Motivational Sayings (sort of)

A collection of saying for new teachers. It's billed as being anti-motivational but there are some nuggets in there.

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely. A teacher’s power isn’t nearly as cool.


One day when you realize that you’re really teaching something well to a kid who really wants to learn, you’ll feel like the hero of a story. But, if there’s a story at all, the kid is the hero.


I was hired to teach high school when I was twenty-two. The teacher I replaced had died on Thursday. She was at a restaurant alone, reading a trade paperback and collapsed right at the table. Heart attack. I came in for an interview on Friday and started on Monday. I showed up ten minutes early. The school secretary gave me a map of the campus, a key and said, “Good luck.”

Preparing for Parent-Teacher Interviews

Suggestions for preparing for Parent-Teacher interview from my informal mentor:

1. Ask for the student's notebook if their parents are coming to the interview. This should provide you with some support for whatever issues you might have with the student or that the parent might have with you.
2. Have a marks printout for each student handy.
3. Initially, at least, don't talk too much. Let them take the lead and see where they go with it. It's their interview in a (n important) sense so let them set the agenda.
   
4. Make sure that they're aware of Desire2Learn and that you post the homework there.
5. Post the interview schedule on the door and make sure to indicate that they should knock on the door when its their time.

Things I Do Wrong All the Time

Good tip from a fellow student in the Teaching and Learning in the Senior Division course we all have to do for an ABQ (Sr. Mathematics in my case).

Most students have something (or things) that they consistently get wrong (or forget to get right). Do this. Get them to note that thing in the back of their notebook or textbook. ("I always confuse there and their.") Then tell them to forget about it when initially doing the work. Afterwards, they check the back of their text or notebook and go through their work and correct it.