Sure Fire Tips to Impress Your Teacher

Summertime and the livin's easy. . . so the song goes. However, in another month it's time to begin thinking back to school. There are some sure-fire strategies that will help just about every student become successful in the classroom. How do I know this? I am a middle school teacher and I am impressed by certain behaviors and actions. And in the classroom, it should be every student's goal to impress one person--the teacher.

Sure-fire tip number 1: Get a good night's sleep. How does that impress the teacher? When your teacher is standing before the class, explaining her heart out about global warming, the Pilgrims, or the formula for finding AREA, she wants to see wide-eyed boys and girls, listening to what she's saying. Anyone, not just teachers, would be terribly discouraged, if her audience was nodding off, yawning, or looking generally bored. While getting eight to ten hours of sleep won't cure all of that, it will definitely help. Often times, students who are not getting enough sleep, continually nod off. Not only are they missing out on learning, they are also missing out on impressing the teacher. Get a good night's sleep--it's a must in the classroom!

Sure-fire tip number 2: Show up! Yes, you heard it--show up. There is tremendous absenteeism in schools. Boys and girls wake up feeling tired, feeling a little under-the-weather, or feeling the need for a day off. Not good! Be there. Giving in to those negative feelings, in many cases, becomes a pattern. A teacher is highly annoyed by undisciplined behaviors from a student and begins to realize the student's priorities are all out of whack. Yes, there are truly legitimate reasons for a person's absence from school. And if a student does have a legitimate reason, then, by all means, stay home. But learn to know the difference. If a student misses an average of one day a week, then it's time to look at the reason for this. Probably, the reason is: I don't want to go to school. Attend school--it is a wonderful way to get on your teacher's good side.