Tag: inspiration
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21. Consider
Consider. I love this word. Instead of telling someone what to do, I ask them to consider something else. It softens a command to a request. It is effective for teachers, students, and parents. Instead of telling a parent, “You need to have a certain time every day to read to your child,” say “Consider…
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20. Evaluations
You are probably fully aware of how you will be evaluated as a teacher. If you are new to a grade level, a school, a district, or a state, you will most likely have more evaluations per year than someone who has been teaching the same grade in the same school for fifteen years. You…
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19. When an Administrator Tells You Something You Have Done Wrong; Just Own It.
Unless you are some type of cyborg, you are going to make mistakes. All humans make mistakes and it is the foundation of learning. When someone tells you that you sent the form home on the wrong day or you were not on your duty post by the time the bell rang, just own it.…
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17. Make Friends with the Secretary, Head Custodian, Media Specialist and Lunch Lady.
You may think that you want to quickly impress your grade level chair or rub elbows with the principal. Nonsense. The four critical relationships for a new teacher are the school secretary, the head custodian, the media specialist and the lunch lady. Those people run the entire school. I can promise you the principal has…
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11. Develop Routines and Practice Them.
The value and development of routines is definitely taught in college. Where many new teachers miss the mark is in the practice of them. They are ready to get all that stuff out of the way and start teaching lessons. There are several books that tell a teacher how to handle the first three days…
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12. Proximity Will Help You Manage a Group of Children.
When you arrange your classroom furniture, make sure you can easily get around every desk where a child sits. It is difficult for someone to misbehave when the teacher is standing right beside him. The teachers who sit behind a desk or table seem to have the most trouble with classroom management. You can offer…
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5. The Teacher Hasn’t Taught Until the Student has Learned.
One of the biggest lies a teacher tells herself when her students don’t perform well on an assessment is that she taught the content. What she did was a lot of talking about it, and a few volunteers accurately responded to her questions, so she believed the class was ready to test. You can talk,…
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Fire Drills
This blog is written especially for brand new teachers entering the profession. Most have had four years of university experience learning how to develop lessons that address curricular standards, differentiate for multiple learning styles and modalities, manage classrooms, and integrate technology. I was once that brand new teacher; ambitious, creative and ready to change the…
Fire Drills 