Effective teachers do not bring their personal problems into their classrooms. They just act as if everything is OK – even when it might not be. If you were counseling beginning teachers, what suggestions from the chapter do you feel are the most relevant in guiding these teachers? What are the reasons for your thinking?
If I were mentoring a beginning teacher on keeping personal problems out of the work place, I would definitely suggest keeping the students in mind when he or she is having a bad day. Not only is a negative attitude contagious, but it also hinders students from doing what they are meant to do at school: learn. I have seen this first hand. During my first block of the day, I was tired and not enthusiastic about my lesson. In response, my students were not engaged or excited about what we were doing. I took a few minutes to reflect before my next block class. I knew I wasn't enthusiastic; so, I changed my attitude. I acted excited and crazy (in a good way!) about what I was teaching, and the results were tremendous: students were very engaged and excited about what was going on. They were even asking a multitude of questions to further their understanding.
My other big piece of advice is for teachers to remember the profession they went into. You are TEACHING. You are not sitting in an office by yourself, where you have the luxury of moping around if you are having a bad day. Moreover, you are, or should be, literally increasing the knowledge of students in your class and acting as an advocate and role model to those students. As teachers, it is true that we do not have the luxury of having a bad day. I really liked the one quotation from the teacher who stated, "I often remind myself that teachers don't have the luxury of having a bad day. Neither do brain surgeons, thank goodness!" Our work is so important, and ultimately the students lose out if we choose a negative attitude while teaching.
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