Education tips and articles » Tutors

New Teacher Tips – How to Survive Classroom Visits and Observations

admin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:58:44 +0000

How do you feel about a visitor coming to your classroom for the first time? Are you self-conscious when there is a visitor and breathe a sigh of relief when the visit is over? Do you look at it as a learning opportunity to help you improve?

Classroom visits can be anyone from inspectors, tutors, counselors, heads of departments and colleagues. Whether it is a formal observation for tenure or part of your in-service training, classroom visits are a necessary part of routine in a student’s first year of teaching.Even if you prefer not to be visited, the system doesn’t give you much choice. Here are some ways, tips, suggestions to make the visits, especially the first year, less stressful and more helpful.

Guidelines

The following guidelines are based on my own preferences and experiences as a visited teacher: they may not hold for all.

Before the Visit: Some Tips

A visitor is not looking for a well set up lesson with tons of visual aids and elaborate teaching methods and set ups. She or he is looking for a clearly planned, well-varied and orderly lesson where you hold the centerfold. The students need to be on-task, busy, motivated, clearly learning. Just try and show a fairly routine lesson. Do the activities that work for you, don’t over-do it.

Upon Arrival

When a visitor comes to the school, try and greet him/her, and take the opportunity to explain a bit about the school, the class, the students. Don’t neglect your visitor. Try to do all your lesson planning way in advance, so you do not appear rushed.

During the Lesson

You might want to introduce your visitor to your class, but this is entirely your call. You also might want to tell the class who the ’stranger’ is. Offer the visitor the handouts of your lesson and your lesson plan so that he or she feels involved. It is quite okay for students to ask the visitor questions, but the visitor should not interfere in any way during the lesson, unless you want her to. Also, it’s okay to ask for a bit of advice on something during the lesson, providing that it doesn’t interfere with the flow. Remember, the visitor is really on your side. S/he will hopefully enjoy the lesson and suggest helpful points to improve.

After the lesson

Leave time to chat. Twenty to twenty-five minutes should be enough to cover all points. Remember, you don’t have to accept everything that is said. Listen wholeheartedly, make a note of what you don’t agree with. A visitor is a lot more objective and usually is right on. Perhaps s/he is a teacher and can sympathize with a particularly difficult classroom situation. Hopefully, most of the things s/he says will helpful and s/he give you the feedback that you need to move forward.

By: Dorit Sasson

Tips for a Fulfilling Career in E-Tutoring

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:16:23 +0000

If you mention to anyone in the education sector that you are an online tutor or an e-moderator as some prefers to refer to e-tutors, the response might not be encouraging as the career of teaching through the Internet is not yet popular. For those who are already e-tutors and are wondering which way forward below are tips that could be helpful in closing the gap between when they finished in the college and when they eventually secured a full career employment. These tips have being helpful to me personally and I am glad to share them.

1. The first thing to do is to prepare online course materials as a way of continuing with knowledge gained while on training. There is danger of losing touch with useful concepts out of school if you do not put them to use. Again if your training as an online tutor included instructional design it is advisable to continue to design courses for the fun of it in order to keep busy and sometime on your way to job interview such works could be demanded by your would-be employer he may like to see a product of your own origin. So get useful textbooks together on courses and adapt them for online study materials.

2. Write for publication

Having studied in this new environment, it is time to convince others of what it is like. Write therefore papers on different aspects of online education, both for academic and non-academic consumptions. Papers of this nature will beef up your profile and enhance your job and career prospects.

3. Join online communities

Online communities are many and various. Many of them help publish your works at no cost, link you to job sites and expose you to contacts with major players in the online education industry.

4. No limit to learning

Do not think you have learnt enough. Every school has their own curriculum which could be unique. Learn from them the way they train their students via their course management system. Get familiar with their mode of course delivery by enrolling on their courses. This will enlarge your scope and skill and hence your career prospects.

5. Search opportunities to use your skills.

Although the job market may not be easy but you could start as a volunteer online tutor. There is need to express yourself while waiting for a full career job. Send your curriculum vitae to job centres and some websites that allow public view of profiles of members.

6. Future Plan.

Join innovative people by creating your own organization in your chosen area in online education either to offer training courses or other services in the industry. It is our collective responsibilities as e-tutors that will promote the profession. It is therefore necessary to do things that will promote it to attain a level that it will serve as a best alternative to face-to-face learning.

By: Olufemi Olubodun

Six Tips For Online Learners

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:45:07 +0000

Starting any online learning course is a major commitment. So before you part with your hard earned cash you need to make sure that your potential provider is going to give you the help and support you deserve. Here are six key things to think about.

1. The Application Process

A good learning provider will insist on a detailed and measured application process to ensure that you only enroll on programmes where you have a good chance of success – and a good chance of completing the programme. Remember – if you withdraw from the programme because it proves to be unsuitable or because your motivation drops off, your learning provider will save all your tuition costs. So make sure they talk through your application with you and that you’re both confident you can succeed.

2. The Hard Sell

If your prospective learning provider engages in hard sell tactics, you need to ask yourself a simple question: are they really concerned whether you will succeed or fail on the course once you have enrolled with them or do they just want to get you enrolled? A good learning provider understands the commitment involved in online learning and will be sensitive to your concerns.

3. Tutors

Ask your potential provider about the teaching qualifications of their tutors. Try to make sure that your tutor is a fully qualified teacher if possible and has experience of teaching online. Your relationship with your tutor is an important one so make sure you get one who will support you effectively. All the research into distance learning shows that effective tutor support is the single most critical factor in ensuring students complete their course of study. It is amazing what a difference such support makes to your chances of success. Chalk and cheese, as they say.

4. Qualifications

Certificates and Diplomas offered by online learning providers are more often than not worthless in the eyes of employers and the academic world unless they are accredited by a reputable awarding body. Don’t waste your hard earned cash on a paper qualification that doesn’t have any clout in the real world.

5. Course Material

If your online learning provider is confident in the quality of their courses they will let you see samples before you buy. What other product would you buy without first having an idea of what you’re buying? If your learning provider won’t let you see samples of their courses you might ask yourself why that is.

6. Assignments and Tutor Support

If your course is offered at a cut price you can be fairly sure that it is in this critical area of tutor support where the provider will cut back on costs – and your motivation will suffer as a result. So you may get the course at cut price – but you will never achieve your qualification either! Ask your provider how many tutor-marked assignments are provided with each course to make sure you are getting regular feedback as you progress through your course.

By: Lee Wilcock

Is Traditional Education Better Than Technology-Based Education?

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:00:33 +0000

This interesting article addresses some of the key issues regarding education. A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about education.

On-line education is in trend nowadays. In the future, students may have the opportunity to study at home with computers rather than go to traditional schools like what we are used to doing. And in some cases online education is the only way available.

The most common on-line form of education today is English tutorials. As of now, students and tutors use IM (instant messaging), headset and web camera as the path of communication and of education. Is this the better option?

People must prefer the traditional way because in a classroom setting, students can learn and socialize with their peers. Also, from the instructor, he or she can teach students many valuable lessons of life which cannot be learned through technology. It is like the question of doing research through the library or the internet. Both have advantages and disadvantages but traditional education has the numerous advantages over on-line education.

It seems like new information is discovered about something every day. And the topic of education is no exception. There are always fresh and new ideas about education.

Students learn better socially and academically in a classroom. Students are mostly young-aged. Therefore, they are generally interested in meeting and being with their peers. As they interact, it makes it easier for them to pay focus and learn. As social creatures, one could not just stay secluded and educate his own self. That is impossible! We live, grow, learn and succeed with people along the way.

Besides lecture materials, a classroom instructor teaches many other important life lessons. Students can learn and develop punctuality and good study habits. A teacher serves as a guide through education process which is a big part of life. Another important mission is to direct youth out of trouble. There is this bond between the instructor and the students which could not be built on-line. As the source of education, a teacher is not around just to introduce books and exams but also, he or she is selfless enough to share the lessons life taught her or him.

We must prefer to study at traditional schools and let us send our children there. It is because being around other people of our age or different ages gives us the opportunity to socialize and learn not only from the internet or books but from the society and from life. We could also learn other things which are important to education such as study skills. On-line education or any form of technology-based education is convenient. However, let us not risk quality. Long-term goals must always be prioritized.

And of course the other thing would be peer pressure and the competitive spirit of being the best in the classroom. A little competition is always good.

No matter how advanced technology would be- there will always be these things that would stay best if they would be maintained as is. One of these things is education.

Is there really any information about education that is nonessential? We all see things from different angles, so something relatively insignificant to one may be crucial to another.

I hope that reading the above information was both enjoyable and educational for you. The bottom line remains the same. I still believe that in my honest opinion, traditional education is the best, and always will be. But the most important thing is to get more education, any way that you can. Your learning process should be ongoing–the more you understand about any subject, the more you will be able to share with others. Your life will improve for you and your loved ones.

By: Bob Willoughby