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What questions do you have for experienced teachers? 

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What questions do you have for experienced teachers? 

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How do you continue to stay engage with your content after teaching it multiple times? 

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How do you continue to stay engage with your content after teaching it multiple times? 

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I stay engaged with the students

Each section brings its it's own challenges. I reflect each class what I could do better with the next.

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What is the best advice you have for a new teacher? 

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What is the best advice you have for a new teacher? 

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Take small bites
Take time for you! Have at least one day a week where you do not take work home.

If you think another grade level or subject might inspire you more, don't be afraid to explore it  change keeps you inspired
You are teaching and growing humans, not just content and curriculum.

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What does professional growth mean to you? 

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What does professional growth mean to you? 

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Willingness to grow and change. It does not matter how much PD you get if you are not willing to implement it.

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Through all the changes in education, what has stayed constant? 

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Through all the changes in education, what has stayed constant? 

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CHANGE! Always changing, sometimes just renaming.

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What does professional growth mean to you? 

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What does professional growth mean to you? 

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Something you can actually use in the classroom or as personal growth

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All my content is exciting, and finding new ways to present it is invigorating: I know that if I'm bored, so are the students.

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How do you keep innovating and changing your curriculum to be relevant and exciting? What sorts of things remain fresh, and what do you find you continually tweak?

Right now, I'm really exciting about being in Cohort 1. I keep adding more and more educational tech tools to my classroom, and it's making a relevant and "magical" experience for my students. I'm most fearful for when I start running out of steam. What's it going to look like in 10 years?

I think as an educator, we're always working on growth. That's what we are looking for in our students, and that's what we should be looking for in ourselves. We are life-long learners, and continually seek out and desire new knowledge. Growing and developing is an organic process for me as a professional educator and as a human being.

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How many times have you felt like you couldn't possibly teach another year?
Changing the world, fearful of... burning out again
Professional growth is growing professionally. Learning forever.

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Question for more experienced teachers.  Have you ever gone a whole year without figuring out a way to connect to that one kid?  If so, did you look back and decide there was more you could have tried or do you feel you exhausted all possibilities?  I guess I'm really asking are there kids that you just don't figure out how to connect to?

Esther,

Yes, every year.
Especially at middle school. I look for ways to connect, but when you have 100 plus kids, tough. Don't beat yourself up over it.
Remember as long as they have that 1 adult, you don't have to feel like you are going to save everyone.

I'm most excited about how I am implementing homework in my class at the moment.  I am assigning odds which the answers for are available in the back of the book.  Students must show how they got to the answer and if they didn't get it correct the first time they have to try again until they can formulate a question to bring to class to discuss.  Basically it helps them identify their point of contention with the material and allows for

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Each year the how I teach the content will change based upon the group. Professional growth to me means changing how I teach depending on each group of students.

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1. Take small bites, don't eat the elephant all at once.
2. The constant - "the light bulb"!!!
3. Exploring new strategies, sharing successes.

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Professional growth:
If I'm not learning, I'm in slow motion retirement.

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with all the innovations coming out, it makes it easier to find new, technological, and interesting ways to teach the content. Professional growth means constantly and consistantly evolving with new philosophy and new approaches to teaching.

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I stay engaged with the content by staying engaged with students and by noting what works and what doesn't with the content

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I stay engaged with the content by staying engaged with students and by noting what works and what doesn't with the content

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Second year teaching a new grade level makes the content new still, I'm enjoying teaching and learning new grade level content.

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I thoroughly enjoy history. It is not an effort for me.

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I love to explore different ways to enrich a lesson. The more experience I have teaching a unit, usually I can pull in more cross curricular ideas, steam activities, and tech projects.

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Questions for experienced teachers: How do you turn teaching off? I'm so passionate about it, I can't seem to escape it ever.

Excited: Creating a culture that fosters innovation, critical thinking, respect, compassion and fun.

Fearful: How dry VoWac is and that I am required to do it.

Professional growth: Taking advantage of learning opportunities. Being a constant learner and learning from students.

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What are you most excited about in your career in education?  Most fearful for? 

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What are you most excited about in your career in education?  Most fearful for? 

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Professional growth means using what I learned today to try something new tomorrow

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Professional growth means using what I learned today to try something new tomorrow

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I really love teaching first grade, even after all these years! Very rarely am I not excited about the content! 

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I really love teaching first grade, even after all these years! Very rarely am I not excited about the content! 

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What does professional growth mean to you? 

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What does professional growth mean to you? 

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You are teaching humans not just content.

excellent !!

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Professional growth is a way of life. You cannot go through life with the perspective of status quo. Life is ever changing; thus, we should be changing too!

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My friend is one of the best teachers I can even imagine. He's phenomenal - and his latest blog post is perfect.

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This one goes out to all the new teachers. And those of us who still feel like new teachers no matter how long we've been at it.

This isn't an easy job, but it's the only one I've ever wanted. They say that if you love what you're doing you'll never work a day in your life. That's not true, not with teaching. You'll love what you do and you'll work hard every day. You'll grind and struggle and it'll be worth it because this job is more magical than any other when it all comes together.

This is not the same as advice that says you should sacrifice yourself on the pyre of Being A Great Teacher. That's a lie too. Don't burn the candle at both ends, don't be the candle that burns itself out to light others. You need to burn and burn brightly for a long long time, and sometime that means finding the fuel just for yourself. Anyone who tells you different is selling something or trying to get something out of you for free. The most valuable tool in a teacher's belt isn't technology or connections or curriculum. It's rest. And we all remember that first year. The idea of being fully rested sounds like the punchline to a bad joke. I know that too. You can't help yourself, you go home and think about your kids. You stress about your class. You wonder if you're doing right by them.

We still do that too. But those of us who have managed to find the healthy balance are able to put that aside and have faith that what we're doing actually is the best we can do. That's the goal. Not to be content with what you're teaching, or how, but to accept that you are doing it to the best of your current abilities. That's how we sleep at night, and how we come to school fired up the next day. The day might not be perfect, but at the end we're pretty sure that what we did was done as well as it could have been done. They can't all be home runs, and that's ok.

You're probably got at least one kid you're never going to forget. And not in the good way. A kid that, more than any other, has you banging your head against the wall (metaphorically and otherwise). We've all got that kid in the first year. Mine was a little third grade boy who had had a rougher nine years than I've ever had. The anger and defensiveness he shrouded himself with was overwhelming for first year, oh-so-young Mr Robertson. I did what I could and man did I do it badly. He called me a motherfucker almost every day. I wasn't special though, he called the principal and special ed teacher that too. Kicked at us, struggled everyday. Would make progress, then backslide. His world was spinning and I was not trained to help him like I would have liked to have been. But how do you teach that? We all did our best for him. This story has no happy ending, he was finally expelled near the end of the year because we found a pair of scissors in his desk that had been flattened out so that the blades pointed horizontally, and he'd wrapped tape around the center as a grip. You can do a lot to keep a kid in your class, to try and help, but when that is found in a desk it's no longer up to you. I have no idea what happened to him. I hope he's ok. I wish I'd known more, been better, done more. But I have to believe I did what I could.

I also look back on that year and remember being irritated I had 23 students, because contract said I should have 21. Young fool, I can't remember the last time I had thirty kids. And I complained about low twenties?

When the year is hard and you're feeling overwhelmed, remember that you're probably focusing on the one or two or four kids that you're having the hardest time reaching. Natural. But that means there's thirty who are having their own quieter struggles and successes. Don't tunnel on the ones that are easy to see, and don't focus on what you perceive as negative. It's so easy to see. It's like when you're in a group and you tell a joke and everyone laughs. Everyone except that one guy right there. What the hell is his problem? Notice that everyone else got the joke. Notice the learning everyone is doing. And remember that the person who isn't getting it probably has a good reason and you can work to find that too.

Don't save your kids. You're not a superhero. You're not a magician or an entertainer or a mechanic. We don't fix kids because kids aren't broken. Don't buy into the hype that makes us heroes, the narrative about "some kids don't have anything to go home to" that centers a cultural normality that isn't actually normal. Someone loves the kids in your class. That doesn't mean that the kids aren't having hard times, going through hard things. These two statuses are not mutually exclusive. Don't negatively judge your kids or, through your assumptions, judge their parents or guardians. Start at accepting and giving the benefit of the doubt. Just because the parent or guardian wants the best for the kid in a way that's different than you do doesn't mean they don't want the best for the kid.

No one is really good at this job for at least three years. Probably four. That doesn't mean don't try, it means know the learning curve is steep but worth it. It also means that as you get more confident you won't rest on your laurels. Getting more confident just means you can try harder things and fail bigger. But it won't really feel like failing bigger because your expectations will have grown with your skills.

Watch more experienced teachers, notice things, but don't try to emulate just yet. Take small things, but don't go whole hog. You need to learn all the basic tricks before you can start in on the fancy stuff. Judge yourself against yourself using what your kids are learning and how you feel teaching it. Don't watch the person across the hall and judge yourself against them. Be you. Teach like yourself, and that means taking the time to find who you are. Take what works, break what doesn't so that it will. It's better to break and repurpose than throw away.

Reflect with others, talk it out, but watch for poison. That doesn't mean don't complain. Complaining can get things done. It doesn't mean be relentlessly positive, hiding your head in the clouds is exactly the same as hiding it in the sand. But find that balance where you notice if you're being more negative about your kids than you are being positive. Always lean to positive. Use negative to solve problems. Be confrontational (in a professional way) with people if they aren't giving you the help you need. Fight for you, fight for your kids. What some will label as negative and critical and mean others will see as open and honest and willing to have mature conversations.

Teaching is a great job. It's the best. Kids are hilarious and fun and sharp and so much more entertaining and interesting than most adults. Discovery happens all the time. We get to attack and destroy ignorance of all types. Keep that front and center in your mind. Be who you is, enjoy the job, and come to us for help. No one expects you to know it all. Find mentors who you can trust in your building. They are there. You'll probably cry some days, that's ok. Teaching is hard. Honestly reflect why you felt that way and know it's ok.

Oh, and don't put your work email on your personal device. The district didn't buy it for you, they shouldn't expect you to work from it. Draw the line and hold it.

If you like this post and the other posts on this blog you should know I've written three books about teaching- He's the Weird Teacher, THE Teaching Text (You're Welcome), and the just released A Classroom Of One. I've also written one novel- The Unforgiving Road. You should check them out, I'm even better in long form. I'm also on the tweets @TheWeirdTeacher.

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This one goes out to all the new teachers. And those of us who still feel like new teachers no matter how long we've been at it. This isn't an easy job, but it's the only one I've ever wanted. They say that if you love what you're doing you'll never work a day in your life.

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Always look for new ways to present content, learn from other teachers,

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How do you make dry curriculum engaging

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Continue to grow and reflect on your teaching and learning. 

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Continue to grow and reflect on your teaching and learning. 

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this is hard but important work!