Blog Assignment #9

I would like to break this down into the two different end of the year reflections that Mr. McClung wrote about his teaching experience.

The first reflection I read was from his first year of teaching. He gave a list of key concepts that helped him with teaching and that he feels make us improve overall as teachers with our students and with fellow faculty. I think that his first topic of reading the crowd is really understated by most teachers. So many teachers tend to teach "their" way instead of reading how their students are responding to their teaching style. I have preached in my blogs that teachers have to find a way to spark the interests of students in the classroom. Many of them tend to fall short in this very important aspect of teaching. Another point that he touched on was the need to have reasonable expectations for your classroom. It's great to expect all of your students to make A's; but, we have to plan that some students will fall short and we have to find a way to help them just as much as the student that breezes through the class. Kids have very fragile levels of confidence and it doesn't take much to shatter that confidence. I think one of the most important responsibilities of teachers is to build their confidence and reinforce a positive communication with them when a struggling student is showing even the smallest improvements.

The second reflection I read was from his third year of teaching. He talks about the changes he has gone through in his career as far as adding coaching and going to professional development classes to further enhance his teaching skills. I enjoyed his point about knowing who your boss is. I really plan on making my students my number one priority!!!! They are the reason we are there. It is not for the administrative staff, the other teachers, or anybody else in the school system. Our job is to educate and prepare kids to be quality citizens in the world one day. So don't get so wrapped up in impressing your boss that your students are the ones who suffer. Another part that was really cool and something I have added to my memory is "Don't Touch the Keyboard!" What he is saying is don't take the work and do it for your students. Teach them to do something but let them do the steps on their own. I have learned that the hands-on process has always been the most effective tools that anybody ever taught me. In fact, I used this subject in the "My Sentence" project from earlier in the semester. If you have the time to check it out, you will know what I am talking about. What a great idea for all educators to do. We all should do reflections on a yearly basis. It can be like a diary that we can go back and look at when we are older!!