In Teaching YOU Can Start Over Again and Again!

Working with teachers has always been a passion of mine. At first addressing a group of educators may to some be a bit intimidating. However when the interactions begin, you realize that although you may teach different subjects or different levels of students—we share the same considerations and concerns.

Last week, FBISD, a local school district, my alma mater hired me to facilitate training with MENTOR teachers who are going to be working with beginning teachers, those totally new to the teaching  profession. I am excited to also be working with a group of new teachers. 

• During our two days together we reviewed many statistics that are somewhat alarming.
•   More teachers are leaving the profession than are coming into the field of teaching. 
• In the next ten years 700,000 teachers are expected to retire. 
• Too many teachers are leaving the profession in the first five years.(The Teacher Shortage:A Case of Wrong Diagnosis and Wrong Prescription by Richard Ingersoll NASSP Bulletin ( June 2002) 16-31.)
• All of this is because we as John Murrows puts it, "we train teachers poorly, and then treat them badly— and so they leave in droves."
  

The opportunity of an induction program to support new beginning teachers will allow us to become better practitioners of teaching, better listeners and will allow us to reflect on what we are doing and why we are doing it. We can offer suggestions for classroom management, lesson planning , organization and time management and more. Most teachers agree that taking a first year teacher under their wing renewed their enthusiasm for the profession. I agree as I 've supervised many student teachers, and have in the last couple of years worked with beginning teachers. Veteran  teachers like myself tend to forget how much we know that can be beneficial to these new teachers. 

So much is needed in the first few days of school. It can be very overwhelming. Harry Wong in his book:The First Days of School:How to be an Effective Teacher, addresses seven things students want to know the first day. Teachers can ease the worries of their students by 

addressing  each of these concerns.

1. Am I in the right room?
   
2. Where am I supposed to sit?
   
3. What are the rules in this classroom?
   
4. What will I be doing this year?
   
5. How will I be graded?
   
6. Who is the teacher as a person?
   
7. Will the teacher treat me as a human being?

Think back to when you did anything for the first time. Think about any time you took a class in school. Did you have questions like the seven listed above? 

The good news is this, programs are now being put in place to offer the kind of assistance beginning teachers need. The other bit of good news is that the teaching profession is one of the few that allows you to start over again  and again till you get it right. I  know, I spent 34 incredible years in the teaching profession with the best art and technology students on the planet. It wasn't a job it was an adventure.

In Learning By Heart by Corita Kent & Jan Stewart, a source is described as the first or ultimate cause. A story is told of how artist Charles Eames inspired teacher Corita Kent in his use of films and how he connected art with life. Corita says," of his teachings, I can hardly distinguish between what he actually said and did from what he taught me to say and do myself. His teaching is still living in me and I am still learning from that life in me, as well as from students and friends and every single contact with people and things. He taught me that too."

How true that is that we are impacted by who we meet. Teachers have a unique and wonderful responsibility which begins as students enter their class for that first time.We think of teachers as college graduates and finished products. Instead new teachers should be thought of as having learner's permits. Herbert Kohl said it well." Nobody starts out as a completely effective and creative teacher. The desire to teach and the ability to teach are not the same thing. With the rarest exception, one has to learn to be a good teacher. "

Photos above were taken in Ector County ISD August Art Work Book Bootcamp, Odessa, Tx.