To choose the best school curriculum, you must first fully understand what the coursework is meant to help students achieve. The age and education level of your students will have a large impact on your decision, as will your own personal preferences. Start by looking through any available options in terms of books and lesson plans, and discover which ones meet your needs the best.
In many cases, the school curriculum you choose will be partially, if not entirely, dictated by the government in your area. Specific topics and lessons are often required for each grade level, with certain tests and exams being required by every student in order to move on to the next grade. You will need to determine what these specifications are and be sure to comply with all regulations to ensure your students are getting a quality education.
Even with guidelines and rules in place, you will probably have some room to get creative with your school curriculum. You can choose your own lesson plans for many subjects, as well as new and fun ways of teaching required lessons. Create games for your students to reinforce learning, and tell plenty of stories from your own experiences to add to the depth of your school curriculum. These techniques will help concepts stay in your students’ minds longer.
If you are given any choice in the books from which you teach, read through every option carefully and decide which one best conveys the lessons you are teaching. In some cases, each book will have good and bad points, so you may be able to take a little from each. If buying multiple books for the classroom is not feasible, buy one copy or view them at the library and make photocopies of useful pages to use in class.
Another part of choosing the right curriculum is making out your actual lesson plans and homework schedules. Although you may have to adhere to specific lessons, it is often at your discretion how you go about teaching them. For classroom assignments, homework, and tests; take the best from each book as well as your own ideas and put them together in print-out worksheets. This will give students a much richer classroom experience.
Most importantly, encourage your students to ask plenty of questions and to give input throughout the year on ways you can make the classroom experience more productive and fun. By listening to your class, you can gain a better understanding of what they need in terms of school curriculum and from you as a teacher.