Blog Post 9

In Mr. McClung's post, at the teacher's desk What I've Learned this year 2008-09 he is sharing with his viewers his experiences during his first year of teaching. By doing this he is providing us with helpful tips for future educators. His first tip is how to read the crowd, he shares how he was always concerned with how he was being graded or observed that he was hurting himself by not letting his real teaching shine. He was thinking about himself, not his students or even his lesson focus. By giving your students more opportunities to interact it allows a lesson to be taught properly and be beneficial to the students! Next we must be flexible, when preparing a lesson before teaching have a mind set of it is not going to go as planned, because it never will. You must be open for questions and be prepared for anything and just go with it. Communication is another tip, he gives a sense of humor/sarcasm when stating that of course none of us have ever been involved in workplace drama, but if we might happen to stumble upon a situation in our near future talking the issue out will solve all problems! We must also be reasonable, as educators we should always expect the best from our students but we must also remember that they are learning and to not be too critical if it does not meet your "highest expectations". Instead of getting upset we must work with the students and give them the information in another format until they better understand the material. As educators we must not be afraid of technology. By having an open mind to learning how to use new tools we could help students succeed on another level. Listening to your students is essential. It is a very simple task but it is the one tool that will lead to the greatest success. By listening to your students it lets them know you care which will keep a child motivated for learning.
In Mr. McClung's third year of teaching in his post What I learned this year 2010-2011 he encounters many exciting new events in his career. He became the head coach for the schools cross country team and also became the teacher for computer applications. He provides us with tips for how to handle new challenges as a teacher. First we must know our boss. Trying to impress your boss should not be your goal, we should want to impress our students. We should be ourselves around our boss and find ways together to better our students education. Also not everyone will always hold the same exciting or interest in incorporating new things. Do not let it bring you down, staying positive will lead you in the right path. We must also be a leader and know when to follow. It is good to go with others at the appropriate time but we must also remember to be ourselves to do what works best for our classroom! When teaching we must allow our students to complete the task at hand on their own. As educators it is our job to guide them with instruction but they should be the ones physically and mentally completely the task, not us. If we do the work for them how will they ever learn? As educators we must never get comfortable, we should always incorporate new material. Using the same stuff over and over again can and will become boring for not only you to teach but your students may not be interested. I was very glad this was an assignment, I feel that I learned a tremendous amount of information from Mr. McClung that will be helpful for my future career.