Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Lessons Learned

Teaching has been everything I thought it would be but also a million things I didn't. They try to prepare you as best they can when you're in school and I was blessed to attend a school that provided me with over 200 hours of classroom experience before I began my teaching career. Yet still, each day I find myself learning more and more things about teaching as a profession and about myself as a teacher. So I thought I'd share a few of those here!

1. You can never have enough school supplies. Ok I admit it. I am a school supply hoarder. Do you mean to tell me I don't need 10,000 colorful pens or a million post-it notes? Because I most certainly do. I try to clean my desk out every year and you would think I've had these school supplies my whole life the way I refuse to part with them.




2. Organization will save your life...well your sanity anyway. I am the first to admit that my home may be a little disorganized and I may leave clothes on my closet floor and mail out on the table and I have definitely been know to leave dishes in the sink. But when it comes to my classroom organization is something I work very hard to maintain. Being organized helps my classroom run smoothly, keeps me from losing my mind and therefore makes my day much more pleasant. 

3. Patience is a virtue- my mom used to say this to me and I still have to say it to myself all the time. There are plenty of times where I am not patient but I work hard at it everyday and I apologize when I lose my patience with my sweet babies.

4. That brings me nicely to my next point- as an adult sometimes it is tempting to feel like we HAVE to be right all the time and don't want to admit to children that we were wrong. Especially as a teacher I think there is a worry that if I admit fault in something I may end up losing control of my class. This isn't true- and what I've learned is, that when I let my students see me as human- as someone who makes mistakes they are so much more likely to respect me and work with me. 

5.You need to take time for you. Teaching is unbelievably draining. And it is draining in every way possible. It is physically demanding. You are on your feet, running around, up and down off the floor and don't have time to really even use the restroom let along rest. It's also mentally draining needing to be on your toes while teaching, thinking on your feet to make last minute lesson plan adjustments as you see your students' minds working. Finally though it is emotionally draining- your students need so much from you and you become not only a teacher but also a mentor, counselor, custodian, nurse, mediator and a million other things. 22 little people need something from me every minute of the day and I love giving them every ounce of energy I have but it means I HAVE to take a little bit of time for me- when I get home or the weekends or whenever I can. When you give so much of yourself to others you have to refuel. 


Here's a bonus one!
Finally- teaching is without a doubt the best job there is. Even on the days where I feel like I want to cry (or really do cry) I am still so thankful for the sweet children that I have been blessed to work with and that I have a job that allows me the opportunity to be the bright spot in their lives.



4 comments:

  1. Excellent advice. Well said. I'm sure you are an amazing teacher. I'm sure of it.

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  2. You have a gift for teaching, and a love for teaching, and a love for children which is the absolute best combination in a teacher. Your students are blessed to be in your classroom.

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  3. One more thing-no such thing as too many post it's or colored pens : )

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