BlogPost #9

Mr. Joe McClung What I've Learned This Year
Like most videos, blogs, and podcasts that have been assigned to us, I especially found Mr. Joe McClung's blog post over the past three years very helpful. While most teachers talk about their strengths and aspirations Joe shares with us a few of his downfalls and obstacles he has conquered through his first years as being a teacher. His Second year of teaching was a first for many things, he found himself in a larger school with older students teaching a totally different subject than the year before. He shares how he overcame his fears with the transition by realizing that the difference between the two mentalities was simply independence. He simply altered his style to adapt to the older students needs by providing them with moments to display their own independence. When teaching these older students he also realized students were not able to think analytically. This is one of my biggest fears when teaching, I hope that if my students have not internalized this skill it will not be hard for me to teach them how. Having the means to think analytically are very important in school as well as vital for ones future. Joe also shares with us that, "we never need to get too comfortable, change is good and ultimately makes us better teachers." I love this quote, because I know in my future as a new and young teacher I am going to be faced with challenges and my performance will be judged and watched like a hawk. However, if I remember this quote I can show other teachers that change is good and if I want to be the best teacher I can be I am going to have to become more accepting.
Joe also mentions that we must remember who our boss is, while we often teach and direct lessons towards what we think the administrators will view as acceptable, we should not be directing our lessons towards them. Our lessons and responsibilities as a teacher for these students is to center our decision making process around our students and not around pleasing adults. I found this equally encouraging because I know teachers who have not made it to ten year are often ridiculed by administrators and fellow members of their departments. Although if we keep in mind the students are number one and continue to embody the aspects of teaching that I enjoy and not allow others to influence or steer me away from that I will know I am being true to myself. I also noted the importance of allowing students to do their work themselves, especially when incorporating new form of technology into my curriculum. This is a major issue because if we fail to do this students will never fully master the skills, no matter how difficult it is we must resist the urge to take over the key board. I have retained some very useful and encouraging information from Mr. McClung's Blog Post's, even though this class is paperless I found myself printing out all three of his blogposts for my future teaching stash :) He left us with a quote that I found exceptional to new comers of the teaching world, "We can not afford to be passive in education; we need to be willing to be "movers and shakers" and be advocates for the changes that need to happen on our schools." This quote will more than likely find its way into my future classroom because even though we will be new comers we can still make a profound difference in the education world and within our future students.