Some Teaching Tips

I. Visual Communication and Blackboard presentation Techniques:

1. Plan beforehand how you will use your blackboard and what you will write on it.
2. Write legibly. Separate your letters.
3. Write fast, but not at the expense of clarity.
4. Write with force, always bold and thick.
5. Dividing the blackboard space into several portions is usually found helpful.
6. Always use standard abbreviations. You may also use your own but observe consistency in employing them.
7. Do not crowd in writing or in drawing, individually or together.
8. Indicate change of topic in the sequence of writing.
9. Draw your diagrams neatly. Use coloured chalks if necessary.
10. Number the important topics and record them somewhere in a convenient place on the blackboard. Informative titles visible on the blackboard for a set of points that you are discussing would be helpful.
11. Besides the blackboard, you may have to think of other props, such as prepared models or drawings or projections from an overhead projector.

II. Oral Communication and Presentation Techniques:

1. Articulate your words, especially the technical ones clearly and distinctly. This will compensate for any habit of pronunciation which you cannot overcome. Give appropriate stress to the various syllables of your words in speech. This is like separation of your letters in writing.
2.  If you have discovered that your articulation is still not well understood, compensate for poor articulation by more writing on the blackboard.
3. Regulate your fast speaking by more intensive articulation.
4. When needed, and only when needed, pause correctly. This will help articulate well and emphasise the points also.
5. Adopt a natural conversational style in your language rather than the style of plat-form speech.
6. Avoid longwinded sentences; break them into many simple ones.
7. Use any visual prop, to break the monotony of continuous talk. Even blackboard is a visual prop to your lecture.
8. Coordinate your speaking with what you write on the blackboard.
9. You may have a mannerism of repeatedly using certain words like ‘O.K.’, ‘Say’, ‘and’, ‘then’, ‘now’, etc., be conscious of the same; avoid jarring use of the same thing.
10. Talk loud and clear. Watch for the unconscious lowering of the pitch of your voice.
11. Put forward your key ideas in a sequence. Use a flow chart method if possible.
12. Begin with a reasonable outline and keep it available throughout the lecture. This outline along with the important points that you have stored will help you summarise the lecture at the end.
13. When you leave out any details, indicate this fact clearly.
14. A summary at the end of each topic is worthwhile.
15. Focus attention on the more important points, voice modulation or repetition will help you emphasize certain points.
16. Keep your prepared lecture within your speech.
17. Try to drive home the general point and see that there is no confusion with exceptional cases.

III. Awareness about the Audience

1. Face the audience and make eye contacts. Look them in the eye.
2. Adopt a posture which is not static. A static posture is conducive to boredom. Keep scanning the entire class even during an intense explanation at the blackboard.
3. Inter-relate your subject with other studies, subjects and wherever possible, with real life situations.
4. Relate your theory to any associated lab. While doing this be conscious of the fact that it is likely that some of your students may not have done that lab.
5. Link your current lecture with the past and the future lectures.
6. Keep the audience alert by having dialogues with them.
7. Do not get absorbed in your subject so much that you forget your audience.
8. Be aware of the academic ground of your class. Take this into account even while planning your lecture.
9. Show genuine concern and warmth to your audience.
10. Avoid unnecessary repetition. Be clear about what you require from your students in the classroom. Do you want them to write down everything that you say or do you want them to come prepared and mostly listen to you in class and take down only key points?
11. Come out of your place near the blackboard once in a while. This is a technique which you can use when you want to change the topic. A physical displacement of your static position psychologically indicates a change in the topics also.
12. Abstraction and illustrative concrete situations should be balanced as per needs and maturity of class.
13. If a question is asked from the audience and you think others should know it, repeat it to the class before answering it.
14. One method of keeping the students alert is to ask questions and involve them in what is going on. Asking the right questions is an art. There are several objectives in asking questions. Be clear what your objective is. Plan and be ready to handle different types of responses when you ask questions. It should be possible to link them with your own lecture.
15. The global picture of the whole course and perhaps the whole subject is usually missed by a teacher who is obsessed with details. A student usually wants to know where he is being taken and what this is all about. Remember this.