Ministry of Education, Guyana

Experiential learning is powerful, and you can create ways for students to learn with all their senses in and out of the classroom. Every teacher knows that kids love to give their opinions. Opinions end up getting shared whether you’re asking for them or not. Sometimes they’re yelled out in class, and other times they’re shared through assignments. If you’re lucky, they’re on topic, but sometimes they come out of left field. Hearing what’s in a student’s head is one of the joys of the job. I love rich discussions. I love them in classroom discourse and online discussion groups. I’ve learned from my students arguably more so than they’ve learned from me. But what happens if the opinion that a student shares is one that you totally disagree with? The answer, of course and it’s hard sometimes is to…

The ability to think critically will benefit students throughout their lives. Here are a few tips on how to get started teaching it.

Being a model for what we expect is at times inconvenient and exhausting, but it comes with the job.

Too often, I've heard teachers talk about how helpless they feel when it comes to reaching out to their students. The days of being the person whose job it is to exclusively provide students with an education  and nothing more are long over. Honestly, some will say those days never existed. I've never wavered in my belief that teachers are much more than people passing out curriculum. For some students, school is the best part of their day because it offers an escape from their life at home. As teachers, it's important for us to understand that there is so much more to students than the life they lead in class, and it is important to show interest in a student outside of the day's homework. Here are three simple things a teacher can do to connect with students and…