Saturday, April 4, 2009

Something I've Learned, continued

Wes and I started together as newly-minted teachers the year before Leila joined our team. When I think back on that time now, as a team leader and a new teacher mentor, I have a lot of respect and gratitude for our team leader then. I think there are two kinds of new teachers-- the naturals and the iffies.

In my mind, a natural approaches a classroom full of students with confidence, even if you have no idea what the hell you're doing. A natural has sound instincts, and the ability to improvise convincingly when caught off-guard. These choices are not always best practice, but later on, when reflecting on the day or reading or researching (because a natural thinks about teaching a lot of the time), this teacher will recognize a good idea when she or he comes across it and will be able to apply it to future planning.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, I think the three of us were naturals. Actually, arrogance can be one of the biggest challenges for a natural, and combined with all that authority in the classroom, such an attitude can be very detrimental.

(Yeah, this story still has a ways to go.)

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