Blog Post 9

What I've Learned This Year - Mr. McClung
Mr. McClung shares seven things he learned from his first year of teaching elementary school in 2009. He notes he was young and inexperienced but has grown and matured as a person as well a teacher from his experiences. As almost reaching my graduation day and entering my very own first classroom, these seven things will be held onto and remembered: read the crowd, be flexible, communicate, be reasonable, don't be afraid of technology, listen to your students, never stop learning. The picture above is from his post and to me says everything about teaching.
The first, how to read the crowd, reminds you to center your students in your lesson plans. These are not all about you and how you present them, it's the material presented and how it will effect the students learning. He says, "In order to be effective you have to be able to let your audience drive your instruction." In being flexible he gives us a reminder that can be used in everyday life, not just teaching. When things go wrong don't beat yourself up about it, instead work with it and make it better. Things won't always go our way especially with finding the right lessons and activities, but we have to believe everything will work out. He says a great quote that I know I will hold on to, "No lesson is ever perfect. The lesson you teach and the one you plan are always different." He also adds to make sure we do everything with a smile on our face. Being flexible is being positive. Although communication is the hardest skills to develop, it's the best way to resolve issues. He encourages us to build strong relationships with teachers and students to help with communicating. "Our goal as teachers is to simply pick them up after they fail, dust them off, and encourage them to try again." I think that pretty much sums up how to be reasonable. Of course, we must set goals for our students but we must also know that they may not always reach them and that's okay as long as we did everything we could. Just because they didn't reach that certain goal, I'm sure there is plenty others they did reach along the way that we have to see. We have to look for the good in every student and situation. Next he talks about technology. He says we can't be afraid of it and give up. We have to learn to use it and know it will take time. Listening to your students is big for me. Just by listening to my students at dance or that I teach while subbing, I've learned so much! They really are smart in their own way that you have nothing to do with. They know more than you can imagine so we shouldn't ever dumb them down in our heads because they are not school smart. If we listen to our students and actually hear what they are saying, it's not only a learning experience but motivation. They know you care about them because you're taking the time to hear what they have to say and that motivates them to do their best. They listen to you talk all day about things they probably don't care about but they know you do, so we should do the same to them. As he says, we owe it to our students to keep learning. We can never know enough and in order to educate kids, we have to stay educated, as well.
I absolutely love everything about this blog post he wrote. It's so simple but yet so meaningful. He definitely sent motivation and inspiration this way. I encourage all teachers to read his post by clicking here.