Teaching Tips

Talking about hygiene with your students is never easy.  Trying to throw hints never works because they can’t smell themselves and sometimes have no idea that they smell.  Every year, teachers ask me to address this issue with specific students.

Let’s talk about disrespectful behaviors in the classroom. The child who talks back. The student using their cell phone, even after being told to put it away. The kid who refuses to do their work, and even loudly tells you, “no!” when you try to politely give some encouragement. The student who jokes about your class being dumb, causing an eruption of laughter in the room.

Check out our collection of resources for building teacher-student relationships to find instructional practices, research, useful websites and other information to help support you in this area.

When teachers make an intentional effort to get to know each of their students, it can foster in students a sense of belonging and connection to school—which can then build a foundation for academic success.

Good teachers care about their students. We all know that, but sometimes over the course of a long semester, it’s easy to forget just how important it is to show our students we care about them. I was reminded of this importance by two recent studies, which I read and highlighted for the December issue of The Teaching Professor newsletter.

Classroom participation is a feature of many course designs. It can result in insightful comments and interesting connections being made by students, and can foster a high level of energy and enthusiasm in the classroom learning environment. However, poorly managed participation can also lead to instructor frustration and student confusion. Below are strategies to consider using to make your classroom participation more effective.

What really moves the needle for educators and, by extension, their students?

A teacher stopped penalizing late work and started asking students questions about why assignments were late. Here’s what he learned.