Letters to a New Teacher

Whew-finally posting. I am a terrible blog contributor, I know. I had to borrow the book and didn't finish in time, yada yada...
However, I really liked this book. Adrienne let me borrow it and went on and on about how amazing it was, and I thought there was no way assigned reading could be that good haha. But I brought it to work to read and I really learned a lot! I found myself skipping to chapters or letters that were more relavent to me, but almost all of the letters had something that related to my life. Here are a few parts that I thought were most helpful to me at this stage in my teaching career:

Managing Your Time

I'll admit I am super on time and super organized--contrary to the fact that this posting is late. However, this semester I did a 3 week stint at a high school with block scheduling for the first time, and it almost killed me. I had NO idea how to manage my time. Since I always had time left over in class, I would spend all my time at home trying to find more activities to add to my lesson plans. Obviously, that left me terribly burnt out. I still have a lot to learn about managing time, but I think it gets better as you get more experienced. I liked this section not only because it had good tips, but mostly because I felt like "Whew, I'm not the only one that isn't walking into class calm as the ocean, just full of time-appropriate plans!" haha. I saw that other group memebers liked this section too--that made me feel better:)

Challenging Students

I think I am a middle school teacher at heart. This letter about the challenging girl student reminded me soooo much of students I have had during my high school placements. I also wished some students just stayed at home, which is terrible. It is true that one student can ruin a class atmosphere.
I didn't like that the teacher had a conversation with another student about the problem student, but I know things like that happen. I did like that she tried to get to know the student better. I know that I was having a lot of problems with the 11th grade class I was teaching, until the day I finally said "ok, fine...we're just going to talk a little today." Just getting to know the students and let them know I cared about them seemed to open the doors a little, and they really did respect and listen to me a little more. It sounds like Joy's students always seem to know she cares, and I think that was the main point of this letter. Even if students are difficult and drive you crazy, just keep letting them know someone really cares. Eventually, they have to give in a little.

Engaging Students/Competing for Attention

Oh man, I was SOO hoping this letter was going to have some magic "teacher formula" for this problem haha. But alas, nothing ever does. It is so hard, especially in the older grades, to overcome interest in anything but what is going on. Even in the younger grades, classes before lunch, after lunch, and at the end of the day are very distracted. That doesn't leave many classes that are paying attention!
I thought Jim had good advice, but I thought he sounded a little optimistic about the problem--like, "It isn't THAT bad". However, when I thought about it, that actually made me feel a little better. Like "Ok, once I get more experience, I will feel the same way Jim did!" haha. Again, it is nice to know other teachers recognize this as a problem. I wish there was an easy solution, but since there isn't I guess it will be something I'll have to work on in the future.

Pressure.....

Ah, so much pressure! When we are student teaching, when we are teaching for real, when we compare ourselves to teaching peers, finishing the program...so much! Again, I wanted an easy answer to this one, but there never is. However, Jim helped just by saying "Hey, let yourself off the hook a little." I think most educators are a bit of perfectionists--we are never easy on ourselves. But we just make our problems worse. I really recognized myself in this letter, and even felt a little bad for myself haha. I am the kind of person that always puts a lot of pressure on myself, so I don't know that I'll ever really escape that. But I know that having older mentors like Jim that assure me I'm not a total failure will be a help.


So, I really got a lot out of this book. Also, I got a lot out of this reading group. It may not seem like we posted a lot, but I know personally I talked to other group members a lot out of class about it,and we felt like an actual professional peer group. I felt like we were teaching but also learning together. Thanks for providing the opportunity for us to do this. I wish we could be like the teachers in the first book we read and continue to work together after graduation. I know some of us are staying around here soo...you never know!