Ten Teaching Takeaways

The day has finally dawned: down time. Our travels have concluded, conferences ended, swim camp is closed, and I can just simply sit. and rest. and read! and occasionally, when there's a little extra brain juice, write. 

I would be remiss to not reflect on the first year of teaching. It is notoriously the hardest year of one's teaching career - a seemingly ceaseless journey of "figuring things out." Of learning what to do in hard situations. Of planning lessons that best usher young minds into cognitive dissonance so that they may grow. Of saying no. But, also, of saying yes.

Year one was unbelievably joyful. Once the hellish hump of October was in the rearview, I genuinely looked forward to going in every day. Thank you God for the gift of this vocation that feels like vacation!!! Not always...but often.

So to reflect - so that I always remember the moment Noah shattered a Goodwill glass vase and I convinced him it was my grandmother's (worth 14,000 dollars). So that I always remember the growth seen in Evan, the hilarious friendship of Destiny and Libby, the persuasive speeches of Cooper, Claire, and Cameron. So that I never forget what friendships were found, what lessons were learned, and what laughs did abound in year one. And, so that I can grow (by God's grace) to make next year even better.

Things I Have Learned:

1. Don't sweat the small stuff. I think it's easy early on to get mad fast and often. I remember kicking a kid out of my room for moving his desk up in the middle of instruction. This both embarrassed him and stifled his learning...and now I wonder what benefits a more patient response would have reaped. 

2. Don't punish students with the intent of embarrassing them. It sounds evil, but sometimes I would get so frustrated by a students' behavior that I genuinely wanted to make them blush in front of the whole class. I wanted to call them out so that they would be too embarrassed to act out again. I think that is cruel and unusual. How much more loving could a private side conversation be?

3. Laugh. I think I was afraid to laugh with kids early on. It seemed like letting my guard down in a way that would cause them to walk all over me. In reality, it's a way of showing I am human and creating relationships. Plus, who wants a job where you can't laugh? That is why people go into accounting. (KIDDING, Mags!)

4. Don't reinvent the wheel. I seriously always always always believe my wheel is better. That's seldom true. And I spend so much time reinventing the wheel that I neglect other wheels, and the wheel I tried to invent falls flat and I should have just used an already-invented, already perfectly fine wheel.

5. Don't say yes to everything. I would have sponsored three clubs and coached track if no one stopped me and spoke some wisdom into my life. Teaching is a big job, especially early on, and it would be wrong to neglect that out of people-pleasing desires.

6. Don't say no to everything! It can also be easy to get so head-down on the grind that either we miss out on fun opportunities or squelch the joy of learning. One of my favorite high school memories was when our teacher let us run outside into the first snow. More snow, less no. Also, go to trivia with the teachers. Maintaining that I have too much to grade is a) isolating and b) lame.

7. Write notes of encouragement. I had no idea how much this could mean until I saw a trimester-one student with a sticky note I gave her tucked inside her phone case on the last day of school. She probably looks at her phone more than any other object, meaning she probably sees that note a lot. Encouragement will always be worth the effort.

8. Get spirited. I didn't really want to dive head first into spirit days, but pajama day in slacks was miserable, and students saw it as an unreachable chasm between me and them. I don't want to dress like them (I really, really don't want to be doing that!) but I also don't want to seem "too professional" or "too old". It's amazing to see how contagious spirit can be.

9. Ask for help. I had no idea how to teach literary analysis or dangling modifiers. I had equally no idea how to handle a student's threats to commit suicide. There is an army of teachers who literally went to school to become professional helpers in growth. Let them help me grow!

10. Make my classroom a home. Twenty years down the road, when I'm old and gray (43) and calloused to the concerns of kids, I hope I remember the way Maram's eyes lit up when I told her I could have lunch with me; how Owen always seemed to linger a little after the bell; how Petey regularly checked in when he had no where else to go. I hope that by God's grace, my hospitality will only grow warmer as I grow older.