And, also like many of my colleagues, I was not encouraging enough. How I would like to go back and mark those papers again. I would spend far more time looking for what the students did right and working to build on those strengths, rather than pointing to weaknesses. Raising students' self-esteem, of course, is not enough either. Without solid content, it's like a house with a crumbling foundation.
Solid standards mixed with encouragement is the cement for real learning.
Using a variety of teaching styles . I really didn't understand how we all learn in different ways. Today, we know so much more about the brain and a myriad of ways to reach different students. I lectured a lot in my early classroom days. The use of audiovisual equipment was in its primeval stage then, and the machines never seemed to be available.