Blog Post # 9

Mr. McClungs First and Fourth years of teaching

Mr. McClung's blog was really inspiring and is something I have been told to do by other teachers. I decided to read his first post from 2009 and his last post from 2011 to 2012.
  In his first blog post, McClung identifies several categories of self improvement that he had noticed the past year. He talks about the importance of reading his crowd, or his students. I think that several teachers get stuck in a rut when they try to worry too much about what the other teachers and/or parents think about how they teach rather than how they engage their students. Teachers must always remember who we are teaching and focus on their needs above all else. Secondly, He reminds all of us to not take ourselves too seriously. The perfect lesson exists in the perfect dream and we will probably never be there, so we need to be ready to shift our lesson if necessary. We need to facilitate learning and that doesn't always follow a lesson plan. I have worked in Boy Scouts for many years now and one of the things that they emphasize was communication. Mr. McClung feels that this is super important as well. We need to make sure that we are communicating with our fellow teachers just as effectively and concisely as we are when we are teaching our students a new idea or concept. Misunderstandings have ended as many careers as mistakes and bad decisions have. Teachers also have to make sure that they place the bar high enough but not too high. Students need goals that are achievable but also force your students to stretch. Students need to hear that they made there goal and now have to move on to the next obstacle. He encourages teachers to not be afraid of technology and I believe that this is really important (If you need examples of that, check out all of the previous posts). Finally, he says that we must never stop learning. I think this is the most important thing for anyone to remember and apply in their life, learning ends in death alone. If we ever stop thinking there is more to learn, we have simply cut ourselves off from the opportunity to grow and do more.
  In the second post that I read, Mr McClung focuses on just two things because he felt like he would only be repeating himself from past posts. I feel like this is important too, we don't need to repeat ourselves to try and make a point. Our students can see through whether we are prepared and excited about a subject or if we are just on auto-pilot covering bases. If we ever feel like we are going in circles it is up to us to change our lineup, presentation, or even the assignments for things to keep ourselves and our students involved in learning. Every year is new and different and deserves the same enthusiasm that our first year of teaching. He also makes a pretty profound statement "You have to Dance with who you brought to the Dance." We must never forget that we became teachers for the students, no one else. We began the dance with our students, and we cannot end it with someone else. they rely on us and we rely on them, not only for a pay check but for new ideas, perspectives, and hopes.