Mr. McClung talks about the importance of remembering who you are talking to when planning your lessons and that no lesson is going to be perfect. He says as educators we tend to forget we aren’t talking to our superiors we are talking to our students (both in the actual conversations we have and in planning our lessons). His advice is to “let your audience drive your instruction.” I think this is great advice, we should always remember our students are our main concern.
Mr. McClung also discusses the importance of being flexible and communication. He says in his first year of teaching he has learned you have to be able to go with the flow. He says you must be able to adapt to changes, because changes will have to be made. Mr. McClung also says that he has learned communication is key in success. He says communication can solve disputes as well as open doors for new ideas and ways of learning/teaching.
According to Mr. McClung we must not forget technology is our friend and even as educators we must continue to learn. He says that technology is all around us and we must be willing to learn new things to continue to reach our students. He reminds us that as an educator we all but beg our students to learn yet as educators we tend to forget we must learn as well.
I learned a lot from reading this post. I think the thing that stood out the most to me was that I am going to have to remember everything isn’t going to go just like I’ve planned it. I have a hard time with that and it is something I need to be working on now. I was also reminded that just because I’ve graduated college doesn’t mean the learning is over and that I will always need to be open to learning new things and using the most recent tools available to me. After all, it isn’t about me it is about my students and their education and they deserve nothing but the best from me.
What I Learned This Year Volume 4
In the blog post, “What I Learned This Year Volume 4” by Joe McClung, Mr. McClung takes a look back at his fourth year of teaching. Mr. McClung says being that this would be his third year teaching the same subjects and at the same school he didn’t learn as much as he had in the past, yet the two things that he did learn was career changing.
First Mr. McClung says he learned that as an educator is imperative that you never forget why you are an educator in the first place. He says that throughout his fourth year of teaching he began to become obsessed with what his colleagues thought of him. He said that he had lost sight of the real reason he went to work each day. That as an educator we should remember we have not chosen this career path to impress our fellow employees but to educate out students.
Secondly Mr. McClung says he learned that it is important to stay creative, to constantly be improving your lessons, and to avoid falling into complacency. Mr. McClung says that complacency is exactly what happened to him in his fourth year of teaching. He says he began to become lazy, reusing lesson plans and losing his creativity. He says that because of his laziness his teaching began to suffer and in turn so did his students. He reminds us as educators we can’t fall into a routine of the same ole same ole or our teaching and students will pay the price.
I learned a lot from reading Mr. McClung’s blog post. He has made several great points and as a future educator I will now be on the lookout for. I think that it is important for us to remember we can always learn from those who have gone ahead of us and I think by Mr. McClung giving us a glimpse of his year we can learn from his mistakes.
Thoughtful, interesting.
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