Tammy’s Teaching Tips
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In the classroomNew teachersFuture teachers

Don't spend your own money on incentives

Bribery works. The things kids want most happen to be free.

With Tammy Striler · 2:06 · Filmed fall 2020

What to take away

  • Kids love working for incentives — you just don't need to buy trinkets to do it.
  • Lunch with the teacher. The beach chair for a day, with a towel and a water bottle.
  • Sitting at the teacher's desk with a bucket of special office supplies. Sitting by a friend.
  • Pro tip: limit lunch-with-the-teacher to about once a month, or you'll lose every lunch you have.

Why it works

Teachers spend a startling amount of their own money on their classrooms. Tammy's experience is that the free things win anyway — what the kids are actually buying is your attention, and a beach chair is just the excuse.

TS

Tammy Striler

Founder · classroom teacher

Thirty years in the classroom, most of them with the door open and a student teacher in the back. Tammy started these tips because the best things she learned came from other teachers over lunch, and nobody was writing them down.

Next up

2:01
In the classroom

Use humor

Let them see you're human. It's what they'll actually remember.

New teachersFuture teachersVeteran teachers

With Tammy Striler

0:56
Relationships

Be that teacher

Think of the teacher who changed something for you. Now go be that person.

Future teachersNew teachersVeteran teachers

With Tammy Striler

1:01
Relationships

Is this the hill you want to die on?

The answer is no. Save the hill for something that matters.

New teachersFuture teachersVeteran teachers

With Tammy Striler

Every other tip

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