The school as a community

A very knowledgeable principle came into our class today and talked to our class regarding the profession of teaching. Wow, the talk, was to say the least, excellent. She was direct and she did not try sugar coating anything. But unlike many other speakers, she kept managed to keep our optimism regarding the profession of teaching. It really is nice to see someone who has taught for such a long time keep such an INTENSE level of passion for the profession. As soon as she spoke, she communicated an air of professional knowledge, with respect to teachers, teaching, administration, students and the profession. The amount of integration and depth of knowledge that she has is astounding. If in 10 years I can be at 1/5th the level that she is at… then I feel that I would have come a long way as a teacher.
- More specifically I noted the following points from her speech:
- To teach children and not subjects, and to make the curriculum fit the learners
- The idea of constant growth, from peers, from students, and from other sources
- To talk to students in the hallway, keep some idea of each student’s backgrounds as it will come in handy
- To be proactive about problems instead of reactive
- To pay close attention to the actions that your TA is taking and conform to those actions, so that you are on your TA’s ‘team’
- Don’t judge parents because they really are doing the best they can at that particular time
- To ask questions

Q