Essential Tips for Beginning Teachers

So… I’m about to enter into my 3rd year of full time teaching. After spending 7 years in the field of education researching, doing relief teaching, lecturing and tutoring at Flinders Uni… I was suddenly thrown into a full time teaching position in a country setting in South Australia. It’s embarrassing to admit this but….I felt the pressure to be an awesome teacher but there were many things I still needed to learn and…. learn quickly!! I still feel like I’m continually learning!! I think it is a journey that will never end!! I hope it’s a journey that will never end!

I recently caught up with a very experienced teacher, who is also a dear friend of mine called Jayne Howell. Jayne is AMAZING!! Yes, I use this word a lot but it’s completely the truth she is AMAZING!! She is a born teacher who is relational, thoughtful and is a genius when it comes to sorting out student issues and dealing with emotional situations! I have learnt SOOOO much from this incredible woman! I have dragged her into this blog today to co-author this entry (and some more entries to come 😉 )… about sharing some tips for beginning teachers!

We recently went to TGI’s for lunch and we had a chat about what beginning teachers should know…. and so…. we have compiled a list of tips for beginning teachers! It began as 10 top tips but the list kept growing haha…. So… Here they are!! Also.. keep an eye out in the near future for out the audio to go along with this blog… hilarious!! 🙂

Hi this is Jayne! Here are some tips that I’ve learnt throughout my 16 years of primary teaching!

1. Pray
   1. Religious or not… praying is essential! Pray for the kids in your class, families, for teachable moments, for knowing the right words to say, for a love and enthusiasm for what you’re doing!!

2. Teaching is all about relationship NOT friendship
   1. Your job is not to be their friend but to lead them and guide them within set boundaries.
   2. Be prepared for “I hate you!”, “YOU’RE MEAN” and “You’re the BEST TEACHER EVER”….. You’ll probably get them all!! 🙂

3. Be consistent and be fair!!
   1. Explain the decisions you make and why…  Kids are smart and the students will know when you’re not being fair or if you’re playing favourites!! And… they’re bound to act out if favouritism is occurring!!

4. Don’t compare yourself to other teachers (especially more experienced ones!)
   1. You are your own teacher and it will take time to develop your style and what works for others may not work for you! Be kind to yourself!!

5. Don’t be afraid to be the authority in your classroom
   1. Remember you are the expert. Be confident in who you are and your role as the teacher!
   2. Say no. It’s okay! It’s okay to say not now, later and don’t be afraid of the kids’ reactions!!

And some other tips lol ……

6. Allow take up time for behavior!! Ignore secondary behavior.
7. Look to the heart of the matter and beyond the behaviour!
8. Don’t be afraid to get it wrong!!
9. Listen, listen, listen and ask questions!
10. Ask for and share resources
11. Put in the hard work in term 1 to set up your classroom and you will reap the rewards in term 4
12. Work hard and life balance
13. Ask for help and be vulnerable
14. Watch and observe other teachers
    1. Uni doesn’t prepare you for the day to day teaching in the classroom
    2. What do experienced teachers do that work!! Give it a go!
15. Take time to find out what style and pedagogies work for you / your style
    1. You can only be the best teacher you can be!!
16. It’s okay to say you don’t know to the kids
    1. Set an example of being a learner and model how to find things out and model vulnerability in saying it’s okay to say I don’t know!
17. Get sleep and rest!!
    1. Take care of yourself, sleep and exercise and do something fun non-school related!!!
18. Get to know the kids yourself, don’t just rely on their past history!!
19. Have a thick skin and don’t take things personally!
20. Be Organised, not just for classroom but for the endless admin tasks!!
21. Be confident during staff meetings and pull your weight, but don’t be a “know it all”, we are all still learning!

WOW… thanks Jayne!!

Our plan is to expand this list and continue co-authoring blog entries about specific tips!

What tips do you want to hear more about?

What tips would you add to this list!?

We would LOVE to hear your feedback, so leave a comment below! 🙂

 

“It doesn’t make bad teaching better” My reflections on IWB

From 2007 to 2012 I was a teacher of pre-service teachers. Some of my work involved teaching pre-service teachers about how to use IWBs. Some of the common complaints include:

• “We don’t have access to enough PD”
• “We just want to know how to use them better”
• “We think the cost of them isn’t worth it when we can’t use them effectively”
• “Using them doesn’t make made teaching better”

I was stunned at the negativity so openly shared about the use of the lack there of of IWBs. I turned to my PLN and the same answers began to appear from teachers too.

I had a conversation with George Couros just this week about IWBs. I was telling him how I have been using them and teaching pre-service teachers about them in an ICT course I teach and how we use TPACK to guide our integration of them into the teaching and learning. Anyway…. I went on and on and on about how they help us teach when George asked me two profound questions:

George: “How many times did you just talk about teaching?”

Me: “Umm…. lots….”

George ” How many times did you menion learning?”

Me: *Gasp* “I never mentioned learning?!!?”

This was an absolute light bulb moment! IWBs indeed do not make bad teaching better but it should NEVER be about the teaching but about the learning! The interaction between students and the content!! OH MY GOODNESS!

I shared this thought with my pre-service teachers and we suddenly became aware of our langauge and thinking surrounding teaching and learning! Whenever I or another student mentioned the technology in terms of teaching and NOT learning – our thinking was highlighted by 25 others haha….. it made for a very interesting lesson where our thinking began to shift! There were many awkward giggles throughout this lesson as we realised how much we didn’t talk about student learning but rather our teacher! How profound yet scary!

You see, using technology should be about the learning. More and more we are hearing about schools tearing down IWBs or they have made a decision to not replace them in the future instead wanting to go in the direction of one-to-one laptops or more commonly Ipads. This is because the interaction is far greater with these devices because each student can interact as opposed to one or two interacting with the IWB.

We have access to some great resources and research about the use of IWBs. One example is an article written by Dr. Trudy-Ann Sweeney, an academic at Flinders University. Also Selena Woodward’s blog is a gold mine and the authors knowledge is incredible and advocates for an emphasis on learning rather than teaching….. BUT

I question how much of this knowledge is actually getting through(some of it obviously is but it still astounds me how much of our focus in on teaching not learning) and what factors are hindering teachers and pre-service teachers alike from using this tool, pedagogically, in the best way possible?

How do you use your IWB? Is your thinking focused on teaching or learning?

Learning to Blog and Blogging to Learn

“Are you reading other people’s blogs” Asked George Couros.

My answer was no! No wonder I was having issues blogging! Apparently, writing a blog doesn’t come easily to me and of course – one way of improving is by learning from others who have succeeded and are further along this journey than I.

I began reading, reading, reading, reading! There are SO many different blogs out there covering everything and anything! Being someone who is beginning to blog about education I naturally gravitated to those who also blog about this subject and as I began to read I could see a pattern emerging, like one of those old-school optical illusion pictures which you’d have to focus on to find the picture or message within…. do you remember those? Anyway…. from reading other people’s blogs I am learning to blog!

How do I blog? Well I ask this question: What have I learnt so far? Isn’t it a great question! It’s the main question that I ask myself whenever I sit down to write a blog. What have YOU learnt so far on this journey of being an educator? What have you learnt about yourself? What have you learnt about how students learn?

So, it seems there is an art of learning to blog which consists of reading others blogs and actually having a go yourself! What’s the worst that could happen?

The other flip-side of this blogging journey is the joy of blogging for learning.

I learn and reflect and refine my thinking through blogging! This doesn’t mean every blog has to be perfect and well written but what it does mean is that I need to get my ideas out there! As I write my ideas get better and are more refined and are even sometimes confirmed or challenged by others in the field! I love that! You know, the same principle applied when I was writing my PhD thesis. I didn’t always know what to write or how to convey my thoughts but sure enough, as soon as I began write the thoughts began to flow and as I got my work out there through conferences or publications others either cheered me on or gentled challenged me to make me better!!

What is holding you back from blogging? Give it a go and who knows your Professional Learning may go to a whole new level!

I know it can be scary but I believe it’s something necessary…. check out this Youtube clip about the transition from using scrolls to pages – yes a help desk was needed and it seems like a different way of thinking lol… blogging can also seem like a different way of thinking and it can seem daunting maybe even a bit weird and scary but it’s how the world now works…. I wonder if one day, everyone will be blogging? Hmmm… 🙂