Page 86 - Teaching Principles and Methods Student Textbook short

The teacher should always be able to answer diagnostic questions concerning his lesson. Here are some
examples. 1. What does this text say? 2. What does this text mean? 3. What is the big idea? 4. What
difference does it make? And 5. What must we change?

A Final Challenge

We have learned a great many truths in this course. We learned eight ways to prepare
ourselves to becoming effective teachers. We reviewed the process people go through
to learn something. Then we looked at the greatest teacher of all time to see how He
taught, and what made His teaching so elevated above other teachers.

We discovered that while you may not have the Spiritual Gift of Teaching, you can still
become a great teacher. After all, all of us are all called to teach, not just those with a special gift! We
learned that this special gift was given to some in the church to keep the church pure from error. That
might not be your calling, but perhaps you can teach a Sunday School class and by applying the
principles that you have been taught in the course, you can be a GREAT teacher.

We have demonstrated around 35 various teaching methods so you can implement a variety of useful
approaches during your teaching time. You learned how to start from scratch and prepare a lesson
along with the presentation. And with a little practice, you will find that teaching is so very rewarding
and becomes a lot of fun. Finally we looked at Matt Caps’ ten principles to becoming a more effective
teacher, many which had already been addressed in the previous lessons.

Now all it takes is for you as a student to apply these principles in your life and volunteer to teach a
class. You might want to start as a substitute for another teacher. Success in becoming a great teacher
will come from practice and more practice. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. But you have to
launch yourself forward and give it a try. Are you motivated enough to become a GREAT teacher? I
hope so!

What Makes a Teacher GREAT?

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