Lessons I've learned and the teacher I strive to be

After one year of teaching under my belt, I have come to several realizations. First of all, I think I have learned more than my students this year. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing but it's a truth that I can't deny. Second, if you slack on your classroom management plan even for only a couple of weeks, you're going to pay for it the rest of the year. Third, I need to overhaul quite a few aspects of my teaching strategies for next year. The following is a description of what I want and need to do better next year.

1.) Become a better classroom manager. My classroom management plan was fairly strong this year and my consequences and rewards seemed to work well...when I used them. It's funny, my students always reminded me when I should be given them rewards for a job well done but they never once reminded me that I should enforce the consequences just as much as the rewards. Go figure. Next year I will probably stick to a similar classroom management plan but you can bet that I'm going to hit the ground running with it come August. After seeing the effects of a loosely enforced management plan, I'd be a fool to let any deviation from a rule or procedure occur in my classroom. While I hate to say this, I'm going to be a lot more strict than I was last year. Unforunatley, my students interpret strict as mean. No matter how you look at it, I'm going to have to really push management next year.

2.) Build more bridges between Physical Science lessons and the real world. I was overwhelmed this year with student apathy. No matter how excited I was about the subject matter, no matter how flashy the demonstration was, no matter how unique the lab was, my students showed little to no interest in the course. I NEED to remedy this next year. I want them to look at Physical Science with the same passion that I see it...well, at least half the passion. I think I can do this by helping them see how they use Physcial Science every day without knowing it. For example, we use magnets in everything from speakers to hair dryers. Furthermore, I still want to do more labs. Less notes, more inquiry. I felt that I stressed too much memorization this year. Science isn't about memorization; well, at least the majority of science. It's about discovery. Yes...more discovery.

3.) I want to STOP dressing so professionally. Every day this year (except for some Fridays) I wore slacks, a dress shirt and a tie. I originally thought that it was the only way that I could distinguish my baby face from one of the students, but now that most students know who I am I will NOT dress up every day. Dressing up professionally is great for many professions but I don't think it is right for my personality, my age, or my teaching strategy. Without going into how I almost set my tie on fire with a bunsen burner during the first semester, I think that my professional get-up really alienated me from my students. I felt as though they thought I was trying to elevate my importance to a level it shouldn't be at. What's more is that I think I was the only teacher who ever wore a tie. My studetns said I looked more like a business man than a teacher.

4.) Get more involved in my students lives outside of school. I made an interesting progression throughout this past year. At the beginning of the year, I would do everything in my power to avoid seeing my students out in public. I thought that they saw enough of me (and I saw enough of them) at school that any further encounters would just be awkward and overkill; however, as the first semester faded into the second, I found that when I did encounter a student outside of school, it was usually a positive encounter which strengthened our bond. Maybe they saw that I was a real person just like them, something I think got lost during the school hours on account of my professional attire. I plan on connecting with some of these students through coaching. I have accepted the head coaching position for both the boys and girls cross country teams next year. Now that sounds misleading; there aren't that many individuals going out for it...yet. I plan on changing that.

Overall, next year I want to love my job even more. I don't just want to make waking up bearable but a joy. I want to be excited to go to school, to see my students and to share my passion for Physical and Environmental Science. I know that I won't be doing this forever. Next year is my last chance to create a lasting impression on the kids of Mississippi. After next year, I'll just be a memory for them. The question is, what kind of memory will I be? Maybe I won't be their favorite teacher, but perhaps if I play my cards right they will leave my class knowing that someone cared deeply about them and their education.