My Advice To Future Teachers

I am writing this at the end of my third week of teaching. I don't even need to tell you that I in no way proclaim to know even a smidge of all there is to know about teaching. I can't give much advice to teachers in general, because most have had more experience than I have. What I can do is give advice to those who are thinking about becoming a teacher, or those who are now in college working towards it. Some of this you may know, some of it may seem like common sense, but all of it comes from my experiences.

1. Do not go into teaching for the money: Just in case you haven't joined the real world yet and don't know-- teachers are grossly underpaid. Professional athletes, doctors, and lawyers can make millions, but the ones who teach them how to read and write and add make barely enough to support themselves in this expensive soceity. In short... if you're going to teach, do it because you have a passion for it. Teaching might pay the bills, but you're neither going to have the time, energy, or funds to do much beyond that.

2. This is not a "leave work at work" kind of job: If you are looking for a job where you can go to work, work hard, and then leave and not think about it again until the next day, don't teach. Teaching requires much more time and energy than just what is spent during the school day. I have heard that the more you teach, the easier it gets. I am sure that is true. As for my experience at the moment, most of my time is spent on school-related matters. A typical day for me is: get up at five, get dressed and eat, leave by 6:40 am, get to school and teach, leave school by 4 or 4:30, get home at 5, work on preparing lessons until dinner, work on preparing lessons after dinner until 10 or 11, sleep. As you can see, not a whole lot of time for fun stuff. I wont sugarcoat it, it's hard. Just be prepared to work hard, but it does pay off in the end.

3. Remain calm: That sounds like a suggestion for an emergency situation. Well, it is. Let's face it, stuff happens. You can never possibly know what might happen in the classroom until it does. As the teacher, you have to be calm about anything that happens. Long story short, if you freak out your kids are going to freak out too. On the other hand, if you stay calm there is a much better chance that your kids will. I actually had a lesson in this very topic today. As I was teaching in a center, I see my assistant with a somewhat startled look on her face mouthing for me to come to the back of the room. When I get to the back, she tells me to look in the sink. When I finally look in the right sink, there is a just born baby hamster laying in the sink. I have two hamster that are supposedly not pregnant and both girls. I am so shocked as I look and see that 5 baby hamsters have been born. Let's just say baby hamster are not "cute" Hairless and pink and tiny aren't right up my ally. Anyway, as much as I wanted to flip out and run out of the room, I didn't. If I had done that it would have set my kids into a tailspin. I had to figure out what to do first, and then adress the students about what had happened. This made it a learning experience instead of a wild classroom moment.

3. Be consistent with discipline: If you haven't learned already, classroom management and discipline are the hardest parts of teaching (at least for most people). Yelling and screaming are not necessary. To be a good classroom manager, all you really need to do is by consistent. That is so much easier said than done. I struggle with this more than any other thing. It is SO easy to get onto the "bad kid's" case big time. If you do that, however, you have to do the same to the kid who is usually perfect but made a bad mistake. Believe me, you'll wanna let this kid slide. Seems easy enough to be consistent, but it's really tough. I promise that it's the key to running and classroo

4. Relish in the victories: Teaching is so hard and so rewarding at the same time. You have to dwell on the small victories rather than the many failures. Think about the fact that you helped a child learn to tie their shoe for the first time or read their first book instead of the fact that one lesson you taught was a flop. The failures are going to happen, they're inevitable. Instead of dwelling on them, learn from them.

5. Captivate your audience: This is especially for teachers of younger children. It is essential to make what you are teaching interesting. Children have a short attention span as it is. If you are bored by what you're teaching, your kids will be even more bored. It pays to find an interesting, creative way to teach even the most dull topic.

6. Plan for way more than you ever think you can fit into a day: This is probably one of the biggest pieces of advice I can give. In my 4k class (and really for any age) any lag time in the class is a death sentence. The minute my kids notice that there is not something for them to do, they will spin out of control. Therefore, it is important for me to have more than enough activities for them to keep busy with. I would much rather not get to everything I planned than have a lot of extra time.

I hope this gives some kind of insight into teaching. I learn something new everyday, so I am sure that there will be things to add. Feel free to post any tips you may have if you're a teacher!

Peace