Top 10 Tips for Effective Teaching

1. EFFECTIVE TEACHING is as much about passion as it is about reason. It’s about not only motivating students to learn, but teaching them how to learn, and doing so in a manner that is relevant, meaningful, and memorable.
2. EFFECTIVE TEACHING is about substance and training students as consumers of knowledge. It’s about doing your best to keep on top of your field, reading sources, inside and outside of your areas of expertise, and being at the leading edge as often as possible. 
3. EFFECTIVE TEACHING is about listening, questioning, being responsive, and remembering that each student and class is different.  It’s about pushing students to excel; at the same time, it’s about being human, respecting others, and being professional at all times.
4. EFFECTIVE TEACHING is about not always having a fixed agenda and being rigid, but being flexible, fluid, experimenting, and having the confidence to react and adjust to changing circumstances. It’s about getting only 10 percent of what you wanted to do in a class done and still feeling good. Good teachers know where they need to be and when.
5. EFFECTIVE TEACHING is also about style. Should good teaching be entertaining? You bet! Does this mean that it lacks in substance? Not a chance! Effective teaching is not about being locked with both hands glued to a podium or having your eyes fixated on a slide projector while you drone on. Good teachers work the room and every student in it. They realize that they are conductors and the class is their orchestra. All students play different instruments and at varying levels. A teacher’s job is to develop skills and make these instruments come to life as a coherent whole to make music.
6. EFFECTIVE TEACHING is about humor. This is very important. It’s about being self-deprecating and not taking yourself too seriously. It’s often about making little jokes, mostly at your own expense, so that the ice breaks and students learn in a more relaxed atmosphere where you, like them, are human with your own share of faults and shortcomings.
7. EFFECTIVE TEACHING is about caring, nurturing, and developing minds and talents. It’s about devoting time, often invisible, to every student. It’s also about the thankless hours of grading, designing or redesigning courses, and preparing materials to further enhance instruction.
8. EFFECTIVE TEACHING is usually supported by strong and visionary leadership, and very tangible instructional support resources, personnel, and funds. Good teaching should always be supported, but may not always be the case. This is when a good teacher can easily burn out - because of a lack of support or becoming overwhelmed with it all.
9. EFFECTIVE TEACHING is about mentoring between senior and junior faculty, teamwork, and being recognized and promoted by one’s peers, and not soley by administration. Effective teaching should also be rewarded, and poor teaching needs to be remediated through training and development programs.
10. Last but not least, effective teaching is about having fun, experiencing pleasure and rewards…like locking eyes with a student in the back row and seeing a connection. It’s about the former student who says your course changed her life.