Education Tips: Develop your Educational Philosophy

Hopefully none of you have decided to become teachers so that you can enjoy the summer holidays. If you are still studying to become a teacher and this was the main reason for choosing this type of career: STOP NOW or you're in for an ugly surprise. Unlike regular jobs, teaching is a vocation, a strong desire to affect the future by educating young minds. Truth be told, teaching involves more work than most other jobs. The amount of planning and preparation involved takes a lot of time and, often, teachers have to work during their free time. Because of all this, it is important that all teachers develop their own philosophy that helps them stay motivated while doing their job. This is a list of questions that need to be considered while writing your educational philosophy:

• What is your definition of a good education? Why is a good education necessary?
• What defines a good teacher?
  
• How can you, as a teacher, contribute to education as a whole? Teaching is not only about following textbooks and correcting students' work; you need to involve yourself on a more personal level...think of ways to make education more effective and share your success with other educators.
• How will you make teaching more effective? (this can be tied in with the previous question)
  
• How do you feel when you think about expanding your students' knowledge?/As a teacher, what do you owe your students?

By writing down your educational philosophy you will be able to more easily understand what makes education important and, thus, helps you understand the importance of your role as an educator so that, ultimately, teaching becomes much more rewarding.

As per usual:
Please feel free to share more ideas with us by leaving a comment with this post.
Take care, and as always, I'll keep you posted.

Teaching tips: Dealing with difficult parents

As if our job is not made hard enough when we're given unruly students, we sometimes have to deal with difficult parents who seem to be hell-bent on making our lives more complicated. It is important to understand that these parents where once students themselves. As we all know, traditional teachers were allowed to use discipline policies which are generally frowned upon in today's modern classroom. Some traditional discipline methods included whole-class punishment, psychological abuse and, for the older parents, even corporal punishment. Of course things have now changed but it should come as no surprise that some parents regard teachers with great distrust; for them we are, and always will be, the scary dictators who ruined their childhood. You have a certain responsibility to show difficult parents that times have changed, show them that you are their friend and that you and them share a common interest: the success of the student. Showing them how concerned you are for their child's long-term well being is key for obtaining a healthy relationship with the parents. These points may help you deal effectively with difficult parents:

• When talking to them, make sure that your eyes are at the same level as theirs. Don't let them look down at you. If you are sitting down, then stand up.
  
• Listen attentively and don't interrupt. The need to justify yourself may be strong but it is important that you take your time to device a proper response.
• Be rational. Offer a reasonable solution to whatever it is that's bothering them and make sure that you both agree on the solution. It is important that you don't make compromises in order to avoid further conflicts, otherwise this may be harmful in the long run.
  
• Mind your Ps and Qs.
• Constantly be assertive, if the parent tries to verbally bully you need to show them that their behavior is unacceptable...if the parent doesn't get the gist then show them that you won't continue the discussion unless they change their attitude. This is EXTREMELY important, failing to do this might cause the situation to quickly get out of hand.
  
• If the parents try to haress you outside the school, then you have the right to call the police. Your responsibility does not extend outside your classroom.

Please feel free to share more ideas with us by leaving a comment with this post.
Take care, and as always, I'll keep you posted.