1. Carefully Evaluate WHY You Want To Pursue A Career In Teaching
Though it may sound like something obvious, to truly succeed in your career as a teacher or primary teaching assistant jobs, you need to be certain of the reasons why you want to become a tutor before enrolling for a training program. One of the main reasons why teaching is one of the most interesting and dynamic professions is that each individual tutor has different philosophies, views and approaches to each subject. If you truly understand the reasons why you choose to become a teacher, you will have an unshakable foundation to guide you when you are faced with any problem in your career.
Akin to a business proprietor, sports team manager or company director, you should ensure that you write down your mission statement, the top reasons why you decided to become a tutor and the impact that you want to have on the lives of your students. When crafting these details, ensure that you introspect and consider what you want to achieve during your teaching career. Whenever you are faced with any issue during your teaching career, it will be an opportune opportunity for you to affirm your commitment to the teaching profession as you will have an opportunity to provide solutions that align to your mission statement.
2. Remember That Your Career Is A Lifelong Opportunity To Identify Your Core Competencies
Note that the moment you decided to become a teacher, you joined a marathon and not a sprint. If you are currently employed as a teacher, you may have noticed those who treat their jobs as a sprint – these are the tutors who always seem to be rushed, stressed and under pressure, and, those who treat the profession as a marathon – these are the tutors who seemingly excel at their job effortlessly.
Remember that though you may be off the clock, the time spent prepping for tomorrow is not time wasted. If you spend your free time crafting new lessons, interacting with learners and assessing their needs, you will end up being more efficient, effective and productive when you are on the clock.
The smart and savvy educator usually spends their time building a cache for various topics on the subjects they handle, masters one great way to store their data instead of always exploring new options – which can be a great waste of time and resources, and creating a memorable and easy way of labelling and organizing folders and documents.
Additionally, remember that if you manage the time you are on the clock properly, it will be beneficial not just to you but also your learners. Whenever you on the clock but free, consider making your work easily by creating templates on different topics or even re-usable examination sheets that cover a variety of subjects that you handle. You can also create self-correcting tests so as to save time that you would have otherwise used to mark each student’s paper individually. Another great idea is for you to arrive to school early so that you can carry out administrative duties before the day becomes hectic. Simply put, always strive to prepare early so that you have more time to excel at what you do best when in class – imparting knowledge and guiding a new generation.
3. Be Firm Yet Flexible In Your Interactions With Others
If you scour the many books authored on the best class management principles, you will find that they all stress that the key to succeeding as a teacher is to foster positive relationships with both colleagues and learners. When teaching, it can be extremely difficult to impart knowledge to a leaner if they are bent on meeting you halfway. It can be even more difficult if you are extremely rigid and do not want to deviate from how you think things should be done. Remember that the key to fostering positive interactions, a love for learning and creativity among learners is to be flexible on how you approach different topics.
To succeed in the classroom and make learners more enthusiastic for your lessons, be a positive role model whom your learners can look up to. This means prepping ahead for classes, teaching with passion as well as showing genuine concern in the lives of your students and what makes them tick.
