Lessons From A Guru

So, as most of you know, Meghan and I have been teaching at the Center School, which is a 5-8 middle school on the Upper West Side. When we had the meet and greet with the SDC teachers I asked a lot of questions about their experiences and what I should know about a new teacher. Most of them said to be prepared to make mistakes, and that it is a long learning process--each year I will learn something new and I wont be the best teacher right off the bat. I feel that there is a lot more to be learned from the SDC high school teachers, but because I only got to talk to them for a little while I couldn't really get a lot from them.

On the other hand, I've been getting a lot of advice from all the teachers at the Center School. The Center School is a very non-traditional school in that all of the classes are ungraded (meaning that students in grades 5, 6, 7, and 8 are all in one class together) except for Latin and math. Each student teacher at CS is assigned two cooperating teachers- on for our subject (social studies, in my case) and one in literature. Ms. Hand, who is my cooperating social studies teacher, told me again, to "be prepared to make mistakes. You've been a student for all of your life and now you're on the other side of the desk. You're not a master, but you will be. Don't be afraid to ask for help. It's the most humbling thing and there will always be someone there for you to answer your questions and to give you support. Embrace your mistakes." I think that is a lesson I must take away from this experience- don't be afraid to ask for help. I'm a pretty stubborn person so I think this is something I need to work on. But even if you can readily admit you need help its kind of scary to ask.

Another great piece of advice I got was from my cooperating literacy teacher, Mrs. Fier. I've sat in one class with her but I can already tell that she is a very strong person and may not be the easiest to get along with--which I think will teach me how to deal with a similar situation in the future. Anyways, Mrs. Fier told me that if you are bored, or disinterested in a subject, you won't teach it well. Although she did suggest I observe classes not in my content area, teaching something that I don't enjoy learning about will be that much harder for a student to enjoy learning.

I hope these little tidbits of information help us all to become the best teachers we can be!