Tomorrow my third graders will sing at a special ceremony honoring new graduates in Elementary Education. Some of them we know very well. Heidi and I are going to do some speechifying at the event and my class will sing a couple of our greatest hits (we're also going to try to hawk some of our CDs there). I took snippets of my students thank you notes to our wonderful student teacher Miss Kristin and wrote this poem. Only I didn't really write it, I just assembled it. This will be read in parts, "Reader's Theater" style. Heidi will read the red, I'll read the blue and we will read the black words together. The kids will read the last few lines with us. Even if you are not a teacher there are bits of real wisdom here on how to simply live a good life.
Enjoy your new class
Have a great time teaching
Be kind
Be patient
Stay confident in yourself
Be positive
Be understanding
Be a success
Not an epoch failure
Enjoy your recess
Play with your kids
Give lots of time to read
Laugh and joke a lot
Be a learner along with your students
Write a lot
Remember the power of pencil on paper
Do lots of fun science with baking powder
Love your students
Be creative
Do your best
Have reasonable consequences, you’ll have to have them
Be yourself and bring your family into the class
Remember you can do this
You’ve done it before
Let your students know that you are the teacher
There DOES have to be someone in charge
Remember that sometimes students have the floor
When you do read alouds, make
Connections to your life
Play games with your students. Have lots of
Fun.
When you’re not being serious
Smile as much as possible
Know what you’re teaching about
It helps
Ask your students what they want to learn about
Help other people in the whole earth
Like Haiti, China, Chile, Pakistan,
Afghanistan
Be a friend to all of your children
Be encouraging
Be brave
Stand up for justice and liberty
Have lots of books in your classroom
Share your favorite books with your
Best friends
Be best friends with your kids
Read good books by candlelight
Let your children express themselves
Do lots of hands on activities to demonstrate how the world works
When you are doing reading and writing
Put on quiet music
Be funny
Be athletic
Be smart
Be friendly
Don’t be too strict
Don’t be too mean
Don’t just listen to one side of the story
Keep your sense of humor, because-
What’s a teacher without a sense of humor?
Never give up and you will go along way
Make a difference in kids’ lives
Help them change the world
Respect and love – that’s what it’s all about
1 comment:
What a great idea to use the kids' advice to make a two-voice poem. Tricia said it was really good. She had already read it on your blog but enjoyed the performance.
It occurs to me that doing something like this would make a lot of sense in the classroom with the kids. We create posters and "word waterfalls" quite often but I've never thought of turning it into a poem.
I've had four interns now and each time we have sat with them in one final circle during their last moments with us in our classroom. We take turns thanking them for all they've given us and then offer advice, from each of our perspectives, as to how to be a great teacher. I always struggle trying to think of just one thing to say. There are dozens if not hundreds. In the end, though, I usually decide to remind them to have fun and laugh with their new friends each and every year. It's not all that enlightening and leaves out so much that is important to teaching but it's what I love most about teaching.I figure they have plenty of time to figure out the rest.
Post a Comment