Blog Post #9

You Gotta Dance With Who Brought You to the Dance

In, “What I Learned This Year – Volume 4”, Mr. McClung has written a reflection about his fourth year of teaching. Mr. McClung has written a reflective blog post each year, beginning with his first year of teaching. In this post he said he did not learn as much as he thought he had.

Mr. McClung wanted to define himself as a teacher, but took the wrong approach. He started caring more about what the other teachers thought of him rather than caring what the students thought of him. He is there to make it a fun learning environment for students to learn. His superiors didn't have a problem with him, so he shouldn't have changed the way he was teaching.

I agree with Mr. McClung in this post. This is why we are striving to become teachers, to teach students, not worry about what other teachers may think about us. Students learning should be the most important thing to a teacher. If it takes stepping outside the box to teach students, then a teacher shouldn't fear what others think. I hope to become a teacher who doesn't care what other teachers think about how I teach, but that I am teaching the students in a fun and educational way.

Challenge Yourself

In this part of Mr. McClung’s post, he talks about how he has fallen into a rut because he has used the same lesson plans too many times. He has taught the same subject for three years. He figured out that becoming too comfortable causes his lesson plans to suck. Luckily he was given the opportunity to change grade level and subjects. Now he will be able to come up with new lesson plans. Even though it will be difficult and timely, it will be beneficial.

The valuable lesson that he learned was that getting into a routine can make him a lazy teacher. His creativity started to vanish. He didn't want this to happen, so he said he will strive to do better next year. This has given him an opportunity to help his students enjoy school in a way the he did not.

I think it is great that he shared this information. When I become a teacher, I will be more aware that things like this can happen. I will strive to stay up-to-date with new ideas to keep my class interesting for students. I will also, like he said, want to challenge myself to become a better teacher each year.

”What I’ve Learned This Year (2008-09)” In Mr. McClung’s blog post “What I've Learned This Year (2008-09),” he shares some great advice that he has learned during his first year of teaching. Mr. McClung said to remember who your audience is and not teach to impress your superiors. He also said to be flexible with the lesson plans that you prepare. Things need to be able to change to fit what the students need. He said not to stress over how the lesson plans should have gone, but work on improving them. He mentioned that communication with other teachers and students is very important.

Mr. McClung continues to say that we shouldn't expect students to be perfect, because we are not perfect ourselves. Don’t set the bar too high. We as teachers should be motivators. He advises that teachers should not be afraid of technology. These are tools that we can use to enhance the students' learning process. He says to listen to what students say. Students sometimes just want to be heard. He had given a survey, and one student responded that he felt like his teacher listened to him. This speaks volume that we should listen to students in our future classrooms.

He ends this post of his first year by saying that teachers should never stop learning. He said, “We owe it to our students.” This is very true, and I think that this is great advice for first year teachers. Just because you start out a certain way doesn't mean that you can’t change and try new and improved strategies for teaching.