| Teaching is the most rewarding career you
could ever embark on. You will have the ability to help
shape dreamers into goal setting achievers. In these
pages you will find biographical information about "The
Teaching Tesh's", an explanation of why we chose
Rivendell as our domain name, and some advice for making
your first year in teaching a success. Don't be a pencil pushover! Sure, they're inexpensive and it's no trouble to say to a pitious little face, "Here, use this," but what we're about is teaching them to be responsible for themselves. Keep a bountiful supply in your desk drawer, but don't give pencils away willy-nilly: charge a reasonable price for a new one, a bargain price for a used one, or require a monetary deposit--to be returned when the pencil is returned. Sweet Child's got no money? Pay him with a pencil for helping you hand out supplies or some other brief classroom task. Never ask "Will somebody please close the blinds?" If you don't name a specific someone, either everybody in the class will rush pell-mell to the windows, or nobody will move and you'll feel so-o-o-o unloved! Be specific about the source of your sorrow. Of course, events will occur you're not going to be happy about ('About which you will not be happy', for some English teachers), but keep in mind that it is ALWAYS a student's inappropriate action or lack of action that is disappointing you--never the student. You can tell Cora her work's not up to her usual standards and she can plan for action, but once you say you're disappointed in HER, she's got nothing left to work with. Enforce the Other Guy's Rules. This, grasshopper, is the path to peer acceptance and everlasting happiness. Know what the principal's rules are, the librarian's rules, the cafeteria ladies' rules, the teacher across the hall's rules. If you don't agree with them, you're free to discusst alternatives with those Rule Makers, but until you agree on a compromise legality, enforce OG's rules as firmly as you do your own.
Teachers need a wardrobe of smiles. They need one that rewards and one that warns. They need one than can play lightly on the lips, one that dances in the eyes, one that zings straight from the heart. They need a smile that can sail straight down a hallway, wrap itself around a hesitant child and draw her like a tractor beam into class. They need a smile that gives a worried parent hope, a distraught parent comfort. They must be able to pull on smiles that can disarm anger, invoke peace, inspire courage. They need a jaunty one that says, "It's okay, I know you tried!" and a benovolent one that says, "We both know something wrong here; why don't we make it right?" The only way to develop the perfect smile for every occasion is practice, and the only way to appraise any smile's value is to give it away. |
