Week 2.4: The Great Communicator

Week 2.4: The Great Communicator

Why does communication keep popping up? It appears in the previous seven posts in some form or other – being a well-rounded person, talking to your administrator and co-workers without fear, etc. Communication may be the most important part of your teaching job – a happy fact for some, a not-so-thrilling fact for others.

At work, I was recently part of a discussion on super-powers! If you could have one super-power, what would it be? I invariably go for being able to fly (think how much money you could save on plane tickets!) but the majority of the group voted for a more communicative power – being able to read minds, for example. The most double-edged sword of super-powers! Can you imagine being able to read your students’ minds? I shiver just thinking about it.

spock-mind-meld

But the point is that communication is difficult in every career and relationship. Pretty much everything we do relies on others. So here are some no-holds-barred recommendations for communication in teaching:

  1. Send at least 10 parents an email update on their student’s progress every week. You can write generic and short notes and use them to save time; as long as you don’t forget to change the names. You can proceed alphabetically through your roster, if that is easiest, or develop your own system. Parents appreciate the recognition even more than the students do!
  1. Before parent-teacher conferences, send a personal email asking parents to attend. Keep it enthusiastic – you can’t wait to meet them and tell them about everything that is going on in class. It is well-known that the 15% of parents that show up to conferences are generally the parents of the straight-A students. Parents, we miss you. Come talk to us.
  1. Choose a day about a month into the school year and invite parents to attend your class with their students on that day – this isn’t just for elementary and music classes!
  1. Send your administrator an update on your classroom progress and on your teaching ideas every month. Also let him/her know all this communication with parents you have been doing.
  1. Have a classroom blog, website, announcement page, Facebook page, anything. Be that person at your school who the other teachers come to for communication advice.
  1. Actually DO these things.

Seem overwhelming? But by taking an hour a week to do these six things, think how much time you will save explaining yourself later. Remember how your students will not be able to fudge to their parents about your classroom assignments and goals. (Students are trustworthy, but that doesn’t mean they take the time to communicate.) Consider that you are creating a positive foundation before any misunderstandings take place, as they are bound to do. (Remember how much time you will save with a super-power like flying.)

And please share your communication stories/recommendation stories in a comment below or email them to teachingismadhard@gmail.com!

professor-x-mind-read

Enjoy these resources about communication:

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/five-keys-successful-parent-teacher-communication

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/20-tips-developing-positive-relationships-parents-elena-aguilar

Click to access Effective_Communication.pdf

 

Next week, we’ll talk about “Blowing off Steam” with some statistics of teacher-dropout rates. Hey, students aren’t the only ones with dropout rates! And for those of you who only have one week until school is out for the holiday season, Happy Holidays to you!

Week 2.3: Why Discipline is Dangerous, Part 2

Week 2.3: Why Discipline is Dangerous, Part 2

Three weeks ago, we featured “Why Discipline is Dangerous, Part 1.” The main take-away from that post is that every student needs to constantly be treated with respect and kindness. Almost all the students will “come around” eventually if respect and kindness are there. Now that we have done away with “because I said so’s” and “Wait until I call your parents” moments, it’s time to move to the next level of discipline. Master these, earn your blue belt! For Part 2, we’ll discuss a couple things: how discipline issues in the classroom affect the “other” students, and whether humor and discipline mix.

behave

So in Part 1, the “silent teacher” reaction was recommended. This works partly because the misbehaving student realizes that it is time to pay attention, and partly because all the other students in the class realize what type of behavior is getting the silent treatment. Classroom discipline is a seesaw. On one end are the students who are unlikely to cause a disruption of class, and on the other, students who have more trouble concentrating. A teacher’s job is to tip the seesaw towards the happy, hard-working side. The difficulty of this task changes whenever a new student joins the class, when a disruptive student is also a popular student, or of course, on any weeks that include a holiday, half-day, school sports event, school dance, or a Friday.

Most kids spend 12 years or more of their life on a school schedule. They know what is expected of them. They know exactly the problem a teacher is reacting to when a fellow student talks in class, asks to go to the restroom every day, doesn’t turn in their homework, or a myriad of other little things that happen regularly. In fact, the fellow students probably know more about what is going on in the disruptive student’s life than the teacher, whether they are BFF’s with that student or not. Their reactions are a powerful tool for classroom discipline, if it seems right for the teacher to use it. For example, a student who is commonly a hard worker will “hush” the disruptive student while the teacher is doing the silent stare. It might work. It might cause more anger. In my experience, it does not work when a teacher is active in the relationship between classmates, for example, if the teacher says “Could someone please remind ZaZa of our classroom rules?” Totally annoying. It works slightly better when the teacher gives a compliment to a student who is acting the preferred way: “ZaZa, thank you for sitting so silently and waiting patiently for the next task.” Still kind of passive-aggressive though. Or, the teacher could study methods used with learning disorder students: “ZaZa, your chair really would like to stand firmly on the floor.” (Everything is related to an inanimate object that cannot talk back.) However, when you think through these methods in your mind, they all have a chance of not working. Which brings us back to our Part 1 rule: Respect and kindness. “ZaZa, will you please join us in the next part of the lesson? You are a valuable member of this class.” Now, you as a teacher have done nothing to show favoritism, or to elicit a further reaction from other students.

The main thing to remember is that discipline becomes dangerous when it stops being a regular expectation and begins being punishment. When that happens, you stop being a teacher who expects excellence and you start being evil in the minds of students and parents. Would you rather be Dumbledore or Snape?

Now for humor! Humor is a necessity, especially in middle school classrooms. But do discipline and humor mix? I think it depends on the severity of the student’s disruption. For example, when a student is chatty in class, this is a good time for humor. Try to avoid sarcasm, but when a teacher walks over to a student having a conversation at the wrong time in class, and joins in the conversation as if they were best friends, that can be pretty funny. So pattern your humor based on the teacher who sees a student sleeping, turns off all the lights and has the class quietly leave the classroom; rather than the teacher who makes a loud noise by dropping a textbook on the desk in front of the sleeping student. On the other hand, when a student has a low grade because they are not turning in homework, don’t shrug it off with humor. Their future success is important. So have fun and make as many silly jokes during your lecture as you want – humans need to laugh.

high-school-musical

The process of building classroom discipline is a marathon, not a sprint. There may be students who simply want to push your buttons, and the ONLY way to get them to stop is to not react. Not reacting, or reacting only with silence followed by encouragement, may be the only way to stay positive for 30 years in a difficult job. Focusing only on student successes may seem ridiculous at times, but is a good way to break a bad discipline habit in the classroom.

Comment or email with your own discipline success stories, or failure stories (we all have them) and enjoy the following resources:

Humor in the Classroom: http://www.nea.org/tools/52165.htm

Classroom Interaction: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/certop/imp_ssi.html

Next Week! “The Great Communicator”

Week 2.2: VIP’s Very Involved Parents (part 1)

Week 2.2: VIP’s Very Involved Parents (part 1)

The influencers of child development are family, friends, and teachers. It would be a beautiful world if these three groups could work together, and occasionally, that does happen. But as any teacher could tell you, there are some parents out there who are SCARY. Parents that blame teachers for every low grade and moment of out-of-control behavior. Parents that call weekly, and if given your cell phone number, call on weekends too. Parents that KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE and WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. These are VIP’s – Very Involved Parents.

Now, many teachers are parents themselves. They know both sides – unconditional love for their kid and the challenges that teachers face. It is often said that parents make better teachers and vice versa, and because of this, a teacher’s kid is generally the most well-behaved student in your classroom. Hey – expectations really do matter.

However, reaching a common ground with VIP’s can be extremely difficult, regardless of how much the parent knows about teacher life. Parents see every moment of their child’s frustration and sadness at home, and the protective instinct can kick in immediately and ferociously. Then the protective instinct can be taken out on teachers, and since teachers are human, they can react by only seeing a scary confrontation instead of where the VIP is coming from.

The first thing that teachers need to remember is that the love parents have for their children is an unreasonable one. There is no talking a VIP out of their belief that their child is in the right, and the teacher is in the wrong. You will save yourself heartache and sleepless nights if you do not worry about VIP behavior. Suggestions:

  1. Take a step back, give it a day or two, and then communicate briefly and politely with the parent.
  2. Let the parent talk it out first without interruption.
  3. Ask questions to clarify the parent’s concerns.
  4. BEFORE you explain that the student has not turned in their homework, or that the student was pestering a fellow classmate, tell the parent that you want their child to succeed.

The goal is to establish the open-mindedness and forgiveness that everyone needs in order to move past worry or anger. If the behavior of the student or parent is dramatic enough to require a conference, make sure the student is in the conference. This way everyone knows what is going on – the student will be less inclined to over-exaggerate the unfairness of the teacher; the parent will be less inclined to overreact in front of their student, and the teacher can let the student know that they are on their side despite the problem.

There are no two ways around it – your behavior when dealing with VIP’s has to be above reproach. The teacher has to take the high road. Because again, a parent’s love for their child is bat-eyed blind. Here are some examples to let you know you’re not alone:

  1. When I was a first-year teacher, parents would challenge my knowledge on a regular basis. I was “too young” to teach. In a way they were right – but in a way, they were wrong too. It’s not your knowledge base that is the issue after 4 years of teacher school – it’s your behavior. See Week 1: Taking the “Student” out of Student Teacher.
  2. A parent never responded to emails or phone messages until March, when they called the principal to express their unhappiness with the lack of special attention their student was receiving in the class.
  3. A parent who was also a teacher at the same school would “stop in” to my classroom during my plan hour every week to check on their student’s progress in my class.

conferences-in-time

Got your own VIP story? Please share! Please also share your preferred method of talking with VIP’s. (Not “dealing with,” “talking with.”)

And here are some great resources:

This blog has many useful posts: http://4u2nomore.blogspot.com/2014_09_01_archive.html

And more help on using technology to communicate with parents: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/6639

Don’t forget other wonderful teacher blogs on scholastic.com and teachhub.com!

Week 2.1: Introducing Me

Week 2.1: Introducing Me

I am a teacher (obviously). I don’t consider myself a particularly old teacher, although the first year of teaching counts as 10 years of experience in my opinion! In my career so far, I have taught Grades 5-12, taught multiple subjects, and taught in both public and private schools. I have also taught overseas in an American international school.

Now, you can see my main purpose in writing this blog on the “What’s It All About” page, accessed by the links at the top right of your screen. But personally, I write this blog as a way to reflect, to consolidate and learn from my experiences, and to not forget the way that a teacher develops throughout their career. So basically, this blog is therapy (Fish are friends, not food).

I also write this blog because I want to be your Dear Abby, should you ever need one. Send teachingismadhard@gmail.com an anonymous email without specifics about where you teach, and I will respond with empathy, suggestions, or resources. Email a blog post about a teaching issue that is important to you, and I will share it. Write your own blog, and I will share the link and like your page. Teaching is MAD hard, but everyone has the power to reach students in a profound way, and I am here to help in any way that I can. Put your frustration out there where it will do some good – by helping another teacher not get into the same situation you found yourself in.

I have felt sad and alone at many times in my teaching, and if you simply need a fellow teacher’s recognition for what you are trying to do, I am here for that too.

So use this blog as your own, and use the information in any way you like!

Next week, we’ll start a very involved two-parter: VIP’s: Very Involved Parents!

Extra resources? It may be that the only extra resources you need this week are your amazing coworkers. Or your diary. Or your therapist.

one-does-not-simply

Week 4: Being an Island, Staying Connected

Week 4: Being an Island, Staying Connected

I make a commitment to be as honest as possible in each of these posts – I really do believe that half-truths in teaching cause as much trouble as lies. Honesty is the same thing as integrity, and both those things make life simpler and more valuable.

The current political climate is bad for integrity. (If anyone is reading this 5 years later, or something, Trump was just elected.) People are angry, sad, confused, and they will be that way off and on for a long time. This leads to an extremely divisive society, and for some teachers who have felt this way at work, you know how much of your soul can be sucked away by that kind of climate. So it is as good a time as any to talk about not being an island.

Unlike classroom discipline tips, the advice to stay connected to other people in order to not get buried in work is prevalent. So what can I add to the party? Perhaps just a comment on leaving work at work. Early in my teaching years I was the kind of teacher who thought every activity outside of work had to be in some way connected to work, meaning that I spent most evenings at school competitions and events or volunteering for school clubs and community events. This approach does help a new teacher get to know the community they have chosen to join, and may help stave off miscommunication with parents down the road. However, for any teacher, too much time at “work” will make you go crazy (you may find yourself at your computer, typing the same sentence over and over, until you crack and stagger out into a snowstorm…you know what I mean?)

I recently met with a friend who just began their first year of teaching – they have joined the noble ranks of the teaching profession. This means that we were able to have a moment of telepathic understanding about teacher life. The moment was this: that you can easily be an overwhelmed zombie during the week, and on the weekend, you remember that you are an interesting person with a great personality and lots of friends. Where does that person go during the school week?

So, leave work at work. Do not live, eat, and breathe your job. The proof that this is important comes from teachers who are leaving the profession because they feel as though they can’t keep up – one is linked below in the extra resources. Staying connected to yourself is as important as connecting with friends, co-workers, and the community. And when John Donne said that “no man is an island” I do not think he meant only that everyone needs help, or that it is impossible to hide from society. I think he also meant that no man is an island inside – everyone is multi-faceted. Think about the fact that Mr. Donne was born in 1572 – math teachers, how long has staying connected been an issue?no-man-is-an-island-dwight

The other main point about staying connected regards how connected you are. Sadly, going out with fellow teachers on Friday night to drink and vent is not as helpful as we would like! You still wake up on Saturday with the same problems as last week. Here’s the hard part – opening up and getting help with your teaching; letting others know you are serious about improving. And why is this tough? See Week 2: Learning to Trust.

In a nutshell (or in a coconut shell carried here by a European or African swallow):

  1. Remember who you are outside of your job.
  2. Connect with others as honestly as you do socially.

Next week! I’ll introduce myself a bit more! In the meantime, share your tips about what works for you in order to stay connected to others and yourself!

 

Connect with these amazing sources:

What can you do in order to balance your life and learn from this teacher’s experience?http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/a-teacher-speaks-out-im-effectively-being-forced-out-of-a-career-that-i-wanted-to-love-9695706.html

Need to smile right now? Check out Bored Teacher: https://boredteachers.com/blogs/the-faculty-room

Your local library! Singles or couples groups! Gyms! Pottery classes! Community music! Nonprofit volunteering!

busy-teacher-brain

Week 3: Why Discipline is Dangerous

As with any other skill, some teachers have a natural talent for relating to students. They quickly develop a rapport that is both professional and friendly, and leads to a very effective teacher/student relationship. They are respected, even by 13-year-olds, and they have an empathy with every student. Let me be incredibly clear – I am SO JEALOUS of these people. If you are one of these majorly cool people, you may as well stop reading and go help someone less fortunate. PLEASE.

Before digging into the problems faced by everyone else; I want to mention the common idea that people who were “bad” students make “good” teachers, because they know where the troublemakers are coming from, in their hearts and souls. You know what, it’s actually true! If, like me, you were one of those students who stayed up until 2 a.m. making sure your Science poster was perfect, you have no frame of reference for students who just don’t turn in their homework. You can’t fathom anyone not giving 110% to get a 100% grade. “Anything worth doing is worth doing well,” you say. Unfortunately, you just limited the teaching jobs where you will be happy to 0.01% – those are the universities that have a zero tolerance policy for late work. (made up statistic)

teacher-politics

Here’s your discussion question for the week:

  1. In your undergraduate teacher preparation program, did you ever have a class on classroom discipline? Sounds a bit like making a plan to make a plan…but think about this honestly. How much does your success and happiness as a teacher depend on classroom discipline, and how much time did you spend in your degree on classroom discipline?

My answer: 90% of my success and happiness, and 1% of my degree program. WHOA. So those of us without the natural talent, we’ve got a steep learning curve.

Now the most useful part of this post – the examples! And yes, they are all true.

  1. A student draws swear words on the walls of the classroom.
  2. A student constantly talks out of turn in class.
  3. A student challenges you on every idea you present to the class.
  4. A student violently threatens the teacher.

Here’s the good news: there is no one right way to deal with these discipline issues. And here’s the bad news: there is no one right way to deal with these discipline issues. This is why discipline is dangerous – you can dig yourself a big hole with one bad decision. Losing it and yelling in class, while not a problem you can’t recover from, is a BIG PROBLEM.

The more different schools you work at, the more disciplinary policies you will see. Some schools use a reflective process, where a student doesn’t “get in trouble” so much as they are asked to “reflect on their actions.” Some schools play baseball: 3 strikes and the student is out. Some try to combine the positive and negative: award or point systems, give and take away. Let’s see what happens with our examples:

  1. The kid who loves inappropriate language sits with the school counselor for a while and writes a report about why he/she felt the need to decorate the classroom.
  2. The chatty kid loses all their points. They earn no special privileges. They keep talking in class.
  3. Hey, the argumentative student obviously wants all eyes on him/her. They earn a strike, a visit to the principal, a call home to parents, or the teacher develops their own system in class of responding to the student’s commentary. Messy.
  4. Suspension. Does it help? Unlikely.

Sometimes, a reprimand or word of encouragement will work. The students know the rules, and on the days when the rules don’t chafe too badly, they will listen to the teacher. But just as often, we hit those brick walls as represented above.

So if you are now clamoring for the BIG SECRET TO DEALING WITH TROUBLEMAKERS, here it is! Two things: patience and kindness. Why? Because if the student knows you are on their side, they will come around. If your behavior is above reproach, a truly argumentative student runs out of ammunition. And if you are patient with each and every student, no matter what, you will have a place to stand on when the principal and the parents come to call. Why is discipline dangerous? Because continuous patience is HARD. If you can do it though, it you build a zen kindness that becomes as natural as breathing and can be applied every day:

  1. No reaction is sometimes the best reaction. Clean up any writing on the walls with the student, at a prearranged time.
  2. Meet the extra talking with silence. The student knows immediately from the silent look what your goal is.
  3. Treat the student as an adult. Admit that other points of view exist. Do not argue back. The other students in class can see the situation as well as you, after all.
  4. Probably the most difficult situation, and it does mandate a referral to the counselor, the principal, and the parents. Stay out of the student’s way while you arrange for someone from the main office to come escort the student out of your classroom. Depending on the severity of the situation, a friend may be able to walk them to the office.

We can’t solve discipline issues overnight, even if they keep us awake. We can’t get close to talking about everything to do with discipline – that is why every third week of every month of this blog will have a discipline-related topic. Teachers have to reach a different level of what it means to be a “good human” and sometimes all you can do is practice. Meanwhile:

Useful Book! Classroom Management for Art, Music, and PE Teachers by Michael Linsin

The Basics! http://www.doe.in.gov/sites/default/files/cte/ncteb-classmang.pdf

Videotaping Yourself! http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2011/01/19/the-best-posts-articles-about-videotaping-teachers-in-the-classroom/

classroom-behavior

Have your own classroom discipline stories or strategies? Your comments and stories are more than welcome!

Next week! “Being an Island: Staying Connected”

Week 2: Learning to Trust

Trusting the people you work with is more difficult in a teaching position than you might think. Job security is also different in a teaching profession. Finally, while teachers are not necessarily competitive, they are human. Check out the following scenarios and imagine how you would feel or react:

  1. One of your students tells you that you aren’t as nice as another teacher in the school.
  2. An administrator has gone to one of your coworkers and asked them questions about how you are “working out” for the department.
  3. You are having trouble with a student (homework is not turned in, causing interruptions in class) and the student’s parents tell you that you are the only teacher who thinks their daughter/son is a bad student.

These scenarios are not unusual. In fact, they all occurred for me in one week of teaching. But these are the types of incidents that make it hard to establish trusting relationships with coworkers. They are the types of incidents that can escalate quickly and make your life far more miserable than it should be. Read on for the trust problem of each scenario:

  1. Jealousy does not naturally inspire trust. Every teacher would love to be the favorite; but by definition, only one teacher can be. Children will be children – just imagine some of the things you said to your parents. Every teacher also wants to do a good job – and a student will work harder in a class if they like the teacher. (There will be a future post on teacher popularity!)
  2. The administrator is likely simply checking on how you are working with your coworkers, making sure that you have the support you need to do your job – that is THEIR job. But hearing about a “secret conversation” secondhand can make a teacher unreasonably fearful, and does not inspire trust.
  3. Will your administrator and coworkers back you up when you talk to the student and parents, or not? If you do not trust the people you work with to be in your corner, you can feel extremely alone at work. Worse, if you do not trust your administrator enough to go to them for help, you may not get the issue resolved. Oh no! The student and their parents will hate you forever! You will be fired!

Okay, we jumped to the worst-case scenario there pretty quickly. The point that I would like to make is that a school is a shared community – every student, parent, teacher, and administrator NEEDS to be connected to each other in order for ANYTHING to work. I honestly believe that building trusting relationships will help, significantly. Here is one more example for you:

Back when I was pursuing a graduate degree, I conducted a research study in which I went to several different schools to interview a principal and a teacher from each. The interview asked the same questions to all participants, but from principal and teacher points of view. The questions regarded the relationship between teacher and administrator; and included inquiries about teacher observation and evaluation, as well as communication throughout the school year. Without fail, each participant responded that they would like to know more about the others’ perspective and that they would like to have more communication with the other. Also without fail, each participant seemed to be waiting for the other to make the first move. Which brings me to my major recommendations this week:

One: Communicate expansively from the very beginning of your teaching job. Ask questions of your co-workers, let the principal know if you have any worries, let the principal and parents know your plan for your classroom, email several parents with personal updates each week.

Two: Continue communicating honestly with your mentors – your former teachers, for example. They know teaching, and they also know YOU. They can help you find more ways to be successful in your position.

Three: Let the people around you know that you trust them, to be good workers and good humans. Do not be afraid to admit you are having trouble – after all, you get what you ask for.

Next week’s post, “Why Discipline is Dangerous,” will begin the discussion that you never got in college. In honor of Halloween week, I may share some scary stories from my own classroom – but all in the name of empathy and progress. In the meantime, if you want more, see below!

Have your own stories or advice to share about building a strong communicative foundation? Please enter comments below, or email teachingismadhard@gmail.com if you have a post you would like added to the guest posts section!

Want more? Check out Education Northwest’s booklet on building trusting relationships: http://educationnorthwest.org/sites/default/files/trust.pdf

trust-teachers

Week 1: Take the “Student” Out of Student Teacher

first_year_teacher

We begin with a POP QUIZ!

  1. What is the main difference between a student teacher and a teacher?

a. Maturity

b. Accountability

c. Salary

d. Responsibility

Duh, the answer is b. Accountability. (You may have been tempted to go for c. Salary, but don’t forget some student teachers have part-time jobs, so they can keep paying their rent in the semester before getting that “real” job.) As soon as you book that gig and have spent a week over the summer (or three weeks, if you’re precocious) decorating your classroom, you are suddenly flooded with confidence. You are a real adult now, and you are in charge of what happens in YOUR classroom. Heaven help you.

Student teaching is hugely important. You get to experience the schedule of a teacher, which is highly regulated; and you get to observe how they work with students in the classroom. If you’re lucky, you may even get to teach an entire unit of instruction and be present at staff meetings and parent-teacher conferences. It is the first time that you are acting as an adult, every day, away from the supervision of your professors. Congratulations!

Student teaching is also not an accurate representation of teaching. For one thing, not being the only adult in the classroom means that there is always someone there to step in if things get CRAZY. (Examples of crazy: the technology isn’t working, three students can not stop talking about the school dance, and another student just spilled the orange juice that they were trying to sneak a drink of.) Imagine Mad-Eye Moody saying “ACCOUNTABILITY” in the same tone of voice as “CONSTANT VIGILANCE.”

Also, some supervising teachers meet the requirements of the college student teaching semester, and the rest of the time, treat the student teacher as a glorified teacher aide. They don’t mean to, but they have a very good reason: It’s because the teacher only has a certain amount of time to make sure their classroom is prepared for the next test, the next performance, or the next state-mandated unit. It’s because the students will not see you as a “real” teacher yet, so they will treat your lessons with less seriousness – for you, it is serious business, but for them, it is a holiday from regular class time. This could also mean that the students will treat you BETTER than your students will treat you when you are the official teacher. Strange, but true – student teaching can give you “false” confidence.

Which brings us to two major recommendations about the student teacher to teacher transition:

  1. Confidence. See yourself as a mature adult, and believe that what you have to give the students is important. Practice your teacher persona immediately, rather than “babysitting” and making friends with every student. Think about how your student teaching experience is more than your last passing grade before graduation. This is so difficult to do – but it will help you transform the student perspective to the teacher perspective.
  2. Communication. Ask your mentor teacher deeper questions – dig for the real story about their job, their classroom budget, the school community, parental involvement in the classroom, and more. Ask them to explain how teaching in their first years was different from what they expected. Compare the amount of time you spend on your lesson plans with how much time your mentor teacher spends on theirs. Don’t be afraid to ask them anything – and ask them if you can stay in contact with them after your semester is over! I guarantee, the answer will be yes.

 

Next week’s post, “Learning to Trust,” will branch out on the topic of not being afraid to communicate, with some examples from the classroom of yours truly. In the meantime, if you want more, empathize and ask questions on the discussion page! Also, here are three articles about the student teacher to teacher transition:

“6 Lessons I Learned as a Student Teacher” by Heather Sinclair Wood, CNN: http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/17/from-career-to-classroom-6-things-i-learned-as-a-student-teacher/

“What Advice Would You Give a Student Teacher?” by Jennifer Gonzalez: http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/student-teaching/

Available with access to ERIC or 2 weeks free on deepdyve.com: “Jumping in: trust and communication in mentoring student teachers” by Randi Nevins Stanulis and Dee Russell

Image from this interesting blog: http://trampleasure.net/lee/index.php/865