A Letter to Myself

Dear Self,

If you ever go back to classroom teaching, please don't forget the following things you learned in your first eight years:

• Enjoy the students everyday if you can. Make them laugh, let them make you laugh.

• Take the groans, the frustration, the angst with a grain of salt. It is not you, it is their world.

• Find inside jokes with them.

• Let them know you as a real person, as someone with successes and failures like everyone else.

• Share your life with them. Let them ask questions. Don't answer all of them.

• Find more time to listen to what they say, they want to be listened to so badly.
  

• Never forget what you are modeling, because they are paying attention.

• Push them, they need to be taught what they are capable of.

• Fight grade inflation. Be honest with them and yourself when grading work. Be willing to stand up to parents. Eventually, parents understand or stop complaining.

• Respond to friendly or inquiring parent emails as soon as possible.

• Combat email bravery. Wait 12-24 hours to respond to angry parent emails and do it with a phone call.
  

• Teach students to advocate for themselves and reward responsible and reasonable self-advocacy.

• Praise, praise, praise to change behavior- it ALWAYS works.
  

• Be flexible- nothing ever works perfectly in a classroom.

• Be creative and willing to change things at the last second if it makes learning more fun

• Make friends with all the support staff. They are the people that do things for you on a daily basis, the people who will at some point have to save you in some situation, and who know everything you wish to know.

• Have a teaching buddy. Someone to plan with, bounce ideas off of, and share files with.

• Collaboration is the essence of teaching and learning.

• Don't bad mouth your colleague no matter how much you dislike them.
  

• Make your classroom as interesting as possible.
  

• Encourage questions and student discussion.

• Practice democracy and choice at every point possible with student.

• Empower them to make change.

• Provide them time and resources when they are wanting to take action.

• Use pictures ALL the time. They are universally interesting to people. Students adore them.

• Always give positive feedback before the negative, ears can turn off quickly.

• Be a parent in your mind, when contemplating how to deal with different student situations. How would you feel?

• Stories are loved. Have your own, be willing to share them.
  

• Encourage students to listen to other peoples' stories through oral history projects. They always learn about themselves, they develop important relating skills, and they learn far more than they think they will.

• Always be willing to do the assignments you assign your students. Know the process.

• Believe in what you teach and how you do it.

• Teach them how to learn outside the classroom and to enjoy it.
  

• Encourage them to reflect on the things they notice, the questions they have, and how they learn.

• Provide students other opportunities to connect with themselves, their identity, and their family. They will never forget these things.

• As a teacher, stick to your beliefs and values. Lots of people will test them by asking you to do things you have to decide on. Believe in your decisions and yourself as a person.

• Don't ever think it would be easy to be an administrator. They have a really hard job.

• Be willing to live your job, it is necessary to really be good at what you do.

• Accept that very few people who don't teach know how difficult it is to teach, and that many people will look down on you from their very important jobs.
  

• Also understand that very few people understand the joy in teaching and in not doing it for the money, the prestige, or the summer vacation.

• And finally, as a teacher, be willing to grow, try new things, learn more, teach differently, and to change. Even if that means leaving for awhile.
  

There are probably many more things I can't remember to remind myself, but this is a good start. Go out there and learn and do.

Love,
Self.