This weeks mentor for our blog assignment was Mr. McClung. He was a new teacher who had just completed his first year of teaching. Going into his first classroom he was young and inexperienced but in only a year, he learned things that some teachers take a lifetime to figure out. He gave pieces of advice which I felt would help me to be more successful in my future classroom. His advice was simple but meaningful.
1. Learn to read your crowd
2. Be flexible
3. Communicate
4. Be reasonable ( something thats hard to do sometimes)
5. Don't be afraid of technology
6. Listen to your students
7. NEVER STOP LEARNING
I think that so many times teachers just give up. It is important not to ever give up because your attitude will effect your students. Our world is constantly changing therefor we can never allow ourselves to stop learning. If, as teachers, we do this, we are neglecting our students of the learning environment that they deserve. I believe that all of his advice goes hand in hand with each other. First off we have to know our students and learn how to properly communicate with them and their parents. By doing so we learn how to become flexible with their needs and reasonable with the things we expect of them. We have to learn to listen to our students so that we can understand where their coming from. Not being afraid of technology is sometimes hard, but just like Mr. McClung said, we just have to keep on trying until we figure it out. Lastly and most importantly we can never stop learning. Not only should we follow this for our students, but for ourselves. So many times in life people become set in their routines so much that they do not realize on the oppurtunities that they are missing out on. I hope so much that as a teacher I too can live by these seven simple words of wisdom!
Abby,
ReplyDeleteI think many teachers just give up also, and this negatively affects the entire classroom environment. I think when teachers get fed up, they should turn to other educators like Mr. McClung and those around them. I also feel it is important to never stop learning. As educators, our main goal is to teach children and give them the tools to learn on their own. If we thought learning did not matter, our students would also feel this way and that would be disastrous. This was a great post! Good luck with school!
-Skye LaDart
I'm glad you capitalized "7. NEVER STOP LEARNING". Certainly Mr. McClung has not stopped learning! Take a look at his After Year 2 Reflection. And, as you can see from the readings this week, Mr. McClung is even a better teacher in Year 3.
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