Archive for September 5th, 2009

Hello my wonderful, and apparently according to site stats, plentiful readers. I have a small complaint to lodge and I’d appreciate your ears.

How is it that last night a hundred and twenty seven unique visitors came to this site, many doubtlessly personal acquaintances of mine, and yet the only person who commented on the post being read was my grandmother?! Come on! A writer needs feedback! Now, if the reason you didn’t post was something along the lines of “man this is crap” well, instead of leaving and never returning a nice little comment with a friendly reason would be great. And if you do like it, but have nothing to add, just say so! How can I be expected to perform without reactions or critique? Does an athelete practice without comment? A student without feedback? If even two percent of you posted every time it’d be great.

Well, signing off – albeit disgruntledly. Hopefully you will be so irate at me pointing the finger at you – who, after all, shows up at this blog without being made or told  – that you will be compelled to say so.

A teacher setting up the classroom

I have now completed two weeks of school, and it has been a busy time. I met my students and wrote my first lesson plans. The scariest was probably worrying about meet-the-teacher night.

Why would meet-the-teacher night be so scary? Perhaps because it was my first real confrontation with the “responsibility” aspect of teaching. As one of my colleagues put it, “if the classroom instruction and administrative work doesn’t exhaust you, there’s always the weight of having a kid’s life in your hands.”  Meet-the-teacher night made me ask: was I qualified to take these children and teach them?

What if — God forbid — I didn’t do it quite right?

Our teacher training program has emphasized that beginning teachers need to develop effectiveness over several years before they reach their real potential. Were my students perhaps getting a less-high-quality experience because they have me, a new teacher, rather than someone who’s done this before? Oh, the anxiety! But the new teacher does have several tools to use, including:

1. Beginner’s enthusiasm and energy ,

2. Extra-effort,

3. Self-reflection and self-correction, and

4. Support and encouragement of other teachers, both old and new.

So: I talked to my colleagues in the teacher training program, I got my room as well-decorated as possible before meet-the-teacher night. I prepared a short talk to give the parents, and told them about the school’s attendance policy, the dress policy, and a of couple of general ideas on how to help their kids improve school acheivement (go on family “field trips,” such as to the park, the zoo, or longer journeys, and give them books.) I offered to meet after school with anyone who was concerned about their child’s performance . The parents seemed to accept the message. No one jumped up and questioned whether a new teacher would be okay for their child.

I suppose that in the cosmic scale of things, new teachers must be part of the mix. And they say humility is to know your place, and take it. So — every morning, I get up, I worry a little bit, and I go down to the school. I keep adjusting course whenever I see myself make mistakes. I ask for help. I congratulate myself if I do something right. And I sail onward into the school year, day by day.

Photo vis Flickr Creative Commons, by Editor B