I will use his or her .. but in all cases I mean all kids
- Don’t talk to kids as if you know more than them and they know nothing… Talk to them as equal partners in the exchange of knowledge and experience. It will go a long way in developing their emotional confidence and learning to respect all ages equally
- Never hit a child (I’m sure that’s covered in the diploma :D) .. but .. that never does any good. If you feel a kid is being violent, there is almost always either a social underlying problem or a neurological problem.. in either case, it’s not his personal vendetta and fault that they were being violent or aggressive. Try to find out the underlying causes.
- Bullies are compensating for love / attention. Nobody wants to be a bully for no reason. Address those issues in a bully instead of just ‘punishing’ them
- Don’t stop a line of questioning by a kid or a class just cuz it’s interrupting your ‘planned’ class.
- And in continuation to the point above, never ever be shy to say – ooh i don’t know the answer to that… let’s look it up together. Remember, you’re equals .. and there will be 100’s of questions those monster kids are gonna throw at you, that you have absolutely no idea about. It’s your time to learn too.
- Allow them to be creative. There is never “one way to do something” .. the planned classwork is for them to ‘match shapes’ but someone decides (for whatever reason) on purpose not to match shapes, that’s fine. Ask them why – talk to them, laugh with them.
- Laugh at yourself if you made a mistake. Don’t be formal or strict with them – it does absolutely nothing to keep a kid engaged. The only thing it’ll do is stress them out that they never want to be in a room with you .. Loses for all
- (controversial one) – There are no “bad” words or “bad” thoughts.. words are words and the context matters. So Fuck, Shit and any other ‘bad’ words are fine in various contexts. Moreover, no knowledge is ‘bad’ knowledge. Sex education, Financial education, The nature of the world, it’s all just knowledge and needs to be taught in as true a form as possible.
- Don’t stop learning yourself.. the internet has vast resources for parents and teachers and every day scientists, parents, psychologists and educators are re-designing, re-thinking and re-learning methods for education.. Always keep abreast and learn ..
- Never shy away from admitting your mistakes.
- Memorizing a list of names, animals, capital cities etc has absolutely no bearing on the learning quotient or knowledge transfer. Let them understand concepts, ideas, how things work together.. rather than trying to memorize something just cuz it’ll be easier to ‘grade them’
- Kids love to move and jump and fidget… there is never a reason to say – sit down, stop moving, stop chewing gum or playing with your hair.. or whatever… yes, if they’re purposely disturbing a class, go to the points on bullies and aggression, but let there be movement.. find a way to engage with them while they’re in motion