Teaching Tips - The Christian Educator Vol 3, Issue 1

Tips for Excelling as a Teacher

The teaching recommendations listed below were originally written in the nineteenth century by John Swett, a well respected educator and author. Mr. Swett labored tirelessly during the late 1800’s to establish and improve the common (public) schools of California, long before such schools became dominated by bureaucratic and anti-Christ philosophies.

In order to make the following advice more useful to educators in the twenty-first century, this material has been revised and edited by Michael J. McHugh. Although these teaching suggestions have been modernized to maximize their usefulness, all of the credit for these suggestions belongs to the original author, John Swett.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.		The best teachers are those that have students who are daily growing more and more capable of pursuing their studies independently, and whose pupils exhibit an irresistible desire to know more. Make good use of the power of praise when a student excels, but do so sparingly or such recognition will lose some of its effect. While it is a reasonable goal to make school studies as pleasant as possible, there comes a time when students must be trained to face drudgery as a duty. With beginners, in every area of study, the first processes must be learned slowly and very thoroughly by steady and patient instruction. The key point is, not merely how much pupils learn, but how well they learn it. If you expect to have lessons learned well by young children, then make them as short as possible. Use your eyes as a teacher. Look your students in the eye when you question them, and make them look you in the eye when they answer. Do not settle for anything less than the full attention of all of the children you are teaching. A lesson that was never received might just as well have never been given. Lighten up your facial appearance and demeanor when teaching. The teacher who cannot occasionally join in a hearty laugh with their pupils lacks one key element of power. Seldom repeat a question to students, unless they are very young. Train your students to pay close attention to the questions you ask the first time you speak. Give your slower students time to think and speak after you have asked them a question. Children become easily discouraged if they are rushed to blurt out answers before their young minds are ready. Explain a concept or direction when necessary, but make your students contribute when and where they are able. Instructors should employ long lectures on rare occasions only. Teachers should spend most of their time asking intelligent questions and encouraging meaningful student response. The best instructors do not talk when it is the student’s business to work; therefore the skilled teacher is neither talkative nor overly reserved. The very worst teachers are those who admire their own talk. Use of a blackboard or mobile whiteboard by both student and teacher is wise for it stimulates students on both a visual and hands-on level. The teacher’s primary duty is to make students think, not to think for them; to make them talk, not to talk for them; to draw out their God –given gifts or abilities, not to display their own. Point out to your students, in advance, the main facts of a lesson, so that they may not waste their time on unimportant details. Continue this type of instruction until your students learn how to discriminate for themselves between chaff and wheat. Never attempt to teach what you do not understand. It may even be profitable to acknowledge to your students when you are not prepared to instruct them on a particular subject. Students will be inspired, as they take note of their teacher’s willingness to engage in additional research or study. The effort you take as a teacher to obtain the knowledge you lack, is vital to your overall success. Never tell a child what you can make that child tell you. Never give an important piece of information to a student without asking him to repeat it. Never use a complex word when a simple word will work satisfactorily. Never burden your student with a rule that you do not have the will to consistently enforce. Never give an unnecessary command. For most children, one hour’s study in the morning is worth two in the evening. Try to present complex subject matter, therefore, early in the day when your students’ minds are more alert. Do not confine yourself to questions that are printed in the student text or teacher’s manual. In addition, do not require your children to give their answers exactly as stated in the textbook, except in the case of vital rules or definitions.

Instructors who take the time to incorporate these suggestions into their weekly routine, will soon discover that they are more efficient and successful. It is indeed true that good advice, based upon sound wisdom, will inevitably survive the test of time. For this reason, although the tips and suggestions authored by John Swett were penned over one hundred years ago, they still are capable of transmitting relevant and valuable truths to teachers today.

The revised edition of the teaching suggestions that were written by John Swett,
was copyrighted © by Michael J. McHugh in 2007.