Nov 14 5 things you are grateful to have learned in your teaching career
My hope is that you might take a shortcut through the years it has taken me to learn the following lessons:
1) Post the day's plan. Maybe the rest of you figured this out before I did, but the realization made a huge impact on my confidence. I post the day's bullets on the back board where I (and students) can see it. It reminds me where I've been and where I'm going. Brilliant.
2) On that bullet list, I mark at least one activity with a star. This indicates that the activity will involve talking, interaction and movement. I promise my students that there will be at least one star on each day's agenda.
3) Go deep, not broad. My students spend most of their days going broad: gathering vague, wide information. My room invites them to go deep. This is a lesson I have to keep re-learning. It is better to learn one concept for life than to remember 20 lessons for one week. I mean that.
4) Like the kids. The #1 question kids enter a room with is "Will my teacher like me?" My answer is yes. I am paid to fake it 'til I make it. This isn't a shortcut I learned over the years; rather, it's been a mindset that has grounded my teaching from day one. It minimizes discipline issues, it increases student motivation, and it warms the room.
5) Stay on top of the grading. I have learned that it is much better to stay current with reading/responding to student work than to put it off. (I say this even as I have last week's essays back-piled. Let's just say this is a lesson I am still learning.)
Wow. This list was spontaneous and certainly not exhaustive. It also inspires me to think of a "Do Not..." list of lessons. Maybe I'll save that for another post...
1) Post the day's plan. Maybe the rest of you figured this out before I did, but the realization made a huge impact on my confidence. I post the day's bullets on the back board where I (and students) can see it. It reminds me where I've been and where I'm going. Brilliant.
2) On that bullet list, I mark at least one activity with a star. This indicates that the activity will involve talking, interaction and movement. I promise my students that there will be at least one star on each day's agenda.
3) Go deep, not broad. My students spend most of their days going broad: gathering vague, wide information. My room invites them to go deep. This is a lesson I have to keep re-learning. It is better to learn one concept for life than to remember 20 lessons for one week. I mean that.
4) Like the kids. The #1 question kids enter a room with is "Will my teacher like me?" My answer is yes. I am paid to fake it 'til I make it. This isn't a shortcut I learned over the years; rather, it's been a mindset that has grounded my teaching from day one. It minimizes discipline issues, it increases student motivation, and it warms the room.
5) Stay on top of the grading. I have learned that it is much better to stay current with reading/responding to student work than to put it off. (I say this even as I have last week's essays back-piled. Let's just say this is a lesson I am still learning.)
Wow. This list was spontaneous and certainly not exhaustive. It also inspires me to think of a "Do Not..." list of lessons. Maybe I'll save that for another post...
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| Kylie (to my right) asked that we take this picture during editing today. Not our best picture, but I'm always happy that my kids consider Room #408 a haven--and a photo op. |
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