Thursday, September 14, 2006

Tips for beginning teaching

Whew, my first week and a half in 2/3 grade has been full of awesome opportunities and building great relationships. But even in this short amount of teaching, I have learned firsthand and heard from others some great suggestions and survival tips:

* Caffeine is underrated - it's a miracle worker!

* There's nothing wrong with hiding a stash of food - since you're ready for lunch at 10:00!!

* While developing relationships is essential, always being a friend is overrated - kids have friends already, you need to be a role model.

* Do not underestimate students - they really are clever and skilled manipulators hehe.

* Sometimes you need to take a minute to breathe, so get the kids up and dancing & moving periodically - they love those CD recordings with explicit directions

* You will never appreciate large padded chairs more

* Rain is bad news - kids NEED to get out to run around. If you don't have headache meds handy, someone in the building has to!

* 3:00 really is a fantastic time

* Choose your battles, and learn your kids' habits and ways so you can adapt and live with each student more easily

* If you're going to give out candy, do it at the end of the day! (Sugar highs are quite undesirable.)

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