I've had some great mentors throughout my teaching career. They've all taught me some lessons I still benefit from today after 30 plus years of teaching.
Some general advice like, "Laughter and fun get better results than yelling and boring." A special education P.E. teacher helped me learn this. If you're fun and can laugh most of the time, the students will forgive you on your bad days. Thanks Dave.
Some more specific advice for the students I was teaching in the school for Students with Severe and Profound Cognitive and Behavior Disabilities, "If they're ripping down your bulletin boards in the hallway when they're angry, put only their work on it for a while." Worked like a charm. Kids rarely want to destroy their own work. Barbara - you rock!
Some days are rough from start to finish. Sometimes you can pinpoint where it all started to go wrong and sometimes, it just is. Today was difficult, as I look back at the day, nothing really jumps out as that egregious. Just a couple of tough situations I had to try to slog through.
One last piece of advice from the guy I still call to help me navigate through some of the worst situations and help me clarify what I want to happen, "Some days you eat the bear, and some days the bear eats you. You'll get another chance tomorrow." Thanks French.
All great pieces of advice! I hope tomorrow is better!
ReplyDeleteI love that you were open to hearing the wisdom of others. We can learn so much from each other in community. Thanks for the great slice!
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