Trade secrets for teachers who want high performing classes.

A welcoming tone is set creatively by Teacher Karen Hamman at St Mary's R.C. Primary School

Round table discussions with teachers about their trade secrets.

Presently, I am having interesting discussions with schools and SMTs about the magic happening in their high performing classes.  The first school I engaged was Sibelius High School that is situated in the Steenberg area.

We wanted to know how certain teachers like Mr Reading, the Mathematical Literacy subject teacher, for example was able to achieve 100% pass rate and good quality passes in the 2014 NSC 2014 examination. What were the successful teachers doing differently in their classrooms?

Here are 10 trade secrets of how to transform your class into a high performing class, straight form the mouths of successful teachers at this school.

Ten teaching trade secrets 

1.   "It's all about your attitude. You have to change your personality before you go into the class. First prepare yourself and then prepare the content that you are going to teach. You must change your attitude and focus on the learners."

2.   "Don't make up your mind about the learners. Really get to know them. Find out who they are, where they are in terms of subject knowledge and then start right there. Take them from their starting point and work with them to bring them to the point you where you want them to be.  Win them over."

3.  " Set reasonable, achievable goals for each student and help each of the to track their progress all the time."

4.  "Set stretch goals for those student whom you know, have the potential to excel in your subject."

5.   "Prepare students for the examination. Let them practice examination questions all the time. Show them the pitfalls, how to match the length of the answer to the mark allocation. Drill this as much as you can."

6.  " Make sure that you have ample time to do constructive revision and consolidation. Plan your sessions well and show students where they are improving or where they are getting stuck."

7.  " Praise students genuinely when they master any aspect, no matter how small. Don't assume the learners can cope without your regular input."

8.  " Students know when we really deeply care. They pick up our energies and they will know when our words are different to our beliefs in or of them."

9.   "You can't leave building relationships with students to chance. You must be in there first."

10.   Use all the resources you have to enrich your teaching. Share these resources wit the students. Show them where to find them and how to use them."


There you have TEN practical, doable teaching secrets you can use immediately. What do you think?