Being a teacher is always a work in progress and I feel like I am entering the critical and most productive stage in my teaching career. Early-on, I was too overwhelmed to be truly reflective and work towards improving, and I have seen that many teachers get stuck in set routines late in their careers. Now is the time when I can really feel and see myself improving and I want to keep improving. I feel reinvigorated after break and ready to make real change in my classroom. Rather than trying to stay afloat, I am consciously fixing areas where I know I am weak and seeking out advice and ideas for areas that I don't even know I'm weak in.
Although observations still get me nervous, I have learned to look forward to the positive and negative feedback. However, this is not such a huge change, since I have always been a very reflective person and welcome criticism. Still, before winter break, I was taking criticism and stowing it away for later use. Now I can take it off the shelf, brush off the dust and really work towards improvement.
I have been much more productive lately too, because I am not quite as exhausted after class (I now refuse to shout over my students) and don't feel overburdened by lesson planning and grading. I have found time to clean and reorganize my classroom. I have been planning interactive lessons, and my management skills are getting sharper.
In addition, I am excited about bringing new ideas into my classroom. Although my students often comment on how I'm "copying" from other teachers, I see no problem with sharing ideas that may work. Furthermore, I now read books on teaching on my way to work, something I could not stand to do during my first few months. While I still force myself to alternate between teaching books and books purely for pleasure, I have come to enjoy reading about teaching. I think I am in the right mindset to find ideas that will work for my students. I've already implemented a few new things and love watching them unfold in my classroom. I have not had anything in place long enough to see real effects but I'm eager to see what the effects will be.
I think for anyone who is planning to be a teacher for any length of time, you need to learn to take criticism and relish constantly growing and improving your craft. Even veteran teachers can develop new techniques, proof that old dogs really can learn new tricks. So think about how you can improve, and, more importantly, how you can seek out ways of improving.
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