Teaching Today publishes innovative teaching tips on a weekly basis. Written with the busy teacher in mind, each tip is concise, practical and easy to implement in the classroom right away. Topics covered in Teaching Today are classroom management, career development, high stakes testing, instruction and planning, parental involvement, reading in the content areas, using technology in the classroom, and portfolio development. Teaching Today also offers free weekly downloads that correspond to the tips. Our free downloads make implementing the teaching tips even easier. Teaching Today provides educational resources for teachers looking for everyday solutions to the challenges of the classroom.
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Classroom Instruction

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Weekly Tips
Free Downloads
Feature Articles


Weekly Tips

Getting Organized Organization before entering the classroom is critical to the success of your course. Adult students need to feel their time in the classroom will be time well spent. This week we focus on planning and organizing the course material.

Lecture Overhead Design Well-designed overheads will enhance lectures and help your students understand the material. This week we will help you take advantage of certain aspects of slide design to save time and improve the overall appearance of your overheads.

PowerPoint® Power Tips Microsoft PowerPoint is the standard software program used for developing overheads. This week we will cover five “power” tips, featuring powerful or unusual PowerPoint functions and resources.

Instructor Management and Communication Good presentation skills are a must for instructors. In a classroom, the way you deliver the material is as important as the organization of the material. This week’s tips will help you with both non-verbal and verbal skills.

Instructor Management and Visual Aids—Part 1 Visual aids, or visuals, can enhance or distract from your delivery. Used appropriately, visuals enhance student learning and retention. Used inappropriately, visuals distract from both. This week’s tips focus on different types of visuals.

Instructor Management and Visual Aids—Part 2 This week’s tips focus on two types of visual aids used in the classroom—overhead projector transparencies and boards. To become more effective at using these forms of visuals: practice, practice, practice.

Instructor Management and Visual Aids—Part 3 This week’s teaching tips focus on using physical objects and pictorial reproductions for visual aids. For example, always match your lectures with visual aids that are appropriate for the material you are teaching. If you’re teaching a course on architecture, it may not be possible to present a physical building, but you can show a pictorial reproduction.

Assessment—Part 1 Evaluating student learning is somehting that all instructors do. At one time, evaluation meant a written test of students’ recall of the course material. Today, more than written tests are required to evaluate student performance. This week’s Teaching Tips focus on different methods of assessment.

Assessment—Part 2 Finding new and valid ways of evaluating student learning is always a challenge for instructors. In addition to objective testing, written essays, and oral examinations, instructors have new alternatives for assessment. This week’s Teaching Tips focus on some of these alternatives.

Assessment—Part 3 Evaluating student learning and development is one of your most important tasks as an instructor. As traditional methods continue to remain important assessment tools, alternative methods also are being used. This week’s Teaching Tips include both. Check out this week’s Download Depot for a quick reference sheet.

Assessment—Part 4 Performance assessment is a means of evaluating a wide range of student abilities, including communication skills, critical thinking skills, and approaches to problem solving. This week’s Teaching Tips give you guidelines for using performance assessments in your courses.

Academic Skills To foster your students’ learning in academic areas, make academic skills a regular part of your classroom activities. Even adult students need your guidance and assistance with academic skills. This week’s Teaching Tips provide you with guidance to help your students.

Guest Speakers Inviting guest speakers into your classroom can be an effective means to raise issues, impart real-life experiences, and drive home a specific lesson. This week's Teaching Tips focus on who to invite into your classroom, how to find speakers, and other helpful information.

Study Skills An essential skill for students in the classroom and in the workplace is the ability to study and to understand written material. This week’s Teaching Tips will help your students with the SQ3R study method, a five-step system of studying.

Instructor Management: Keeping Safe Safety is something every instructor would like to take for granted. Don’t. You cannot afford to. As the instructor, it is your responsibility to keep your students as safe as possible in case of severe weather or other emergencies. This week’s Teaching Tips focus on safety—yours and your students.

Wrapping Up the Year Endings are important. They leave students with their final impressions of you, the course and its contents, and their classmates. This week’s Teaching Tips offer advice for a successful wrap-up.


Free Downloads

Sample Syllabus
A sample syllabus that will lead you through the creation of a course syllabus.

Overhead Font Master
Samples of appropriate fonts to use in overhead presentations.

Overhead PowerPoint Template
A template for formatting overhead slides made using PowerPoint.

Onscreen PowerPoint Template
A template for formatting on-screen PowerPoint presentations.

Presentation Skills Checklist
A tool to assess your presentation skills.

Charts and Graphs
An exercise to help you investigate different types of charts and graphs.

Visual Aids Checklist
A checklist for using overhead projector transparencies and boards.

Visual Aid Feedback
A survey you can give students to obtain feedback about how effective your visual aids are and how to improve them.

Sample Assessment Rubric
A sample rubric for assessing student performance.

Building Your Portfolio
Steps for creating a student portfolio and examples of content to include.

Assessment Strategies
Quick reference listing the different types of student assessment strategies.

Performance Assessment
Sheet for students to fill out when planning their performance assessment.

Inviting Guest Speakers
Procedures students can use to invite a guest speaker as part of a class assignment.

Academic Skills
Student questionnaire that ties academic skills to success in the workplace.

The SQ3R Method
Overview of the SQ3R (survey, question, read, recite, review) study method with space for comments.

Safety Check List
Form where you can record important safety information.

Learning Inventory
Questionnaire to use at the end of a course, to help students realize what they've learned and accomplished.


 Feature Articles

Instructors and Leadership Ways that you, as an instructor, can have a powerful impact that goes beyond your classroom and your immediate students.

Assessment in Higher Education Overview of student and course assessment philosophies and strategies.

Diversity in the Classroom: Assimilating Differences Among Adult Learners and Gifted Students Discussion about acknowledging and incorporating individual diversity to increase the effectiveness of classroom instruction.

Linking the Real World to the Classroom Ideas for making the classroom experience relevant to each student’s professional goals and personal life.



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