Teaching is as Easy as A to Z

Dindean Abalahin reveals where she finds the best tips on classroom management.

Being a preschool teacher sure has its ups and downs but one thing is for certain—you should be on your toes at all times because no one could predict how and what would pique these children’s interest. And as teachers, we know once you’ve lost your children’s interest in the classroom, it could only mean one thing—CHAOS!

Experienced teachers may find this easy to deal with, but what about the greenhorns? I’d say WING IT! And by that I mean draw out the best strategy you could think off the top of your head, implement it right away and yank your students back into the lesson. One website you may find useful in helping you develop these strategies is A to Z Teacher Stuff.

A to Z Teacher Stuff is a fabulous site for all things “teacher-y”. Browsing through the site is a breeze. Different aspects for being a teacher are categorised accordingly. And what makes me visit the site often is the abundance of articles on classroom management and teacher sharing.  For example, you can find articles like Robert Stahl’s “Using Think-Time and Wait-Time Skillfully in the Classroom” which gives tips and discusses the importance of that “silent moment” for thought process to maximise learning in class.

One particularly useful feature of the site is the way they organise their material. One could immediately go directly to a particular category—whether for printable worksheets, teaching and classroom management tips, and fun teaching tools.

And although most of the subjects, themes, and links found on the site are American in orientation, it’s easy to localise the topics by replacing subject matters with those your children are currently interested in—INTERESTED being the operative word here. Because no matter how well you plan your lesson, if you don’t pique their interest, there is no point carrying on. So don’t feel bad about throwing your lesson plan for the day out the window. And practice winging it!