Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Back to School

First day of the new semester today! I was actually excited about it because I already did my freaking out yesterday when I thought we had classes. I was totally unprepared and in "vacation" mode. Thank you Lord for that one day of preparation! It's amazing the difference it makes.

In my preparation though, I realized once again just how much effort teachers put into EVERYTHING. (Or I guess should put into everything.) I mean, to stimulate the students you need to have things on the walls for them to look at and learn from. Whether it's a "word wall" with vocabulary they're supposed to be remembering, or class rules, or art that they did in the chapter... organizing all that takes a whole lot longer than I ever thought!

There's also the enormous amount of mental/emotional energy that goes into teaching. You need to be OVERLY positive to balance out the negatives to encourage them. You need to try to smile as much as possible. You need to remember to be fair and enforce your rules all the time (...I tend to get a little lax when I'm tired). You need to make the kids feel safe and comfortable so they can interact with each other and you in a healthy way. You need to discipline positively... not out of anger or frustration (definitely made that mistake before)!

...And the list just goes on and on. (On top of all THAT--you also need to teach them things! haha)

But those are things I need to try to remember every moment of every class. They're things I WANT to do! I WANT to be the best teacher I can! Not just a "good" teacher... I want to continue to improve.

It's made me realize that I don't want to be this unprepared when it comes to teaching theology.

SO... I'm looking into getting a teaching certificate! Preferably Christian. Preferably for "Higher education"/college. So far, not too many options. They must have something, though, right? They can't just expect me to finish my masters and jump right into being a professor without any idea as to the best ways to get the concepts across clearly to the students, right?

...Oh, wait... They do that ALL THE TIME. (haha)

Anyway, please pray for my new year that I can be a good example of God's love to the students and also a good teacher.

Love and miss you all!

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