performance that falls short. Hold students accountable for their performance, but look for the cause of problems and help the student find a solution. 10. Teach to the appropriate level. Make sure the tasks are at the level which is both challenging and possible. Each student and each class has a personality. Recognize each student's capabilities and limitations, as well as the particular "chemistry" of the group. 11. Build a love for the discipline. Develop a spirit which helps the student look willingly and confidently into more advanced aspects of the discipline. Show where, how and why knowing what you teach can make the students' lives better. Look beyond the text, the classroom, and the sch ool to bring in outside stimuli. Make maximum use of the limited resources available to you.Plenty good guidelines, don't you think? Teaching has always been more an occupation than a profession. Traditionally, important decisions affecting classrooms have been made not by teachers, but by administrators and policymakers. They have determined the content of the curriculum and how it should be taught, selected textbooks and materials, and decided which standardized tests would be administered. Teachers exercised limited freedom, behind the closed doors of their classrooms. To some degree, the low-status nature of teaching has prevailed because it has largely been women's work. Before the 1960s, a woman aspiring to a career had essentially two choices: nursing or teaching. Public schools had no trouble staffing their classrooms with women who were willing to work in unappealing conditions for low wages. Though women have more career options today, eight out of 10 beginning teachers are still female. And while many teachers find the profession challenging and rewarding enough to make up for low salaries and frustration, many leave the classroom for better pay--and better working conditions. After all, classroom teaching conditions are a lot like...
