Blog Post #9

Mr. McClung's What I Have Learned This Year 2008-09 and What I have Learned This Year 2009-10

After reading Mr McClung's first experiences as a teacher, I took in everything he said. In his 2008-09 school year post, he mentioned that no lesson plan will ever be perfect and to be completely honest, I believe that I will try to make a lesson plan as perfect as I can and mess up. One of my many flaws is that I try to be perfect in everything I do (which we all know is impossible). I'm excited so therefore I want my students to be excited. I know for sure that is one thing that I will need to remember once I start teaching. I just want my students to have the best learning experience possible.
Mr. McClung also mentioned how not to set the standards to high for your students. Speaking for myself, I can remember as a child how uncomfortable it was to work under pressure. There is nothing wrong for wanting the best for your students, but in my opinion and remembering personally how that felt, if you put a child under too much pressure they will panic. It is our jobs as teachers one day to make the learning process as comfortable as possible. I tend to mentally put myself in other people's situations often, so I believe that I will be good at not putting too much pressure on my students. As I mentioned earlier, I remember the uncomfortable feeling of pressure, so I will do my absolute best to make sure I am not doing the same to my students.
As I always mentioned, communication is the key to any and every relationship, including students and teachers. As educators, we have to listen to our students. Mr. McClung stated that in his post and I completely agree with him. Just because we (teachers) are in control of our classroom, does not mean that our students do not have a voice. The reason why we have this type of job is because of the students, so everything that they say is very important. We have to be able to understand them in order to help them succeed.
Mr. McClung's second blog post was also very helpful to me. As I mentioned earlier, I took everything in that he stated in his post. Out of everything that Mr. McClung mentioned in his second post, one helpful hint really stuck out to me and that was for teachers to leave the egos at the door. This is beyond true. I know that I am not a teacher just yet, but I believe that everything we do as educators is for our students; therefore, our main focus should be on the students. Our job is to help them in every way possible, so anything that has nothing to do with benefiting them should stay outside the classroom. Our students are our future and we have to make sure that they are prepared; educationally and mentally.