ten things.

Ten really important things for all teachers to know. And I'm definitely going to hang these up by my desk.

As a little background to this post, I found George Pólya's 10 Commandments for Teachers in a textbook for perspective teachers. For those of you who don't know Pólya, he's a Hungarian mathematician and mathematics professor.

As a girl who's least favorite subject was always math, I was a little skeptical of him at first. But I think his 10 rules can be applied to teachers of any subject, age, and experience.

So here they are:

I. Be interested in your subject.

II. Know your subject.

III. Know about the ways of learning: the best way to learn anything is to discover it by yourself.

IV. Try to read the faces of your students, try to see their expectations and difficulties, put yourself in their place.

V. Give them not only information, but "know-how," attitudes of mind, the habit of methodical work.

VI. Let them learn guessing.

VII. Let them learn proving.

VIII. Look out for such features of the problem at hand as may be useful in solving the problems to come -- try to disclose the general pattern that lies behind the present concrete situation.

IX. Do not give away your whole secret at once--let the students guess before you tell it--let them find out for themselves as much as feasible.

X. Suggest it; do not force it down their throats

Easy rules, right? I can't wait to put them into practice! 

Psst...if you want to know where I found the rules online, click here.