EQUIP

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/teaching-methods/teacher-training/6480.html?for_printing=1

Helpful Bits of Advice from Veteran Teachers
Keep a sense of humor, stay organized, be flexible and document everything.

Mariella Brenlla
Ponce de Leon Middle School
Coral Gables, FL
Grade Levels: 6-8

Buy a large scrapbook. When a child gives you a school picture, make sure they sign and date it. Then, place it in your scrapbook along with a brief note to yourself to help you remember that student. You will never regret taking the time to keep it updated.

James Gates
West Shore School District
New Cumberland, PA
Grade Levels: 6-8

Leave your personal problems at the door and show the kids you care.

Michael Uhl
I. E. Evans Intermediate School
Bonham, TX
Grade Levels: 3-5

The first people you befriend in a new school are the secretaries and the janitors. They can help you enormously! They are the most valuable assets in the school; treat them well.

E. F. Pool
J. C. Burroughs School
Chicago, IL
Grade Levels: All

Memorize and learn the students' names, first and last, before they arrive! It is very important to start off your school year with knowledge. Know your students' name, write them on name cards and assign them a seat so you can also memorize them in order.

Doreen Travis
Fairview School
Sylva, NC
Grade Levels: 6-8

Find a mentor! A veteran teacher that you can go to anytime and ask lots of questions.

Patricia Contreras
Central Elementary School
San Diego, CA
Grade Levels: K-2

Read or simply skim and scan Harry Wong's book The First Days of School.

Donna Allen Krug
Mann Middle School
Brandon, FL
Grade Levels: 6-8

Find another staff member to help you understand the unwritten rules of your new school, like who to ask for supplies or cafeteria procedures.

Chris Kinney
Rockwell Jr. High School
Warren, MI
Grade Levels: 6-8

Say something personal and something positive to every child, every day. Kids need to know that you care.

Lori McLoughlin
Ellen T. Briggs School
Lake Hopatcong, NJ
Grade Levels: 3-5

On the first day of school, ask each student to write pertinent personal information on an index card. Then take the cards home and use them to call or write thank-you notes. Have the students list the following information: name, nickname, birthday, phone number, address, birth date, parent name(s), favorite hobbies, best and worst subject, and something I need to know about you. Although home data is usually provided by your school, having these index cards at home is useful all year and in some cases, many years later.

Kathleen Beardsley
CNY Teaching Center
Nedrow, NY
Grade Levels: All

Accept help whenever it is offered and find as many ways as possible to praise students because that is what they respond to the best.

Wendy DuToit
Blackmon Road Middle School
Columbus, GA
Grade Levels: 6-8

I wish I knew:
that a smile in those first critical few moments when facing the class for the first time would change the pace of the day.
that the deep trembling all the way down to my toes would eventually go away before the first period was over.
that the kids were more apprehensive about the teacher they were getting than I was about them.

Shaeeza Haniff
Islamic Elementary School
Queens, NY
Grade Levels: K-2

A simple, kind word or smile means everything to a child. Take time to listen to your students and give them adequate time to share. Trust your instincts and judgments.

Sue Ritchie
Nathaniel Morton Elementary School
Plymouth, MA
Grade Levels: 3-5

Start the school year the way you want the rest of the year to progress. If you want quiet, expect it the first day. If you want meaningful interaction throughout the year then make sure you have it on the first day. Give students the respect and guidelines they need. Make sure they know what you expect of them from day one and the rest of the year runs itself.

Diane Shortall
Loma Vista School
Santa Ana, CA
Grade Levels: K-2

A few musts:
Teach your students as you would wish your children to be taught.
Have one premise for your classroom rules – mutual respect.
Have no more than three rules – mine are: think, be polite, do your work.
Live and love your subject(s).
Select the simplest way at all times and focus on rapport and calm discipline before trying to teach content.
Rely on all the mistakes you make.
Never fight a battle you can't win, and never ask a question you don't know the answer to.
Program some fun into every lesson and the rest will follow.

Mrs. Falconer
Kingsgrove High School
Sydney, Australia
Grade Levels: 9-12

A few more musts:
Realize that you will make mistakes, because becoming a teacher did not make you perfect.
Don't be afraid to apologize to your students when you have made a mistake.
Realize that the lesson plan is just that – a plan. Remember, we make plans every day of our life but rarely do we carry them out 100% of the time.
Get a good night sleep every night.
Read, read, read as much about the teaching profession as you can.
Join a professional organization.
Write your name in permanent ink on the front of everything you own in your classroom. Teachers are notorious for borrowing something of interest and then forgetting where they got it from.
Don't let your teaching job become your life! Of all the professions in the world, teachers could easily work themselves to death because so much in this world can be used to teach our students.

Henry Gail McGinnis
V. I. Grissom Elementary
Houston, TX
Grade Levels: 3-5

Take the time to get to know your students. It's amazing just how much you might accomplish when you get to know your students on a personal level. When you stop caring, it's time to move on.

Mylina Stanfield
Boaz Middle School
Boaz, AL
Grade Levels: 6-8

No matter how hard you try to please the parents, the administration, and the students, never stop trying to please yourself.

Lesley Golkin
UCSF Child Life School Program
San Francisco, CA
Grade Levels: All

You can't do it all at once. Be sensitive to your own needs and temper your drive to succeed with moments for milk, cookies, and a good book. Renew your reasons for teaching as often as possible. It will always bring you back to the pleasure of a toothless smile when something difficult has been achieved! Remember the fuel for your day; smile, smile, smile.

Lois Accardi
Glenwood Elementary School
Short Hills, NJ
Grade Levels: K-2

Consider the source when accepting advice – what works in an urban school may not in a rural one; elementary school is vastly different from high school.

Becky Rayburn
Gates County High School
Gatesville, NC
Grade Levels: 9-12

Pay heed to the words spoken in The Emperor's Club (with Kevin Kline as a classics teacher). I must paraphrase, but it goes something like this: it isn't one single success or failure that makes a great teacher, but rather the trend over time. This helped me to put a negative experience in perspective. We can't win 'em all! This was a wonderful movie, and generated a terrific quote about great teachers, that I want to share with our most senior teacher in the district, who is still inspiring kids and going the extra mile. It says:
Great teachers have little external history to record.
Their lives go over into other lives.
These men are pillars in the intimate structure of our schools.
They are more essential than its stones or beams.
They will continue to be a kindling force and a revealing power;
part of the necessary fabric men breathe.
Good luck to all new teachers!

Shyrl Cone
Third Grade Teacher
Hartland, Michigan

The students in your class need to know you as a caring human being before they will trust you as their teacher.

Anonymous

There are three things that come to mind....

1. Where the bathrooms were all located.

2. Never tell the kids how old you are.

3. Never, EVER, be SUPER NICE when disciplining a kid.

Anonymous

I am about ready to retire and am so sorry that I did not keep the index cards I had kids fill out each year listing their names, addresses, phone, etc. I only started doing this 15 years ago. I am at the point where I now have taught a few children of my former students.

R.S. Carlson

I keep an index card file of every student that I have with pertinent info. such as name, address, schedule, etc. On the backs of these cards I keep notes of that student's progress in my class-whether it is behavioral or grade-related-this gives me good records for those impromptu parent conferences. This is especially helpful if you have students that you see a pattern forming!

Deana Pittman
Batesville Junior High
Batesville, MS

posted by AcrosticGuy @ 10:01 PM