Blog Assignment 9

Joe McClung - What I Have Learned This Year

For this weeks blog assignment we are to read two post's from Joe McClung's blog "At the Teacher's Desk."  Two specific posts about what he learned in his first three years of teaching year by year, there are three separate posts. In this blog I will discuss two of the years, I chose the first two, but I read all three.

After his first year of teaching Mr. McClung says that he learned a "TON" of things.  He talks about the importance of communication in the workplace and with students.  He also says that listening to the students is very important.  More than just hearing the students but actually listening to them.  He says that hels build a needed student-teacher relationship which leads to getting respect.  Of course he stresses the importance of using technology in the classroom and encourages people to not be scared of technology.  He also talks about being reasonable as it pertains to our expectations of students.  He also stresses flexibility and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

I really got a lot out of this blog post.  It is nice to hear what someone has to say about what they have learned about teaching in their first year.  I will be a first year teacher soon enough and I know that this advice will help me out a lot.  I definitely have bookmarked this post for me to read again at another time.  I thought his advice was very practical and easy to relate to.

In his second summary of "What I Learned this Year" Mr. McClung discusses everything in much further detail.  It is about twice as long as the first year's blog.  Which would lead me to believe that you learn a lot from every year.  Which I am excited about.  Well this year Mr. McClung has moved to a different school district and is teaching new subjects, which has presented a number of challenges.  In this post he gives advice about adapting, making boring things exciting, and selling what you're teaching to the students.  He also says, which I found amusing and helpful, to find the school mom.  What he means by that is to find the teachers who know the goings-on of the place and can really help you out.  Some of the other topics covered are about not being a controle freak and keeping scope of what is important.

I got a lot of good advice from this article.  I don't know how much I will be able to relate to having to change subjects so drastically as he had to, but I know that I will have to adapt.  I also know that I will have to seek out help because I'm sure I will be no different than every first year teacher, ambitious and drowning.  I saved this post as well.  Advice from experience is priceless.