There are many ways which you already know on how to engage students in the learning process. But the key is to choose the one that best suits your personality and style.
1. Write down your strengths and weaknesses. The key here is to BE HONEST. What do you honestly love about teaching? Many teachers quickly forget their passions and what they love to do BEFORE they lock themselves in a specific teaching approach. Then, they are miserable because they don’t enjoy the teaching approach as they manage a class. But more often, they become easily stressed by the classroom management piece and which also takes away the FUN of teaching.
2. Match your teaching approach to the ages of the students you teach. This will make a significant impact on the children you’ll teach. Remember, the lower the grade level, the more interaction you will need to provide. So choose wisely! If you aren’t sure, read other teacher blogs, websites and articles to get a feel of teaching for this particular age group in terms of combining classroom management with effective instruction.
If you can’t find any experienced teachers to follow online – then look for workshops or in-service courses in your school district(s) who can show you sample approaches of the age groups you are interested in teaching. For example, don’t simply gather information if you want to become a successful and confident teacher. Find out what it takes to also teach successfully.
3. Keep an open mind. Finding your own teaching approach is largely a process of experimentation as you adjust and readjust your instruction. But most importantly, you need to adjust your instruction to suit the needs and abilities of your students. For example, if your students are digital learners, find ways to incorporate technology in the classroom even if it is on a smaller scale.
4. Add additional ways of engaging your students that suit your personality and style. This will help you cater to different learning styles and appeal to different levels of instruction. (differentiated instruction)
5. Consistently, evaluate the effectiveness of your teaching approach. If you are not successfully engaging students, chances are, you need to be more flexible in terms of suiting the needs of your students and be more intuitive to your own teaching style as well. Some new teachers, become particularly frustrated and burnt out by many unsuccessful lessons and many more, decide to leave teaching altogether. Way before this starts to happen, a teacher trainer can provide guidance and direction as to how new teachers can maximize their (limited) resources to benefit their teaching and students. Consider this option before you experience any signs/symptoms of early burn-out.
6. Don’t give up! A few unsuccessful teaching experiences are NOT reasons for failure. If anything, they are only setbacks which occur to ALL teachers. What’s more important, is to recognize those setbacks learn and grow from these experiences. Constantly think BIGGER all the time as you learn how to adjust and readjust your instruction to suit the needs of your students. Experiment with new activities and ideas. Keep your teaching fun and education for you and your students!