Blog Post #9

Mr. Clung's World

For Blog post assignment 9 we were instructed to read Mr. Clung's end of the year reflection blogs about lessons that he learned throughout the year while teaching. I found these blog posts to be really inspirational for me as a future educator because it gives you insight into the real world classrooms.

In Volume 1 2008-2009 of Mr. Clung's world he reflects on his first year of teaching in Noel, Missouri. Clung realized that he had begun to teach based on impressing his superiors instead of his students. He says that letting your audience guide your lesson is most important. Clung also says that no lesson is perfect and that although you have lesson plans you sort of have to plan for a rainy day. He also says never to be afraid of technology, which im sure Dr. Strange would agree with this theory. Technology is our friend and the components of future teachers! And the most important thing that he says was to never stop learning.

This is something that I have to constantly tell myself. Just because you've learn to cook something one way, doesnt mean you can't begin to learn the 50 different other ways to cook it. Volume 1 was a blog post that really made me realize that you wont ever be fully prepared to teach because your students will teach you things, plans don't always turn out as scheduled, and you cannot put your students up on a higher pedestal of standards when they won't always sustain your achievement level.

In Volume 4 2011-2012 of Mr. Clung's world he reflects on two very important topics: "You Gotta Dance with who you Brought to the Dance" & "Challenge Yourself."

"Who you Brought to the Dance" talks about how Clung had become so concerned about how he evaluated his peers as a teacher that he had sort of lost his core reason for teaching which are the students. He wanted to impress his peers so badly that he was making lesson plans based on their liking instead of the effectiveness of the lesson for the students. He then realized that he cannot rely on the impressions of his peers to guide his teaching career. he has to remain true to the reason why he teaches, which are the students.
I thought that this topic was particularly interesting because oftent adults in the work force, not just teachers, become so wrapped up in how others view them, that they forget their role within their jobs. For teachers, this can especially become a problem because it effects your students. If a teacher is making a lesson plan based on the opinion of their peers, then chances are, they won't be learnable for the students. And in that instance, if the students can't learn then what exactly is the purpose of the instructor? Students have to want to learn, but teachers have to be willing to teach it to them on a level of understanding, comprehension, and retain-ability.

"Challenge Yourself" is a topic that I think that all current and future educators should read. It talks about how a teacher can become complacent in the classroom. Often times teachers figure out a system of teaching within the classroom that is effective but they never tweak it to fit current times. Teachers depend on lesson plans that are maybe 5 years old and no longer interesting to the students. Clung says that he was noticing himself doing this and losing his creativity. Clung says that when he was assigned to teach something new that his creativity was then introduced again because it challenged him. He says that one can come to a place in their teaching career where they can become satisfied with their teaching methods or become more creative by challenging themselves.
I think that this is so important for teachers to know because educators often do become complacent and as a result the students wont retain as much out of the class as they would have if teachers would challenge themselves the way that they want students to.