Provide Instant Feedback!

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

One of the things I recommend to new teachers is to provide students with a timely, meaningful feedback about their progress. Providing instant feedback is an important step in student learning which helps them understand their strengths and areas for improvement. Many teachers see this as a time consuming or daunting process but in reality it saves a ton of time in reality. In this article, I have compiled a list of ways teachers can offer instant feedback to their students:

Immediate Verbal Feedback 

Teachers should seek out for opportunities during class discussions or activities to provide verbal feedback for the individual students or the entire class. While giving individual feedback, think about student privacy and respect their personalities. As much as you can, use praise and constructive criticism to highlight what was done well and what needs to be improved. 

Quick Written Feedback 

Since verbal feedback can be a little tricky, consider written feedback where it's appropriate. You may use sticky notes or quick written comments on assignments or assessments to provide that feedback in a confidential way. Teachers can also create their feedback language which can be acronyms or shortened comments but the students know its meaning. 

Technology-Based Feedback 

Now that we have technology all around us, utilize educational applications or tools that allows instant feedback. Many online platforms offer auto scoring and feedback on quizzes or assignments. If the students are sharing documents, adding immediate comments to their work can also be considered as instant feedback. Becoming familiar with a learning management system (LMS) with features like comment sections will come in handy. 

Peer Feedback 

It's widely known that the students learn a lot from each other. Seeing this as an opportunity, teachers can  implement peer review sessions where students provide feedback to each other immediately after completing an activity or assignment. While doing this, teachers need to be actively monitoring student interactions and there needs to be clear guidelines to ensure constructive and helpful feedback is happening.

Response Systems 

Although it's a bit of an old technology, teachers can use clickers or other response systems to gauge student understanding during a lesson. This allows for real-time assessment and adjustment of teaching strategies. Many students now have at least a device with them and there are online tools to allow students submit work in real time. Online platforms, such as Kahoot, Gimlet or Quizizz can be used for interactive and engaging activities for immediate feedback.

In-Class Discussions 

Another great way to provide feedback is through meaningful and engaging class discussions. You need to create a safe and supportive environment where students can express their thoughts and opinions without any judgement. As students share their ideas, look out for opportunities to provide feedback and guide students in refining their ideas.

Exit Tickets 

I always tell teachers there needs to be an end goal in every lesson. Implement exit tickets at the end of a lesson or creating a mini quiz will serve that purpose. Through an exit ticket, you can ask students to summarize key concepts that they learned in that class. Using quizzes as a way to measure student understanding will provide a valuable insight to any teacher. After collecting them, you can review those exit tickets quickly to gauge overall comprehension. If there is even time left, you can address some of the misconceptions without waiting for the next class. 

There are many ways to provide feedback to students during daily instruction. Some of these ideas could be built into a lesson plan but some others could be implemented on the spot. Always look out for opportunities to provide students with meaningful and immediate feedback. Also remember, the key is to be timely, specific, and constructive in your feedback. Providing instant feedback does not only enhances learning but also fosters a supportive and engaged classroom environment.

This article is written by a real human being with the help of artificial intelligence. 

Teaching Advice: Be Professional!

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Being a teacher brings some more responsibilities. Just like any other job, a teacher is expected to be a professional. Some of my recommendations on being professional are:

• Be on time to your job
• Submit your lesson plans on time
• Contact your students' parents
• Be present at Parent Teacher Nights and any other school related events
• Communicate with other staff
• Don't take so many sick days off as long as it's not emergency
• Provide students immediate feedback
• Enter students' grades on time
• Prepare your emergency plans before you take a day off

This list can be extended. However, teachers' duties are never limited to those and they always need to go above and beyond.

Creating a Student Survey

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Two times a year, I give my students a survey to see if everything is going well. I prepare the survey on Google docs and they take it online. Since it's anonymous; it gives the students a little bit of freedom to say what they really think about my class. I have seen great results after giving those surveys and helped me out adjust my classes depending on their answers. I wanted share with you a couple of questions I asked my students on the survey:

How difficult is this class for you? 

• Very Easy
• Easy
• Normal
• Hard
• Very Hard

Is your teacher helpful to you when you need help? 

• Yes he is.
• Sometimes
• No, he isn't.

What do you like the most for learning?  (You can pick more than one.)

• Slideshows
• Worksheets
• Khan Academy videos
• Graphing Calculators
• Taking notes
• Accelerated Math (Clickers)

Do you think that the teacher is organized? 

• He is very well organized.
• I don't know.
• He is not really organized.

Tell me about a time in my class when you felt frustrated:

What do you like best about this class?:

Please type if you have any additional comments: 

 
(if you don't know how to create an online survey, you can watch this tutorial)

Classroom Discipline 101

I am going to recommend you a great resource which is worth a lot more than it costs. Craig Seganti is  an experienced teacher especially in urban schools with the toughest students you can ever imagine. I have purchased his e-book and read it thoroughly. I will strongly recommend his product not only for new teachers but also everybody else. It's only $39.95 and you can download it instantly.

Why do I recommend it: Is because I have used his classroom rules, his techniques and followed his other strategies which worked out quite well in my class. I have also seen a couple of other teachers using similar strategies and they were also successful. Here is the link, check it out:

http://www.classroomdiscipline101.com/

Never Yell at the Students

Image by ashish choudhary from Pixabay

Students do a lot of things to drive teachers crazy. There will be moments where it's very hard to control yourself in those situations. Yelling at a student never gives you power; instead it takes power from you and gives it to the child. Yelling means: I don't know how to stop you or how to control this class other than yelling. Yelling also makes a person stressed, tired, and eventually the teacher wishes to quit his/her job. Even at times when the kids can be very annoying, you need to be able to control yourself.