Teaching

I am currently in my sixth year of teaching. I have now taught grades 6, 7, and 8, my classes including language arts, writing, and history. I do not consider myself a veteran teacher. ...I'm not even sure if I'd consider myself a seasoned teacher. But I'm definitely marinating.

If you look up the definition of teacher in the dictionary, it is as follows:

noun:  a person who teaches or instructs, especially as a profession; instructor

I, as it applies to my profession, like to add a secret addendum to the definition of 'teacher':

noun:  a person who teaches or instructs, especially as a profession; instructor; one who is constantly learning and adapting

Plain and simple, if you cannot, as a teacher, learn and adapt, you will not last in this profession. In the words of country singer Jo Dee Messina, you gotta roll with the punches. I still have much ground to cover as I make my way through my career, so much still to learn. But, I'm making ground. Sometimes new school years yield new revelations based on reflections of the previous year. Sometimes it's literally changing the make up of your lesson midday. ...Did that on Wednesday, actually! And for me, today, it's learning how to let go of that "Quiet Learning Enviornment".

Yes. Quiet has its place. But Quiet does not own all of School-dom, and sometimes you just have to let your hair down, brace yourself for crowd control, and let the kids have at it. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for a quiet learning environment. When I'm giving direct instructions. During testing. During announcements...God willing... lol But I have finally come to terms with Talking. It's not so bad.

Plus, the benefits of talking are two-fold.

1. When the activities include student discussions and/or collaboration, classroom management is a much less-menacing beast. When you're not having to fight tooth and nail to keep your kids' attention focused soley on you, they are much more engaged and awake.

2. It doesn't matter how much of an expert I am. The kids are going to learn so much more from working with each other than I can teach them directly. It's just the truth. Plus, then I'm free to walk around and monitor the kids, and monitor for understanding..something which is much more difficult when you try to make middle school look like a community college lecture hall.

Ooh! ...That brought me to a third reason. ...The benefits are THREE-fold!

3. When I can walk around, monitor, and see what the kids are doing and talking about, I can re-teach, right there on the spot. And kids are so much more likely to ask questions when the room's abuzz, and no one but their group will know. ..And even that's okay, because if they're asking me, the entire group clearly needs some extra instruction, too.

So today, had you walked into my classses, it would have been crazy busy, and probably pretty loud. But my kids were awake, alert, and they got the job done. And I am no longer afraid of Talking. ...Except when I have a headache. Then I have to grab a Dr. Pepper, pop some Advil, and just hang on for the ride.

That's, I think, one of the most fun parts of teaching. ...I love it. I always have. I always will. It's what I was Called to do. But when I grow and learn as a teacher, it makes teaching an entirely new game. ...And new games are ALWAYS fun to figure out. ...This year I tackled tables. ...It's a good thing I've made my peace with Talking. ;-)

Love my job. ...And now off to my most important job. My littlest lady is sounding like she might be hungry. :)