The performance in school determines student progress.  It is the collective responsibility of the teacher to ensure that the pupils are continually improving in their academics. Therefore, teachers should come up with techniques, guidelines, and strategies to help pupils achieve better results in their education. In the recent past, I have come up with various methods that have had a positive effect on the pupil’s progress.

During my two weeks of training workshop on “Effective Communication,” I learned the proper channels of communication. Hence, I introduced study groups in my classes. According to researchers, pupils understand better when discussing with their peers. Rather than memorizing and reciting. I allow students to work in small groups with learning guides as I facilitate the whole process.  I introduce a new topic, assign time to discuss, let them progress at their own pace, come up with a report and later on they present in front of the class. This mode of teaching allows students to use critical thinking skills, creativity, and teamwork to solve a problem. These skills, later on, reflect in the classwork, homework, and tests. Teachers can as well identify areas of weakness and to more concentrate more on that. Also, leaners boost their confidence and build on the communication skills.

I regularly share the learning objectives with my students. It involves breaking down the expectation of the learning process to the students. It is crucial that pupils have a clear understanding of what they are trying to learn, why they are learning this and how they can recognize achievement and levels of success. Pupils can achieve set goals when they are aware of the success criteria as they can judge the quality of their work and know where to improve (Valiances and Neophyte 125).

Another key element to student progress is creating a balance of fun and fundamentals of learning in the classroom. A warm and engaging environment boosts confidence and motivates students in learning. In that, there is no fear of failure as the students and the teacher support you both in strengths and weaknesses. Games or plays lighten up the mood in the classroom. I usually chose a topic already learned in class, but not well understood by the pupils. I write a script, assign every student a role and let them act. After the play, they will share with the class what they learned. It is a very effective method of teaching as it enhances mastery of concepts effortlessly. Statistics show that pupils concentration improves while playing or acting making it easy for them to grasp the new ideas, knowledge, and skills very fast. With due time you will find that the students’ performances improve significantly. Furthermore, learner’s perception of concepts that seemed hard changes drastically as a result, creativity, exploration, experimentation, and curiosity is tapped and encouraged.

Awarding students with gifts annually for good grades and behavior motivation is an essential aspect of student success. Pupils became more proactive, focused and driven towards their studies. Other than the annual gifts I encourage my students to feel suitable for working hard. The overall performance of students gradually improves when adequately motivated. Best way to help students’ progress is to talk and do less than the students. I lay out the lesson objective and explain how one pair will introduce the topic to the class, another one will discuss the subject, and the last one will conclude the lesson. Teaching is a form of learning on its own, and as teachers, we should create room to enable our students to improve by just doing that regularly. Pupils become more responsible, independent and develop a thorough approach to their academic work.

(Goldstein 433).

At the beginning and end of the semester, I invite parents for a meeting to discuss the child’s academic report. We track the student progress to establish areas that need recommendation or improvements. I also remind them of the importance of them being present in their children’s academic and extracurricular activities. As support from family member helps the pupils’ feel appreciated and a part of a team . Involvement of the family in the academic life of the student boosts the overall performance of the student. They start to attain better attendances, higher grades and excel to higher levels of education.

With the world constantly changing, I make a point of being up to date with the latest changes and advancements in my subjects and disciplines. This way I can engage my students in productive tasks and activities. Breadth and depth knowledge in a particular subject motivate students that they can as well achieve greater heights in education as the right books and technological resources are at their disposal.

Improvement in the marking and assessment criteria to adopt a new way of rewarding marks.  It involves going through students reports, tests to deduce the sequence of arriving at a particular answer. By doing this, I can appropriately dispense stamps for every valid point rather than following the generated marking scheme. Creates room for creativity as students are allowed to master concepts and internalize in different ways.

Before the start of the classes, I ensure all the lesson plans are well arranged to achieve maximum efficiency  I deliver the explanations and narrations at speed consistent with the students understanding and internalizing new knowledge, concepts and skills. Teaching and learning is a two-way process one require the other. I also have a dialogue with my pupils and reflect on the progress they are making, identify the areas that need modification, analyze what kind of support I can lender or extension might be required to ensure the pupil’s individual needs are taken care off. In due time the results of the students reflect positive progress a

Once in a while, I break the monotony of learning inside the classroom. I assemble my students in an open area it can be under shade, or in the school compound and conduct my lesson. Breaks down constraints that students may experience being in the same environment for a long time. You will find that the students are thrilled and eager to learn under this circumstance. Also, the chances of retention of contents that they learned at this time are very high.

They are personalizing learning to be relevant to student success by creating and formulating lesson plans fit for student understanding and geared towards continuous growth. The idea is to reduce the time set aside for exam preparation. If a pupil masters the content its an assurance that they will be ready for the test. It gives the teacher ample time to deliver the scheme of work efficiently without fear of running out of time (Rodrigues and Oliveira 32).

Consulting coaches to customize learning. When I am having issues with one of the students academically, I look at the student data and then have a conversation with a coach, and he can offer assistance through various techniques and strategies. Use of formative assessment designed by professionals to increase the capacity of teachers to personalize learning and target instruction to meet individual student needs.  A coach helps one to track student growth and identify gaps and weaknesses. Incremental positive growth is evident in students who have difficulty in some areas. (Del Schalock  237)

In anticipation of the start of the classes, I inform the Administration and the parents to purchase the learning materials required. Pupils should have the right tools; books and learning materials that are up to date, built on proven teaching methods and written in a language student understand. Presence of the materials facilitates the smooth learning process and ensures students move at the same speed as the teachers and ensure nobody is left out.  Furthermore, the tools act as reference materials in the future. The books also encourage a reading culture among the students.

Educational progress is rarely linear, but with consistency, resilience, proper guidance, and motivation teachers will fully unleash the student potential. Fostering broad skills will not be achieved by adding additional subjects or content to the curriculum, or adding a new class with its assessment, but instead requires a different way of teaching the academic subjects already prioritized in any given country’s curriculum. With the techniques, I have put in place believe I am nurturing children with the breadth of knowledge and skills they need to become healthy and active members of the society.

Rodrigues, Fátima, and Paulo Oliveira. “A system for formative assessment and monitoring of students’ progress.” Computers & Education 76 (2014): 30-41.

Del Schalock, H. “Student progress in learning: Teacher responsibility, accountability, and reality.” Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education 12.3 (1998): 237-246.

Klassen, Robert M., et al. “Teacher efficacy research 1998–2009: Signs of progress or unfulfilled promise?.” Educational psychology review 23.1 (2011): 21-43.

Valiances, Starla, and Lefties Neophyte. “Teachers’ professional development for differentiated instruction in mixed-ability classrooms: investigating the impact of a development program on teachers’ professional learning and on students’ achievement.” Teacher Development 22.1 (2018): 123-138.

Shavelson, Richard J., and Paula Stern. “Research on teachers’ pedagogical thoughts, judgments, decisions, and behavior.” Review of educational research 51.4 (1981): 455-498.

Goldstein, Harvey. “Using pupil performance data for judging schools and teachers: scope and limitations.” British educational research journal 27.4 (2001): 433-442