What I learned as a teacher and counselor in 2006
I guess I failed yesterday’s decision to write an entry before going to bed. There are several factors that contributed to that, but that’s a tangent for another time, that will most likely be forgotten, which I am okay with.
I wanted to write down a couple of things that I have learned in 2006 as a teacher and college counselor. A lot of what I learned could be seen if you just put yourself in the teacher’s shoes, which is something that I never did as a student. I lacked the developed critical thinking skills then and I’m still developing them today. I wish I had started earlier, but better late than never.
As a Teacher…
- Teachers don’t like accepting late work- it’s burdensome on the teacher. I hate it when a student turns in six weeks of assignments at the end of the term. I was being a nice guy at first and extended grace, but I don’t think it helps the student, by being nice. I don’t think it actually teaches the students responsibility. Now, of course I can see both sides of the fence, but for personal convenience sake I will have a much stricter late assignment policy.
- Why it always took my English and literature teachers so long to return work. Hey it’s difficult providing meaningful feedback for 70 students a week. I finally understand why my teachers took weeks to return essays back to us. It burns you out, each paper I read takes me anywhere from 5-10 minutes to grade, multiply that by 70 and you have a lot of work on your hands. Obviously at a certain point the quality of my work drops drastically, so if you’re the first few that I begin with my grading is better quality about 10-15 through I just don’t care. This is a problem so I’m trying to teach the students how to grade their own work, at least grammar, content, etc… It’ll help them in the future and help me too.
- Someone needs to take responsibility and do something. I’ve thought about the problems in education and society. I can blame it on the parents and media, but let’s face it, if you are just complaining and doing nothing you’re just part of the problem and not helping. I’ve decided to do my best to be a part of the solution, I can complain, but only constructively. Taking a proactive approach in trying to solve this problem is far more productive than sitting around and just pointing fingers, it seems logical and obvious, but it is easy to forget.
As a counselor…
- I’ve probably sent approximately 150 school reports for 14 students this year; it was a pain in the butt. I now know that I need to do as much as I can in house, regardless how long it takes me. I need help and an assistant next year when I have 36 students compared to 14. If I don’t start planning now it’s going to be insanity when it comes to application time this year.
- Having said that never trust anyone. Period. Students may have well intentions, but even if they sign a paper saying they will stick to the confidentiality agreement, their curiosity and temptation will take over and will disregard that issue. I know this is something I need to teach, but I’m not exactly sure what is the best way to teach it to this next batch of students, we’ll have to think about it and see. If you have any good ideas please let me know via comments or email.
I think that’s a long enough post for now. Thanks for reading and happy New Year again!!! This is the year of the Pig. I have a feeling this is going to be another mini baby boom year as there were a ton of Koreans getting married last year.
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