Teacher Presence

  • Developing Teacher Presence in the Classroom, College of Business, University of Western Sydney. Ways to create a presence, broken into strategies for preparing prior to class, establishing student rapport, and motivating students. Includes two small case studies of the strategies in action.
  • Face-to-Face Office Hours, Center for Teaching & Learning, University of Washington. Information on how to plan to effectively use office hours, including making them inviting and well-known to students..
  • , Teal Ruland, National Education Association. A list of body language dos and don'ts.
  • How to Develop Teacher Presence and Command Attention in Class, Kerra Maddern. Information on how to mask potential nerves in the classroom, how to appear in control, and various practical exercises that can be done at home to improve overall classroom presence physically and vocally.
  • Building Your Presence in the Classroom, Kathy Oxtoby. Tips on how to find the middle ground between authoritative and approachable in the classroom, including how to greet your students, what body language to avoid, and how to make best use of the physical classroom space.
  • The Myth of Teacher Presence, Tom Bennett. What the idea of teacher presence refers to, why it's impossible to quantify, and six tips for helping others to see you as having a strong presence.
  • Presence in Teaching, Carol P. Rogers and Miriam B. Raider-Roth, University at Albany, SUNY. Research article creating a theory of presence, defining it as self-awareness, connections to students, connection to subject matter, and overall pedagogical knowledge.
  • Top Tips for Trainee Teachers: Use Your Body Language to Control the Classroom - Flora Milne. Strategies for teachers to adopt for creating a known, calming presence within the classroom - includes tips for how to best deal with negative behavior and off-task students.
  • What's the Most Important Part of Classroom Management? - Rocky Biasi, Human Connections. Importance of presence for teachers, how it is different and works with teaching strategies, and questions to ask about your mindset when entering the classroom - introductory video for a larger course.

Building Rapport