Teaching Tips
Syllabus Related
- Include guidelines of your expectations
- Include guidelines for behaviors in class.
- Encourage respect for diverse perspectives
- Go over syllabus during week 1 (both days)
- Consider a syllabus “quiz’
Welcome Student Participation
- Add a welcome to course My Gateway page
- Help students meet one another: learn names, exchange phone numbers
- Welcome latecomers and urge them gently to catch up. Get to know the individuals in your courses
- Use “Wait Time”: offer time to think about the question before calling on someone to answer it
- Reduce the anxiety of responding by first “talking to a neighbor”
Make Course Organization Public
- Include a semester schedule with due dates, test dates, etc.
(keep it “subject to modification”)
- Post a daily agenda: students want to know your plan
- Take a restroom break in classes which meet once weekly for 2 hours 40 minutes
- Present material that is already well organized: use charts, graphs to illustrate complex concepts
Effective Learning is Engaging for Students and Professors
- Plan a variety of activities to illustrate concepts and ideas: discussion, small groups, video, in-class exercises
- Project overheads or power point slides and read them aloud
- Limit the messages you send each half hour – check for student understanding
- Listen to students’ questions, comments, interpretations, misconceptions
- Refer students to resources on campus that support their success at UM-St.Louis
- Use campus resources designed to support instruction