that every teacher can implement in the classroom to help them find classroom management skills that works for them.

1. Be consistent

If you want to enjoy a peaceful classroom environment, then you must be consistent. If you are not, you will quickly lose the respect of the students that your teach, and the classroom management in your classroom will deteriorate fast.

2. Be positive

If you are looking for classroom management that works, then being positive is a core skill. Approach each lesson in positive frame of mind and expect the best from the students that you teach. And when your students reach the standards that you expect, make sure they know it. Walk into the classroom fearing the worst, and acting negative towards the students that you teach, and they will act negative towards you. And that’s not a recipe for effective classroom management that works.

3. Be proactive

The teachers with the most effective classroom management skills are the teachers who proactively deal with classroom management problems before they occur. If you anticipate the problems that usually occur, you can go some way towards implementing solutions which prevent them from happening in your classroom. Classroom management problems prevention is much better than cure.

If you’re looking for classroom management that works, then there isn’t a one size fits all solution. But if you follow the three top effective classroom management tips above, then you will experience an improvement in the behavior of the students that you teach.

Teaching is hard! Make it easier by learning about some classroom management that works!

Visit http://www.ClassroomManagement101.com now and claim back your classroom and start enjoying being a teacher again.

The past couple of weeks of teaching have been quite difficult for me. Two weeks ago I took a bad fall while skimboarding with my son. Yes, yes I know…my wife has made it quite clear to me that I am getting too old to be skimboarding. Meanwhile I broke two toes (as well some serious bruises elsewhere) and this has made teaching quite the challenge.

While my students have been great to me it has made me realize how physical my style of teaching really is. The fact is I rarely, if ever, sit down while teaching…I am always up and moving. This is one of the most effective classroom management strategies there is…by moving about the classroom the teacher is able to easily keep students on task without saying a word and without stopping the flow of the lesson. It also allows me to “interview” the students while they are sharing information or working together with their partner or group.

This has been my teaching style/philosophy since the beginning of my career, but the value of it was made very clear to me these past couple weeks as I was simply unable to move around the classroom at all. In fact, it reminded me of my old teachers when I was back in back in middle school. The ones who sat at their desk in the front of the classroom while all the students sat in rows and worked quietly on their own. However, this is not my teaching style at all. Without a doubt, it is significantly more difficult to keep students on task when sitting in front of the class. It is just too easy for students to sit there and do nothing, or worse, get involved in minor chit-chat and misbehavior. I can’t help but think about how many more kids fall through the cracks when teachers don’t move about the classroom.

To learn more about my proactive approach to effective classroom management make sure to sign up for my FREE classroom management e-course at www.Classroom-Management-Tips.com

The last couple of weeks I have discussed the importance of get to know you activities. Last week I shared one of my favorite get to know you activities that I call the “Interview and Introduction”. In this activity students answer a series of questions about themselves on an index card, the teacher then redistributes those cards and then has the students walk around the room interviewing each other until they find the person whose card they have. Students then introduce each other.

As I said last week, one of the great things about this activity is that the teacher gets to collect the cards and use the information on those cards for follow-up get to know you activities.

This week I’d like to share with you one of those follow-up get to know you activities. I call it…Get To Know You Bingo.

It simple and fun…

First, I take the index cards I collected from the “Interview and Introduction” activity and use the information on them to create bingo cards. I simply go through each index card a place one thing about each student in each bingo square. Each student then gets their own bingo sheet and walks around the room trying to find which of their classmates matches up with which bingo square. When students find a match they get their classmate to sign that particular box. Five signatures in a row wins Bingo!

Of course, it is much easier to create bingo cards if you have some type of bingo card creator software. You can find out more about my favorite way to create bingo cards here: Create Bingo Cards

Or you can view this video I made that shows you how easy it is to create bingo cards with this software: www.Bingo.TeachingTipsMachine.com

Good luck with your get to know you activities