Once you’ve been teaching for awhile, you’ll come to realize that not everything your college program told you about teaching is accurate. Here are 3 things that are often told to students in teaching preparation programs that I have found to be false.
1. You need to write detailed lesson plans everyday.
When you are learning to teach, it is good practice to write a detailed lesson plan everyday. This is because you’re still figuring out what is going to work for you. You’re making sure you’ve incorporated all the necessary elements, and reflecting on your lessons. However, the longer you’ve been teaching, the shorter these plans tend to become. This isn’t necessarily because your lessons have gotten sloppier or less detailed, it’s because things like procedures, assessment strategies, and accommodations just start to come naturally. After a couple of years, your lesson plans might just turn into a few objectives and activities on a post-it note, but your teaching will be SO much better.
2. Your professors have “seen it all” and their methods for classroom management are still effective.
Respectfully, your professors have not “seen it all.” While they may have been fabulous teachers at one point, many college teaching professors have not actually been in a classroom, let alone a public school classroom, in years, possibly DECADES. And let me tell you what, boy have things changed since then.
In the last twenty years, public education has drastically transformed with the incorporation of technology, new special education best practices, and the level of parental involvement. It would be impossible to truly understand the challenges that teachers are facing today without actually having very recent classroom experience. A lot of strategies for classroom management that once worked are no longer as effective as they once were, and new techniques are constantly being created. The things you are learning are probably good starting points, but you will likely need to adapt them as you enter the classroom.
3. With enough time and dedication, you can reach every student.
Here’s the truth, most teachers want to reach every student and will do everything in their power to build positive relationships with every member of their classroom.
Here’s the other truth, sometimes you might not be the one to reach a particular student, and that’s out of your control. There are some students, who no matter how much time, effort, and dedication you put in, will not respond to your attempts to build a relationship. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have people in their lives who are positive role models. They might have a good rapport with their basketball coach, youth pastor, older sibling, etc, but you can’t make everyone like you, and that’s okay.
Teachers aren’t perfect. But they don’t have to be! Do your best and let go of the rest. It’s not worth your energy to worry about things you can’t control, and keeping a positive spirit is the most important thing you are doing for all the students in the room.
Leave a Reply