Podcast - Advice to Teachers/Book Review

Oh my gosh! The summer just gets so busy with family time and summer projects. I was able to post another podcast today and added a new 'section' if you can call it that. There are so many great books out there that we don't hear about because we don't necessarily have conversations about them. Well I think the blog is the perfect place to have these discussions!

The book review in my podcast is for The Way of the Shepherd by William Pentak and Kevin Leman. This was an assignment in one of my Specialist classes and it is great, short read. I read this book in a couple of hours one Sunday afternoon. I presented on Chapter Four - Make your pasture a safe place. Great read!

Listening to a podcast at Moving at the Speed of Creativity gave me a topic for this podcast. Wes Fryer asked a group of administrators to do the following activity at a workshop he hosted:

"As a campus principal or assistant principal, compose several sentences of ADVICE for a new teacher on your campus which relates to your expectations for their teaching. (Do this with a partner.) How do you want to see them teach and lead students, that may be different from a "traditional" lecture-based or primarily teacher-directed instructional model? How will technology fit into this recipe?"

I won't tell everything I said in my podcast so you have to go listen to it but here are some bullet points:

• 1st year teachers - SURVIVE - It gets better! Your second year is a breeze compared to the first.
• It's about the kids. Kids come first! Make decisions in the best interest of the students at hand.
• Be yourself and let the kids get to know you! You will spend more time with them during the school year per day, than their parents spend with them.
  
• Use technology to make your job easier and prepare the kids for a world that we will not see. Kids are already using it so you better catch up.
• Over plan!
• Teaching isn't a job, it's a calling. You have been called to change the lives of children and our future.

After thought: Since I am committed to this blog I feel my writing is getting better. That's a good thing because I am working on my paper for my Specialist and will start my Doctorate in the fall and need all the practice I can get!!!