Blog Post #9

What I've Learned This Year

“NO LESSON IS EVER PERFECT. THE LESSON YOU TEACH AND THE ONE YOU PLAN ARE ALWAYS DIFFERENT."

The blog post  What I've Learned This Year (2008-2009), written by Joe McClung reflected on his first year of teaching. He talked about his first year accomplishments as well as those things that he learned from. Reading his reflections gives you a firsthand look at his personal experiences. These experiences can be related to when you are going through your first year of teaching. I think it is important to notice that he did not have a PERFECT first year. He was human and he LEARNED as much as he TAUGHT in that year. This blogpost was reassuring and made me feel less worried and more confident about being in the modern technologically advanced classroom. He gave advice on how to read a class or crowd of people, this is a very vital and important lesson to learn and remember. Mr. McClung thought teachers were often too worried about pleasing the administration and staff rather than focusing on the students, and the the lessons at hand. He included in his blog a reminder to teachers to be flexible, this is very good advice. Students lives and classroom disruptions are unpredictable and change on a day to day basis. Communication and interpersonal skills are very important when building relationships with children and adults, with students, parents and staff members.

  What I Learned This Year

What I Learned This Year was Mr. McClung's third year blog entry. He spoke of his second and third year teaching in the same school.  He spoke about really knowing who you report to and to focus on the students and not on impressing other teachers. If you spend your energy worrying about other teachers or staff members opinions, you lose focus on your students. Your goal as a teacher is not to be a people or student pleaser, your goal should be to TEACH your students and help make them truly learn. It is very important to remember that focus. Mr. McClung also commented on not getting too comfortable and how experience made his job easier. However, if you become too comfortable in a classroom setting you are more likely to fall victim to routine. Don't get me wrong routines can be great habits to form, but routines are boring. Routines cause us to lose focus. Mr.McClung warns us of this habit in his blog posts. I enjoyed reading these posts very much, they are very helpful, and honest.