6/29/06 A Yahoo Answers BEST ANSWER

The Question: Which of your teachers had the most impact on you and your future, and why?I am a teacher of at-risk teens and pre-teens, and would love to know what students think works best for them.

Best Answer - Chosen By Voters
I commend you for looking for ways to touch the lives of your young ones. I just "retired" (had to leave for medical reasons) from teaching first graders in an impoverished area and was constantly looking for ways to reach my kids. Here are some things I learned:

1. Don't be afraid to tell the kids that you love them. Some of them never hear it at home. Back it up (aka: more than words), by doing things to show them that you care. One of the best/most effective way to show your affection is by running a tight ship diciplinewise-being fair and consistent everytime. I have found that when children know you love them, they will expend every bit of energy and talent they have to achieve what you ask them to do.

2. Don't be afraid to praise. But, make sure you're not giving empty praise. Meaning, instead of saying "Good Job!" leaving the kid to wonder what you're talking about. Say "Karen, you spelled 'thought' correctly! That's great work!"

3. In every lesson, tell them how they can use what they are learning in the real world. If they don't think what they are learning is important...Why bother??

4. Use fun things that they like to do (ie writing letters to their favorite tv/movie stars or sports heros) to teach something they need to learn in Language Arts. My favorite elementary school teacher was Miss Sylvia Teauge, now deceased. She let us write letters to our favorite stars. At that time, I was in third grade, my favorite star was (don't laugh!!) Cher!! I wrote her and she sent me an autographed postcard back!! I was in HEAVEN!! Man, do I wish I would have kept that thing!!
This requires getting to know your students on a more personal basis and finding out about the things they like to do.

5. Use recipies whenever possible to teach concepts. Food brings people together.

6. Give your kids access to the best materials to work with. In your writing center, provide lots of different types of papers, writing instruments, things they can use to illustrate their work. I bought a tool chest (one with about 30 drawers) and filled it up with all sorts of things like shells, googly eyes, sequens, pom-poms, stickers, etc. so they could use them in their writing. I got excellent results.

7. Let the kids know they are part of something bigger than themselves. Kids are very egocentric. However, if you expose them to experiences outside of their realm, they really shine. Ways you can do this: get them penpals from another school/county, same grade (write about things you are studying); get them involved in music or sports; get them involved in community service. We had our first graders go to a local nursing home and preform their PTA songs. We took along cards and some refreshments. The kids were really proud that they had made someone's day!!

8. Show the children that you value their work. Get papers graded and back to them quickly. Post their work on the walls of your classroom and in the halls of the school. Allow them to go to a computer and type their final drafts of their papers. Pick some of the best work from each of the students and ask another teacher, perhaps the gym teacher or one of the "specials" teachers or even the principal, to read and comment on how well the work was done and sign in. When a child did an exceptional job in my class, I would let the child call his/her parents on my phone and tell them about their success. I would also talk to the parent and tell them how proud I was of their child's accomplishment. Calls like these make it easier, too, later on when you need to make calls about dicipline issues.

9. Whenever you can, make things a contest or a game. We had a reading contest going where I made each student a little truck (that they illustrated) and as they read in minutes, they got to drive their truck across a US map. The first to reach the West Coast got the grand prize!!

10. Find out what the kids want to be when they grow up and have people from those occupations come visit the class. They can ask this person what educational qualifications are needed for the job they are seeking and get an idea on how they should plan for the future. This does two things: 1. It shows the kids that their education is valuable and will get them places and 2. It shows the kids that people from the real world care about them enough to stop what they are doing to come spend some time with them.

If you want to chat more about this or other issues, drop me a line.

I hope this helps!!

Have an AWSOME day!!

CosmicKelly :)