Blog Post #9

What I've Learned This Year- Mr. McClung
    In this post by Mr. McClung, he discusses the most important lessons that he learned during his first year of teaching. The first lesson he discusses is how to read the crowd. Teachers often become consumed by the idea that they are the most important person in the classroom. However, they need to realize that the audience- their students- are really the ones who drive the instruction. Teachers need to remember to check for students' comprehension instead of just gliding right through the lessons. The second piece of advice he offers is to be flexible. You may have the ability to create the perfect lesson, but that does not mean that everything will go according to plan. The most important thing for teachers to remember in this situation is that things are going to happen and things are not always going to go according to plan.When things go wrong, you have to make the best of the situation and keep going. The third lesson he discussed was about communication. Communication is essential in any workplace and it is absolutely necessary to have strong relationships with your fellow teachers. The fourth lesson was to be reasonable. Often times teachers set goals for their students that are simply not attainable. When teachers set their students up to "fail" in a sense it is only going to hurt their self-esteem. When discussing this lesson he stated "Our job as teachers is to simply pick them up after they fail, dust them off, and encourage them to try again." This quote really stood out to me because I think it speaks volumes of what our expected role as a teacher is. We have to be positive reinforcements for our students, we cannot constantly bring them down if they do not perform at certain levels. We need to make sure that they learn the material and give feedback in the most positive way possible. The fifth lesson was simply to not be afraid of technology. Technology is becoming more and more a part of our education systems, thus it will be critical that we master it. The only way to learn technology is by using it and not being afraid of it. The final lesson discussed in his post was to listen to your students. Student teacher relationships are important to have in a good classroom. One way to assure the appropriate level of respect is present in those relationships is to listen to your students. It is important to take interest in students' lives and to just take time to listen to the things they have to say. 
     I really enjoyed reading his post and I am so grateful that we were able to see into the first year of the rest of our lives. I think it will be really beneficial for us to know kind of what to expect. Also, I am only a junior so I was able to read this post and get an idea of what I need to be working on to be prepared. For example, I know for fact that I am the type of person who sets goals that are extremely high. Knowing that I cannot do this with my students, I can start working on setting more attainable goals now so that I have hopefully mastered it by the time I graduate.