Skilz

Well, when I saw the blog topic, "What three "teacher skills" do you want practice and improve upon this summer at the MTC Summer School?  What is one thing you do well as a teacher," I was somewhat offended.  It not only suggests that I have at least three areas that need improvement, it also states that there is only one thing that I do well as a teacher.  In the spirit of Sergie Leone, I am going to semi-buck the prompt and do a Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo of my classroom:

The Good:

My one marketable skill as a teacher one have to be the ability to stay level headed.  A the teacher, you are the the leader of the classroom.  If the leader is calm, the class will (hopefully) follow suit.  On the other hand, I feel that if I was overly irritable or unsteady my classroom would deteriorate.   I have no real suggestions on how to stay clam, except that you must realize that the students will follow your behavioral example, and if you want them to be quiet and polite, do likewise (however, every now and then I would recommend raising your voice a bit or using some other method to assert dominance).

The Bad:

Grading.  I hate grading.  However, grading is a valuable tool for classroom structure and for the students.  For the student, getting papers back not only shows them where they need improvement, but it also shows the students who do shoddy work that a poor effort is rewarded with a poor grade.  Next year I will be planned out for the year, so I should have more time to grade.

The Ugly:

Getting side-tracked.  I like teaching math, but I love talking about economics.  While the two subjects are similar, getting sidetracked for a half a class on an impromptu lesson over the international rise of food prices, or why oil is so expensive, may not be the best way to teach the quadratic formula.  Hmmmm...  I would recommend saving your off-beat lessons for days when you have to hold your class for five hours and have time to kill.