The Jennifer Collins article made me smile a little. She breaks it into 6 steps. 1.You will need armor. Loving kids is great but you will need more due to the demands of the job. The armor is the self confidence built out of the belief that you can be a transformative teacher. 2.You will be stretched beyond your limits in many different ways. I love the quote she gave from the veteran teacher from her past,“You are what the kids need you to be at that moment.’ The bandaid for the invisible cut was and is still a classic. Sometimes that bandaid is rescuing a different part of the student. They might just need your compassion at the moment. So, the different hats advice is something I totally agree with. 3.Keep those bad class pictures. This part I loved. You can just feel the emotion radiating off of her words. Poignantly being reminded of the students that might have driven you a little crazy while looking at your funky hairstyle and clothing choices. 4.Dismissing the idea of a perfect lesson. I think this one was pretty great too. Because everyday is so different, all the individuals working together on learning something will always shape your lessons a bit, no matter how you plan. 5. You’ve got to care that these are special little people even if they are rowdy and they might have to learn how to behave socially. If you build good rapport with students, classroom management will be smoother. 6. Don’t give up. Well, that one is pretty straight forward but I will most likely still keep my daydreams alive and well. For all those other fabulous jobs like marine biologist, zoologist, tree-house mansion builder, astronaut.
The Elizabeth Bondy and Elyse Hambacher article was an article we went over as a group in class and it brings up so many important ideas to consider as a teacher and as just a fellow human being. Don’t assume seems like an important take away. Don’t let statistics skew your view of students’ potential. Expecting greatness from your students is okay and may just be what they have been waiting for. If I had a dollar for every time a professor rolled their eyes about someone having lofty ideas of transforming the world around them. I could take us all out for dinner. I think hope, overhauling students’ deficit views of themselves and teaching with urgency are the parts of the article that ring so loudly for me. I love the notion of working to make the world a better place. Great article :o>
https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/10-effective-classroom-management-tips
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