Ten years ago, Dru Sjodin went missing and one of her very dear friends was student teaching with me. This young teacher became part of my heart, soul and family! Four years later, the fiance of Joel Lovelien was in my room with me.
These anniversaries have made me reflect on the amazing, let me repeat - AMAZING young educators that have graced my classroom: Alicia, Erin, Joe, Mary, Rebecca, Heather, Brad, Laura.... I have been blessed by you all and have been so proud to call you friends... some have even become my extended "family" - I love them like siblings. Lucky! Yes, I am blessed!
So, with a new TEAM student starting in my classroom, I was reflecting on what I would tell a new teacher today. And this is my list:
1. There is more
than one way to teach effectively.
You must determine what works best with your personality and your
students while meeting the expectations of your administrator and school
district.
2. Get to know
your students. Listen, empathize, and above all be patient. Your students are
great people. Let them know that you care about them and their education.
3. Teaching is hard work. It is much more work than you ever
thought possible. It is essential that you are organized and use your time
efficiently. It is essential that
beginning teachers give themselves sufficient time to plan as well as learn to
be flexible.
4. Standards cannot be ignored. Look at the standards as an aid to good teaching. Standards
help you decide what to teach, support your decisions about what and how to
teach, and focus curriculum so that you do not spend too much time on a
favorite subject and ignore important concepts that must be taught.
5. Write objectives that focus on student learning. Focus on what you really expect
students to learn and to be able to do. Thinking about the criteria for student
success before giving an assignment will help you determine your
expectations. Clearly stating your
expectations upfront helps students to know what they need to do to be
successful.
6. Smile, and do so frequently. You may be the only adult who smiles or greets an individual
student warmly today. You may never know the importance of those smiles or other
expressions of caring. Remember, you do not know what has happened to your
students before they entered your classroom.
7. Respect your students. Treat your students as intelligent
humans beings. Students can be
taught responsibility for their own actions by following your example. This
means you should always be prepared, return papers promptly, and provide
feedback that is quick, helpful, and thoughtful.
8. Believe in your students even if they don’t believe in
themselves.
9. Don’t isolate yourself. It is essential that beginning teachers become proactive in
developing a support system. If
possible, establish a mentor relationship with an experienced teacher. A mentor
relationship encourages you to cooperatively seek solutions, increases your
awareness of alternatives, provides a sounding board to vent frustrations, and
allows you to learn from the experiences of a colleague.
10. It is not appropriate to teach the way we were taught. The
world is changing quickly and the way that teaching and learning takes place
should be completely different from the one you grew up in.
In summary, effective teachers are constantly learning from
their successes and failures. To be effective, one must look back on their
practices and assess what works well and what doesn’t.
More great advice:
How to Be a Teacher for More Than 5 Years Without Killing Yourself Or Others — Pursuing Context: