Teacher Discipline

A teacher that comes to mind as being a successful classroom disciplinarian is Mr. Tiernan. I had him for 10th grade English and Creative Writing. I believe he was successful at implementing discipline (whenever he needed to) because he was simply so personable. This created a level of respect between him and his students, which inadvertently made his students behave without much strictness. Because he was so well liked, no one wanted to severely disobey him or make him upset. Additionally, his leniency and trust with us created a great classroom environment for everyone. Whenever there was misbehavior, I remember Tiernan reacting calmly but directly-- he would never yell, just address the matters at hand. My relationship with Tiernan was great. He's probably the teacher I miss the most from grade school.

Traffic Lights

Red - I've certainly been stopped by my own inability to get started. Whether or not this is from outside distractions or pure laziness, there's something wired in my brain (a little dramatic?) that stops my own self from starting. This applies to getting ahead and planning, for certain. Similarly, I believe I am plagued, to an extent, by a fear of commitment. Committing to a longstanding plan can be scary for me, unfortunately.

Yellow - I've begun to move ahead by understanding that whatever plans I commit to can be altered, modified, or even abandoned if need be. Convincing myself that nothing is completely set in stone has been hard, but it's certainly helped. Similarly, I have a genuine interest in the benefits of planning, and at times this interest can overpower my laziness :-)

Green - As I get older, I think I feel more and more comfortable with planning. There are certainly immense mental hurdles to get over, but I think with time it becomes manageable. It can be good to practice and familiarize yourself with things you may not feel too comfortable with. I've been told too much comfort can be disgusting. I think there's a truth to that.

Connect, Extend, Challenge

Connect - There was a handful of aspects of writing lesson plans that I definitely was not aware of. I learned that it's direly important to not only be thorough with planning, but creative and and engaging as well. A lesson plan, if utilized correctly, can be a real life saver, in all honesty. It's the framework that will help you provide knowledge for those who, in some cases, have no prior insight into a topic or subject. On a smaller level, I learned about the subtle differences between Goals and Objectives, which is important in learning the etiquettes of professionalism.

Extend - My prior knowledge was challenged by how helpful I found lesson plans to be. I sort of, for whatever reason, figured that teaching a lesson would be incredibly easy to do without any kind of plan. You know, almost as if winging it was the best way to go about things. I think that teachers can deviate (pretty far, at times) from lesson plans and still be fine, but there definitely needs to be something gluing all of the pieces together.

Challenge - I think one of the biggest challenges for me will be planning ahead. For the most part, I think I understand the basics of teaching and maintaining a positive environment. But, I still to this day procrastinate more than I'd like to admit. Teaching involves really careful and elaborate planning, sometimes months in advance, and that simple aspect is sort of at a complete end from my normal approaches to things. I dunno, hopefully I can conquer it!